“The Coding Machine” at Meta with Michael Novati

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In today’s episode of The Pragmatic Engineer, I’m joined by Michael Novati, Co-founder and CTO of Formation. Before launching Formation, Michael spent eight years at Meta, where he was recognized as the top code committer company-wide for several years. The “Coding Machine” archetype was modeled after Michael at the company.

In our conversation, we talk about what it was like working at Meta and dive into its engineering culture. Michael shares his journey of quickly climbing the ranks from intern to principal-level and gives level-headed advice on leveling up your career. Plus, we discuss his work at Formation, where he helps engineers grow and land roles at top tech companies.

In this episode, we cover:

• An overview of software architect archetypes at Meta, including “the coding machine”

• Meta’s org structure, levels of engineers, and career trajectories

• The importance of maintaining a ‘brag list’ to showcase your achievements and impact

• Meta’s engineering culture and focus on building internal tools

• How beating Mark Zuckerberg in a game of Risk led to him accepting Michael’s friend request

• An inside look at Meta’s hiring process

• Tips for software engineers on the job market on how to do better in technical interviews

• And more!

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(01:45) An explanation of archetypes at Meta, including “the coding machine”

(09:14) The organizational structure and levels of software engineers at Meta

(10:05) Michael’s first project re-writing the org chart as an intern at Meta

(12:42) A brief overview of Michael’s work at Meta 

(15:29) Meta’s engineering first culture and how Michael pushed for even more for ICs

(20:03) How tenure at Meta correlated with impact 

(23:47) How Michael rose through the ranks at Meta so quickly

(29:30) The engineering culture at Meta, including how they value internal tools

(34:00) Companies that began at Meta or founded by former employees

(36:11) Facebook’s internal tool for scheduling meetings 

(37:45) The product problems that came with scaling Facebook

(39:25) How Michael became Facebook friends with Mark Zuckerberg 

(42:05) The “Zuck review” process

(44:30) How the French attacks crashed Michael’s photo inlay prototype

(51:15) How the photo inlay bug was fixed 

(52:58) Meta’s hiring process 

(1:03:40) Insights from Michael’s work at Formation

(1:09:08) Michael’s advice for experienced engineers currently searching for a job

(1:11:15) Rapid fire round

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The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:

• Inside Meta’s engineering culture: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/facebook

• Stacked diffs (and why you should know about them) https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/stacked-diffs 

• Engineering career paths at Big Tech and scaleups: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/engineering-career-paths 

• Inside the story of how Meta built the Threads app: https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/p/building-the-threads-app

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See the transcript and other references from the episode at ⁠⁠https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast⁠⁠

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