Instagram Staff (IC6) Promo Despite 10 Team Switches in 9 Years (Career Story)

Sash Zats grew to be a Staff Engineer (IC6) at IG despite switching teams 10 times in 9 years. His career journey was a series of jumps to exciting projects and letting career growth happen as a byproduct. I interviewed him to show you how team switches can play out. We discussed: • How 10 team switches in 9 years affected his career • The story behind the Instagram blockchain initiative • His 2 diff in 6 month performance review • What working on Instagram Threads was like pre-launch • The value of prototyping Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:49) First team: iOS on Newsfeed Delight (05:30) What makes a good designer partner? (08:30) Joining a hardware team (12:08) 2 diffs in 6 months (15:03) Joining the Instagram blockchain team (21:37) Joining Instagram Threads pre-launch (28:53) Working with an exceptional engineer (Peter) (33:02) Working on AI prototyping teams (37:15) Reflecting on team switching’s impact on career growth (44:35) Why leave Meta (46:15) Advice for younger self (47:53) Outro Where to find Sash: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sashzats/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/zats Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman