After Cognition
- 43%Joined a startup3
- 57%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Cognition most often go to a long tail of companies. Of them, 43% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 10m
Not Cognition's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 42 people on a map of 67,181, No. 567 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 420.1% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 3481% of the people here
- Moved on
- 819% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 10mmiddle half 5m to 1y 8m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Windsurf.
7 of 38 recorded arrivals shown, 31 more from 30 other companies0 of 7 recorded departures shown, 7 more to 6 other companies
How long people stay
56%<1y
20%1-2y
24%2-4y
0%4-7y
0%7y+
41 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3<316
0017
0018
0019
0020
0021
0022
4023
7024
20325
10426
joined left2026 is a partial year
2016 to 2026: 42 joined, 8 left.
Caliber
Not enough scored profiles here yet (22).
Titles held here
- Member of Technical Staff11
- Human Software Engineer4
- Software Engineer4
3 most common titles, by people who held them.
Where they studied
- MIT11.9%
- Stanford11.9%
- Carnegie Mellon9.5%
- Harvard9.5%
- UC San Diego7.1%
- University of Michigan7.1%
The 6 most listed schools among the 42 people here with a school on file.
5 of the 42 people here with a school on file list MIT, 5 list Stanford and 4 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
60%have a public GitHub account on their profile
25 of the 42 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check missed reads the same as no account, so this is a floor.
31% is the median across the 857 companies that can show this figure.
Where they are now
79% of the people who have worked at Cognition and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Cognition
Everyone on the map
- 79%SF Bay Area33 · map 41%
- 10%New York4 · map 18%
- 12%Somewhere else5
All 42 people who worked at Cognition list a location, and every share here is over them.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Cognition: a metro here isn't an office there. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map.
On the same resumes
Companies that show up most often alongside Cognition, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 42 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Cognition: 34 are there now, 8 have moved on.
- Most arrive from Windsurf: 4 people. Then Scale AI.
- Median tenure at Cognition: 10m, middle half 5m to 1y 8m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Cognition, fewer than 3 went to a founder title next, 43% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and fewer than 3 joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Most common title held here: Member of Technical Staff, then Human Software Engineer.
- Top school: MIT, listed by 5 of the 42 people here with one on file (11.9%). Then Stanford (5).
- 79% of the 42 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 41% across the map. Where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
- 60% of the 42 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
About this data: built from 352,028 jobs across 67,181 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated September 30, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving. Companies under 20 people on the map aren't shown, and destinations under 3 people fold into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.
Worked at Cognition? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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