Ginger Baker’s Post

Jim Morrison of The Doors once wrote, “When the music’s over, turn out the lights.” It’s lights out and curtains for me at Meta—but not without celebrating the wild ride, unforgettable experiences, and the fantastic people who made it all worthwhile! 🎤🎶 Looking back, it’s been quite the journey—from navigating the high seas as a Merchant Navy Officer to managing risks in the financial sector, and finally, tackling complex crises and policy challenges in the tech world at Meta. Each chapter has been unique, but the common thread has always been solving tough problems efficiently with stakeholders, protecting communities, scaling and guiding teams, and safeguarding business interests. At Meta, I had the privilege of being a crystal ball—spotting emerging content risks at the intersection of technology and societal issues, guiding the company’s response to geopolitical curveballs and mass casualty incidents, exploring innovative compliance strategies with cross-functional partners, and managing complex stakeholder dynamics during high-stakes executive escalations. Knowing that our work helped the company manage content risks while enabling teams like Public Policy, Law Enforcement Outreach, Legal, Business, and Comms to navigate external scrutiny during critical moments was deeply fulfilling. Every day brought a new challenge—and I loved every moment of it. But beyond the achievements, it’s the people who made this journey unforgettable—the mentors and managers who pushed me to think bigger, the teammates (Strategic Response Policy crew) who had my back during 3 a.m. calls, and the incredible cross-functional partners who turned impossible tasks into opportunities. You’ve been my compass through uncharted waters! 🧭 To all of you, thank you for the memories, for being in the trenches together, for the laughs, and for the lessons. 💙 As I set sail for the next chapter (hint: stay tuned!), I carry immense gratitude for the lessons, friendships, and memories. Here’s to finding innovative solutions, solving tough problems (and keeping everyone satisfied… well, almost everyone), and managing risks to protect both the company and the community. Adelante! Siempre Adelante! 🚀

Communication is everything! Something might not be working but the knowledge and solutions are in your peers if you can tap into it. Knowing when you don’t know is key to success.

Every performance review at Meta, there were usually 1 or 2 engineers in my organization who would mysteriously disappear. At first, I had no idea why. After learning about Meta's near 0 tolerance policy for low-performers, I was able to put 2 and 2 together and figure out the dark truth. There was a common theme among all these folks who couldn't make it: I had no clue they were struggling. In fact, I didn't even know what they were working on. All of these engineers were quite cloistered and almost never asked for help. I assume they did this to save face, but clearly it didn't work out for them. If you want to survive at a top company like FAANG, you must be open, collaborative, and vulnerable. Ask for help when you need it, and do it gracefully. I taught this to my 20+ Meta mentees and none of them came close to being put on a PIP or fired. Even now in this much tougher market, they continue to thrive at the company. To learn what I taught all my mentees and start asking great questions to get help while also building up your respect among the team, check out my free in-depth explainer video here: https://lnkd.in/gmFuk7PR #techcareergrowth #softwareengineering #meta #pip #performancereview

Stepping Off the Meta Rocketship! After 10 incredible years, I left Meta last month. I had always dreamed of but never really believed I would be working on teams that shipped products impacting billions of lives daily, in areas as diverse as Messaging, Health, and Generative AI. Thank You to everyone at Meta for trusting me with such important work and for being amazing colleagues (also for all the free food! 😊)! - So, why am I doing this? To regain more control over my time and the work I do, and to better balance life’s ~4 important buckets (please check out "Designing Your Life"). - What’s next on the work front?  Take up projects aligned with my mission to “Create new things and make many people happier.” Here are a few directions I’m exploring: * GenAI for Good: Start something new to help make AI more private, safer, and better aligned with humanity’s well-being. I’m thrilled to be brainstorming with a few friends and industry leaders on this. Please ping me if this excites you among all the exciting things in GenAI! * Well-Being: Launching apps and services in the spirituality and well-being space, an area that all of us in our family are passionate about working on. * More of what matters: Focus more on learning, mentoring, hacking, and writing, and do less of what matters less. - How does it feel to quit a dream job? TBH, still unbelievable and a li'l scary to step out of a regular paycheck and a supportive corporate environment that took care of most product/people things. I do miss meeting people. But, after a month of this life, I can say that the biggest feelings mostly sound like "lightness, freedom, optimism, and an openness to whatever life brings". So, I guess it was the right thing to do! ;) PS: If you want to discuss more about the thinking and planning behind a decision to quit, please DM me. I'm happy to chat 1-1. Thank you for your support as I enter this new phase! Wish you all the best, Vishy

