It looks like another user answered your question and covered it well, but I'll add my own color as well.
>What's the bar for being hired as a FAANG engineering manager?
In my past cycle I interviewed at, and received offers from two of the FAANGs. Past Engineering management experience was required and experience managing other managers was definitely a big plus. I think it's that latter bit that really makes a candidate very attractive since there seems to be high demand. A history of strong IC experience and technical leadership was also required.
I didn't have FAANG experience, but did have significant startup experience and a clear career progression, culminating in a few years at larger (>10k people) companies. One benefit of startup work is that the majority of my past experience is being the primary architect & owner of complicated production codebases and systems. The larger companies provided an opportunity to show how I was effective working cross functionally and getting things done in orgs where I was not in the chain of command.
So, tl;dr: is that strong IC background plus a few years of management are required, but specific types of experience can make you more attractive.
>What's the bar for being hired as a FAANG engineering manager?
In my past cycle I interviewed at, and received offers from two of the FAANGs. Past Engineering management experience was required and experience managing other managers was definitely a big plus. I think it's that latter bit that really makes a candidate very attractive since there seems to be high demand. A history of strong IC experience and technical leadership was also required.
I didn't have FAANG experience, but did have significant startup experience and a clear career progression, culminating in a few years at larger (>10k people) companies. One benefit of startup work is that the majority of my past experience is being the primary architect & owner of complicated production codebases and systems. The larger companies provided an opportunity to show how I was effective working cross functionally and getting things done in orgs where I was not in the chain of command.
So, tl;dr: is that strong IC background plus a few years of management are required, but specific types of experience can make you more attractive.