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Comment by snoopy_telex | Hacker News Reader

I have no idea what all those people are actually doing. That seems so heavy a head count for the public end result.

Is there a break down somewhere of how many are SWE vs SRE vs support?

Meta doesn't use SREs. There is a position called Production Engineer[1] which has the same skills and does almost the same work as a SWE, but has different focus - scalability, reliability, security, automation. The ballpark ratio is 10 SWE to 1 PE.

[1] - https://engineering.fb.com/category/production-engineering/

PE and SWE are't even remotely close in the pecking order at Meta. Also, the interview loops were slightly different for PE based on whether the candidate came from a SWE background or a systems background.

I'm a former Meta PE who reinterviewed internally as a SWE and then left because I was told that I'd have to move countries to finalize the conversion (because my location was a non-SWE site).

what do you mean by pecking order? like are PEs less important than SWEs?

Yes. I was told this the almost as soon as I started as a PE, by colleagues. 2+ years later, having worked in both PE and SWE teams, I noticed first hand that PEs were consistently looked down upon by both SWEs and SWE managers.

Conversely, I was applying to Meta and have made it to the final stage. The interview was held with the head PE in the country. Both him and all preceding interviews clearly signaled PEs are 'the ones who do both' here, and their scarcity has made them quite valuable in the branch (according to them). It is also reflected by their salary here, which is 15% higher for interns and 50% higher as a FTE.

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