About this episode
Dwayne Reeves is a Senior Staff Engineer (IC7) at Meta who is the Tech Lead of the most used programming language (Hack) at the company. He started at the company as a new grad from MIT and shared the story of how his career grew. We discussed: • His promotions to Senior (IC5), Staff (IC6), and Senior Staff (IC7) • The value of type systems • Transitioning to a TLM and why he switched back • Working with brilliant engineers and overcoming imposter syndrome • Advice for his younger self Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:39) Joining Facebook (04:52) Did MIT help with career? (07:13) His first team (10:37) Why static typing is superior (13:17) The uncanny valley of type systems (16:11) Senior Eng (IC5) promotion story (19:24) Staff Eng (IC6) promotion story (23:38) Manager transition story (28:57) Managing ICs vs EMs (32:54) Senior staff Eng (IC7) promotion story (35:42) Impressive ICs (40:33) Why stay at Meta (44:28) Advice for younger self (45:46) Outro Where to find Dwayne: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwaynereeves/ Where to find Ryan: • 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 • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/