Your First 6 Months Are the Real Interview

When one of my clients first joined Meta from a fast growing AI startup, it felt like the dream had landed.

But the first thing they said to me was: “There’s no vision, no strategy, no plan.”

They weren’t behind. They weren’t lost. The environment simply didn’t make space.

They were expected to ramp fast. Carry an underperforming team. Navigate hidden expectations without a map.

And while they were still finding their footing, they were being compared to PMs who had been at Meta for years, people who already knew how to navigate the system, who had internal context, political cover, and a head start they weren’t given.

They weren’t just managing complexity. They were absorbing accountability for an entire team’s output, with no engineering partner to share the weight.

“I’ve never worked in an environment where the PM is 100% accountable for productivity,” they told me. “In every past role, that was shared with the EM. But here, if I didn’t push things myself, nothing shipped.”

They had been told onboarding would offer time to learn. That they could take a few months to ramp. But from week one, it was clear: the expectation wasn’t learning. It was delivery.

Used to smaller, collaborative environments, they found themself in a massive, unstructured org, with no roadmap for how decisions were made, who owned what, or how performance would be judged.

They tried to clarify expectations. Asked their manager for direction. But the answers never came.

And with each round of review, with every reorg or decision made without them, the silence started to feel personal.

They still needed to communicate crisply. Still needed structured thinking and executive poise. But those weren’t the only things required.

Now they were deciding, without a map, when to flag issues to leadership, and when to hold. How to tailor a 15-minute exec meeting to what they actually cared about. How to update in a way that didn’t just explain gaps, but anticipated where the conversation was already going.

No one had taught them how to do that. Not because they couldn’t learn it. But because most teams assume you’ll just figure it out on your own from the get-go as a IC6 PM.

I didn’t get to support them after the offer. But I wish I had.

They were laid off in Meta's last round of layoffs. Not because they weren’t capable, they were. But in an environment where support was not there, stakes were high, and visibility was fragile, even great people can get swept up in the churn.

That’s why I built Fast Track Your Onboarding, because what happens after the offer matters MORE than landing it.

The clients I’ve supported in those first 6 months didn’t just survive. They built momentum. They built relationships, made smart plays, and earned trust and credibility early. Because they had someone by their side so they could:

• read the room,
• clarify their intention,
• and turn the noise into signal, fast.

That kind of early stability doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when you’re not figuring it out alone.

One of my other IC6 PM clients at Meta nearly didn’t reach out to her skip-skip. She assumed he was too far removed.

But once she started communicating with clarity and presence, he sent her a message that changed everything:

"I think you’ll be really successful at Meta. I want to play a small part in that."

Now she has sponsorship. Someone advocating for her in rooms she’s not even in yet.

Not because she said more. But because she said the right things, to the right people, at the right time.

That’s the part I support clients with.

Reading the room. Noticing what’s unsaid. Clarifying your intention, before you walk into the room so what you say lands clean.

Knowing when to play defense. When to go quiet. When to take the first move and own the narrative.

Of course, no support can guarantee outcomes. But I’ve seen time and time again: when you have a place to reflect, to challenge your assumptions, to regulate your nervous system under pressure, you don’t just survive the chaos. You start moving through it with clarity and credibility.

This is the deeper layer of leadership we don’t talk enough about openly. The part that doesn't live in onboarding decks or org charts.

It lives in how you show up when no one gives you a script. How you hold your center when stakes are high. And how you make yourself visible in rooms where power moves quietly.

Here’s what they learned along the way:

• Advocate early. If you don’t speak up, silence will be held against you.
• Be conservative with goals. Don’t assume you’ll get leniency for ambition.
• Build skip-level relationships. Don’t wait until your manager leaves to be seen.

This is the kind of work we do together in your first few months, inside Fast Track Your Onboarding.

When the noise is loud and the path isn’t clear yet, we build the foundation so your leadership gets seen early, even when the ground is shifting.

Hi, my name is Nancy Chu. I'm FIRE'd at 40 after 17 yrs in top Tech.

I now help L6 - L9 leaders establish credibility and create a visible early win within their first 6 months, the kind that earns immediate trust from leadership without getting lost in the chaos of a new org like an outsider.

If you’re in-role and want your leadership to land clearly, reach out. Let’s talk.