Meta Senior Staff (IC7) Eng's Honest Demotion Story

The Peterman Pod • January 23, 2026 • Solo Episode

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In this episode, I talked to Igor, a senior staff engineer who has worked at Meta, Google, and Cruise. We discussed his experience of wanting a demotion at Meta and the challenges he faced in that process. 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • YouTube: https://youtu.be/i1iBweuOQI4 • Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/meta-senior-staff-ic7-engs-honest 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Igor's post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7401415295409700864/ 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:37 - Why he wanted a demotion 00:07:32 - Why Senior Staff at Meta was different 00:16:01 - Meta vs Google culture 00:19:09 - Downleveling at Google 00:23:17 - Why he's willing to be transparent 00:25:11 - Best quality of life eng level 00:30:42 - Senior Staff promo at Google 00:42:27 - Mentorship stories 00:43:11 - Biggest career regret 00:46:46 - Advice for younger self 00:49:06 - Outro 𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝗴𝗼𝗿: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/igorts/ • ML basics youtube videos he made: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVcptlT8D7DgN5FtLMFUdHb5pJXW1g0YL 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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