Meta engineers grow 2x faster than those at other tech companies, even peer FAANG companies. A core reason why is perfectly captured by this 1 conversation I had while working at Instagram. There was this new iOS engineer that joined the team. I was talking to him at his desk and was very impressed. Given his incredibly deep understanding of iOS concepts and mobile overall, I assumed he was at least E4 (mid-level), and maybe even E5 (senior). Well, it turns out he was literally a junior engineer new grad (E3). This moment was able to happen due to levels being hidden at Meta. Because of this, you are forced to judge engineers by their actual skills, not rely on prejudices stemming from the title besides their name. This engineer continued to surprise everyone and grew like a rocketship, getting 4 promotions in 5 years (E3 -> E7). Meta E7s make well over $1,000,000 per year. Meta is a black sheep hiding levels, but it's 100% the right call. To learn more about Meta's unique culture (and how to pass their interview), check out our full explainer featuring great insights from Meta engineer Ninad Mundalik: https://lnkd.in/gZmReECF #techcareergrowth #softwareengineering #meta

8 years at Meta, wowee! Today marks my 8 year Faceversary / Metaversary! I remember my first day at HQ, it was a beautiful Silicon Valley day, what I was wearing, who I met, and that nervous imposter syndrome energy of “do they really know that they hired ME?” Many people have heard me say that I actually bumped UP my start date because I was convinced they made a mistake and the sooner I started the less chance they had in realizing it and rescinding my offer! I had just celebrated my 25th birthday, I felt so old, but excited for a new adventure in California. So what have I learned in 8 years? A real life MBA! It has been a true gift to watch this company evolve and grow in real time. A few lessons: 1) People are everything! I work with the best team, managers, coworkers. It makes my life better, makes me happier, and smarter. 2) Things change, always and often. I learned from family that people say in Denver, if you don’t like the weather, wait 15 minutes. This holds true at Meta too, we are always evolving at an accelerated pace. 3) Relationships matter. Because of the pace of change, if you want an answer to something, you better know someone leading the way! 4) Think Bigger. I love that in my role I am autonomous to try new things and tackle new projects that fit my interests, it allows me the creative space to have impact in large ways. 5) Innovative Culture. We at Meta are encouraged to be innovative, and this leads to some of the smartest people collectively propelling innovation forward, it is the best incentive you can give motivated people. Those are my lessons for today, tomorrow there will be new lessons, and even more after that. As we stake our claim in the world of AI, I’m more excited than ever to see where we go next!

Is this something that really happened? Or is it a typical made up story for LinkedIn engagement? #LinkedInTips #LinkedInGrowth #Inspiration #MotivationMonday #Mindset #ContentStrategy #ThoughtLeadership #CommunityBuilding #WorkLifeBalance #SmallBusiness

I have some thoughts on this. First, if you have incomplete assigned tasks (in the same queue/system as your normal tasks), for a long time, that's a significant failure of your org's process and management. Yes, you will always have more things you could work on than you have time for. Also yes, not everything is going to get done (some things for time, some things because of technical challenges, some for unknowns, etc.). Side note: if you have a process which expects all issues to be resolved in some fixed time, you probably also have one or more incompetent managers and/or process people who should not be making any decisions related to real world software projects. Good issue tracking systems and setups facilitate the realities of project development to be reflected in the system, without significant overhead, and while allowing progress on tasks to be more visible. Good managers understand prioritization and maximizing benefits, and allow their smart IC's to figure that out, while still also managing the issues which do not get the highest priority. Good orgs have a healthy collaboration there. Also, finally, I realize that the linked post is kinda click bait, but I had thoughts.