Bold claim: the best engineers aren’t parking their resumes on LinkedIn, and the ones who are rarely belong to the mainstream spotlight. In this rewrite, we keep the core ideas and details intact while presenting them with fresh phrasing and clearer context for newcomers.
A former Meta principal software engineer, Michael Novati, earned the nickname “coding machine” during his eight-year tenure at Meta (formerly Facebook). He asserts that the most exceptional engineers operate largely off the public radar, with their names not showing up in typical online searches or taglines like #100millionengineer. According to Novati, this isn’t about everyday coders; it’s a strategy aimed at a select tier of Big Tech talent.
On the podcast A Life Engineered, host Steve Huynh pressed Novati on his assertion that the top five engineers aren’t active on LinkedIn. Novati stood by the claim.
His explanation: at Facebook’s peak, senior engineers felt that having a LinkedIn profile could signal that you might be job hunting. Instead of broadcasting their availability, these engineers rely on a vast recruiting apparatus that favors long-term, high-trust relationships rather than public branding.
Novati described a system where senior recruiters at top firms cultivate deep, ongoing connections with elite engineers. These relationships can be so established that a top engineer might be approached through private channels that feel more like confidential matchmaking than public job postings. He offered a concrete scenario: an engineer spending a week on campus recruiting at Stanford, gradually forming rapport with a company’s recruiter. He called this process part of the “secret backroom dealings of Silicon Valley.”
The takeaway, in his words, is that certain engineers’ names may be nowhere online, yet they are the ones who are most coveted by recruiters. When he says the “$100 million engineer,” he means someone whose value is recognized and pursued through hidden networks, not a LinkedIn headline.
The world of tech recruitment is long-standing and lucrative. Companies deploy both in-house recruiters and external agencies to stay in close touch with top talent. The landscape has grown even more competitive as AI talent heats up. Meta is known to have offered substantial contracts to attract engineers for its Superintelligence Labs, occasionally poaching from rivals.
There have even been reports of high-level involvement from company leadership. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly assembled lists of top AI talent to pursue, and anecdotes circulate about him personally engaging with potential recruits in some cases. Elsewhere, there are stories of individuals receiving direct calls from OpenAI’s leadership pitching them to join, and some accepting offers after substantial discussions.
However, Novati cautions against overgeneralizing. He emphasizes that offline visibility isn’t a universal key to recruitment success. The “top-tier” group he describes represents a very small, highly selective segment. He notes that this elite cohort tends to avoid public personal branding and does not rely on flashy LinkedIn profiles to attract opportunities. In his view, these engineers achieve their status through private, long-standing relationships rather than public visibility.
The broader takeaway for aspiring engineers is nuanced: while it’s possible to attract opportunities through active networking and a strong public presence, the most sought-after talent may be found behind the scenes, where long-term trust and proven performance matter more than a polished online persona. Do you believe the most valuable engineers thrive in anonymity, or do you think public visibility remains essential for climbing to the very top?
