Frontline Manager at Meta to Senior Director at Snapchat in 3 Years (Career Story)

The Peterman Pod • December 22, 2025

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Description

Rong Yan went from a frontline manager at Meta to a Senior Director at Snapchat in 3 years. I interviewed him to ask what led to that rocketship career trajectory in management. We went over how he job hopped into his first Director role and much more. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/frontline-manager-at-meta-to-senior • YouTube: https://youtu.be/BHlko_Mg-Jk • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00 - Intro 00:46 - Joining Facebook 03:06 - Moving up into a Director role 05:09 - Director skill gaps 15:31 - Domain knowledge & management 18:45 - LA vs SF cultures 20:48 - Senior Director growth at Snapchat 22:43 - Evan Spiegel stories 24:59 - Recruitment at higher levels 32:05 - Career planning in hindsight 34:08 - Biggest career regret 35:33 - How much of growth is luck? 38:19 - Advice for younger self 41:53 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗼𝗻𝗴: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rong-yan-2004692/ • Personal Website: https://cs.cmu.edu/~yanrong 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 • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman

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