Day in my life as a level 4
$ABNB Engineer.
> 3:15 AM Wake up. Wife's boyfriend is returning her later than usual. Stand my ground, tell him he can't be playing music in the driveway, might wake up our neighbors. Head to couch, back to sleep.
> 9:15 AM Wake up to 55 pager duty alerts. App latency is 60 ms, way above 55. It's an all hands on deck situation. Put on company merch and head to garage immediately.
> 9:17 AM Rats! Forgot to charge my electric unicycle. Will have to go with tried and true e-scooter, less eco-friendly, but modern times call for modern solutions amirte??
> 9:30 AM Arrive at office! Would've been 5 minutes sooner had the road not been cluttered with gas guzzling cars. Some people really just don't get how the world works...
> 9:45 AM Solve the problem, office begins clapping. Turns out the level 3 engineer forgot to compress the logo before putting it on prod. Latency back at 55 ms. "How do you do it Cluseau" the level 2 asks. "It's all about knowing the ins-and-outs".
> 10:30 AM Going away party for the work wife, Kailee. Try to hold the tears in, she was the product manager on the button animations and I don't know how we would've gotten through it without her. She's heading to Lyft, rumour is TC is $2 Million? Man, that's gonna be me one day
> 11:00 AM Browse Blind for rival salaries. Turns out the level 4's at Doordash pull in 550k, I'm only at 300k 150k RSU. Really undervalued, clench my fists
> 12:00 PM Lunchtime! Order plant-based salmon rolls. Tastes just like watermelon and seaweed, but between this an the vasectomy I know I am sacrificing for the greater good
> 1:00 PM Nervous. Take a break and head to the scream chamber. Corporate is coming in about the big project
> 1:30 PM Take a ping pong break with the interns to calm my nerves. Lose 4-11, but feeling ready for business
> 3:15 PM Project manager walks in with head of IR to explain the big revamp. "And the buttons will be even snapier. Take it away Cluseau...". I explain the difference 15px margin vs 10px padding will have. IR Head is really sharp, mentions the McKinsey report agrees, but says we have only spent $1.5 Million out the $3 Million budget, tells us the investors are very eager and counting on us, are we taking it seriously? "Yes" I say, pledge to hire 2 new Berkely grads to the team.
> 3:30 PM Celebratory drinks in the office, have a few minorities bring me some food of the Doordash app. Look at them building their careers! Heartwarming.
> 4:00 PM Head home. Time to finally unwind
> 5:00 PM Real estate agent calls, tells me my $3.9 Million offer on the Palo 1 Bedroom was accepted, tells me Pacwest and SIVB are no longer around, but can get a 7% mortgage. 7%! Wow, those wall street guys are really going after middle America...
> 5:15 PM Call compliance, ask them for approval to sell 20,000 RSU's for the down payment. "Now Cluseau, we want you to remain invested, why not sell 19,000 instead?" I agree. After all, life is all about making touch compromises.
> 6:30 PM Get confirmation, RSU's were liquidated. Excitedly call real estate agent, tell her the new place will be perfect for us 3. "Us 3 she says". Oops. Loose lips sink ships, gotta be discreet like Bond.
> 7:00 PM Check company slack, NewRelic, latency time is heading into the low 40s. WOW. Customers must really be impressed I chuckle.
> 7:30 PM Feeling risque. Decide it's time for me to change things up. Turn off a16z podcast, time for some "All In".
> 8:00 PM Finish my blended soy shake. Time to unwind and repair for whatever comes tomorrow.
> 9:30 PM Hear wife's boyfriends car in driveway. Wow, I must've really showed him last night, hope his feelings aren't hurt. Smile to myself... things are really looking up