5 Uncommon Steps to Land a Tech Leadership Role at Big Tech
A few months ago, Gilad kept popping up in my LinkedIn feed.
More often than not his comments made me pause and think “Who is this guy?” - in the best way!
A couple of weeks ago, he shared on Linkedin how he landed an EM role at Meta. I found his story fascinating and asked him if he would like to share here his advice on how to get into Big Tech companies as an EM.
Here it is, unfiltered. Over to my friend Gilad:
Getting a job at Meta is hard.
Getting an engineering management job at Meta? Even harder.
Getting an engineering management job at Meta in 2025? Even. Harder. Still.
But it is possible. People do it every day. You can do it too!
Hi 👋, I’m Gilad! Before I was an Engineering Manager (EM) at Meta and Amazon, I was a manager in a mid-sized company working in renewables. After interviewing dozens of managers while at Meta, I went on my own journey. In that time, I helped over 150 managers prepare for interviews at Meta.
In this post, I’ll try to chart a path that you can follow.
Step #1 - Get your foot in the door
Back in 2017 I had Amazon in my sights. I found a past co-worker who knew me well and worked there. That got me into the hiring pipeline. I then flew to Seattle for the onsite loop. Overall, this is what my process looked like:
An initial screen. The recruiter waived this part for me to expedite the process.
A writing exercise that I had to do online before the on-site loop.
Six onsite interviews and one informal “lunch” interview. These included interviews with the hiring manager, a “bar-raiser” (a very experienced interviewer from a different organization), a staff+ engineer, a peer manager, and cross-functional partners.
Offline negotiations. You should always negotiate.
The process looks similar in 2025, with some differences. Companies are less likely to skip the initial screening interview. The “onsite” is typically virtual. This also means that the informal lunch interviews are less common or optional.
What can you learn from my story?
Don’t waste time writing your resume.
Aim to make your resume a formality.
You need to find people on the inside that will recommend you. Open up LinkedIn and review your connections. Maybe one of your old peers moved to Amazon? Or one of your managers is now at Google?
Getting someone on the inside to recommend you is the single best step that you can take to get into the hiring funnel.
Don’t have such a connection?
Make it.
Find managers at Big Tech companies on LinkedIn and in local networking events. Try to form real relationships with them. This course requires work and time, because you want to build honest connections.
As an example from another angle, most Big Tech companies have a list of very senior engineers that are on their wish list. Think people with a Wikipedia entry on their name. These companies intentionally spend years building real connections with them.
My transition from Amazon to Meta was much smoother. The recruiter reached out, and when the time was right, I scheduled the initial screening interview.
If there is one thing to say about the Meta interview process, it’s that the recruiters are just awesome. If you ever need to reschedule or push the interview back by a few weeks (or months), they will get it done for you.
In my Meta interviews, I had to prepare for both a hands-on coding interview as well as several system design interviews. I brushed up on my fundamentals and practiced on the typical sites. I practiced for the system design interviews mostly by interviewing at other companies. Today, Hello Interview has an outstanding video and written series. I may be biased because I worked with the founders, but it really is top-notch.
What is different in 2025?
Well, not much. Big Tech is slow to change a process that just works (for them).
If anything, the technical bar for engineering managers is actually higher in 2025 than it was just a couple of years ago.
So yes, you need to practice your leetcode.
You need to practice your system design.
The biggest mistake I see managers make is spending too much time preparing for coding interviews. I understand that you haven’t done much coding in years.
So does Meta.
Instead, focus more of your time on the System Design interviews.
The single best way to do that is to stay technical as an engineering manager. I have a free talk about how to do just that.
Step #3 - Prepare for your behavioral interviews
When interviewing for Meta, I had to pass four separate behavioral interviews:
The initial screening interview
People Management
Project Retrospective
Behavioral
At Amazon, pretty much every interview included a behavioral part that focused on one of the Leadership Principles (LPs).
Behavioral interviews are the interviews that start with something like: “tell me about a time when…”
When I was preparing for my Amazon interview, I listed out the 14 Leadership Principles (it’s up to 16 now) in a notebook. For each Leadership Principle (LP), I listed out two to three situations from my past. For example, a story about a time I had a Bias for Action. Or about a time I insisted on the Highest Standards. And about how I navigated the tension between these LPs.
For other companies, you should check out what their values or principles are. You should adjust how you present each story for the target company. For example, how you present a conflict resolution scenario should look very different when you are interviewing for Amazon versus Block.
You should definitely check out “Mastering the Behavioral Interview” on Substack. Austen is a very experienced interviewer and shares endless advice for free.
Step #4 - Negotiations
When I joined Meta, I joined straight into “bootcamp.” Unlike most people, I already went through a lightweight team-matching process before I joined, so I knew which team I was heading for.
This is no longer how it works. The team-matching process is now mandatory and happens before you get a final offer. This means that even after passing all of the interviews, you are not done yet.
Your recruiter may say otherwise. The company’s policy may say otherwise.
It doesn’t matter, it’s not over yet.
If a team that you don’t like offers you a position, take it. It is by far easier to transfer between teams once you are on the inside.
Other than that, review “Step #1” above. Leverage your existing network. Reach out to hiring managers. Be proactive in pushing the team matching process forward.
The next point to mention is that you should always negotiate your offer.
Ideally you have competing offers. Even if you don’t always ask for more.
As an engineering leader, you will need to negotiate in your day job. So use this as practice. Even in today’s market, I haven’t heard of anyone losing out on their offer because they negotiated in good-faith.
Step #5 - Onboard well
Onboarding to both Amazon and Meta was a great experience. Yes, there was a lot to learn. However, there was so much structure to help me ramp-up efficiently. Training. Mentors. An onboarding plan.
The bad news is that this isn’t enough.
Very early on you should invest in finding a good mentor inside the company.
Like dating, you likely won’t find the right match on the first try. Keep iterating.
As you ramp up, you should balance your leadership role with staying in the technical details. This is always a challenge, but especially so in Big Tech. I’m hosting a free session where I teach three concrete tips that any engineering manager should do to stay technical. I hope to see you there.
