Instagram Principal Engineer (IC8) on Promotions, Breaking Prod, Tech Leading | Jake Bolam

Jake Bolam grew from Staff Eng (IC6) to Principal Eng (IC8) at Instagram. He had some hot takes about diff reviews and risk (he accepts diffs that’ll break prod). He also shared interesting stories about his promotions as well as many tips on how to have IC8 impact with a solid work life balance.

We discuss:

• Struggling initially at Facebook

• His promotions from IC6 -> IC8

• Accepting diffs that break prod

• Systems for reasonable work life balance at IC8 

• His note taking system in VSCode

• Advice for his younger self

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(00:50) His rough onboarding to Facebook product team

(04:32) Switching to Instagram 

(06:39) What IC7 scope looks like

(09:48) Thoughts on management

(10:32) Why he always makes time for others

(13:31) His IC7 & IC8 stories

(20:54) Swapping out infra for 1000s of engs

(22:37) Work life balance tips (IC6 -> IC8) 

(27:26) Diffs reviews & risk 

(36:07) Being a good tech lead 

(42:12) Taking notes in VSCode

(47:03) Advice for his younger self

(49:54) Outro

Where to find Jake:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakebolam/• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@theregularbuiltozzy

Where to find Ryan:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

• X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ 

• Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman