Tech Lead for Meta's Most-Used Programming Language (Promotion Story)

25/07/2025 46 min

Listen "Tech Lead for Meta's Most-Used Programming Language (Promotion Story)"

Episode Synopsis

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 selfTimestamps:(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/

More episodes of the podcast The Peterman Pod