After FIRST
- 38%Joined a startup20
- 17%Joined a big company9
- 45%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave FIRST most often go to a long tail of companies. Of them, 38% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 2y 8m
Not FIRST's membership: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 61 people on a map of 67,181, No. 391 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 610.1% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 35% of the people here
- Moved on
- 5895% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 8mmiddle half 9m to 3y 10m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move.
Not enough recorded moves to draw a river for FIRST yet.
How long people stay
31%<1y
15%1-2y
34%2-4y
13%4-7y
8%7y+
62 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3012
3013
<3014
8<315
10516
10917
8718
5919
<3520
51021
<3622
3523
0<324
0025
0026
joined left2026 is a partial year
2012 to 2026: 58 joined, 58 left.
Caliber
Not enough scored profiles here yet (29).
Titles held here
- Robotics Mentor3
1 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 72% of people here.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
14%Titles that rose4 of 28 classified people
- 14%Rose4 people
- 14%Stayed level4 people
- 71%Fell20 people
28 of the 61 people here had a title that could be placed on the ladder before and after.
A title rose when the last title recorded here sits higher on the ladder than the first. For someone with one title here who then left, it's measured against the first title of their next role. The ladder runs intern, junior, mid, senior, staff or manager, principal, director, VP, then founder or C-level. Titles that match no rung are left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely as a different ladder. What's left leans towards people who have left: someone still here on one recorded title has nothing to measure against.
Where they studied
- Georgia Tech18.3%
- UC Berkeley11.7%
- Carnegie Mellon6.7%
- MIT6.7%
- Stanford6.7%
- Princeton5.0%
- USC5.0%
The 7 most listed schools among the 60 people here with a school on file.
11 of the 60 people here with a school on file list Georgia Tech, 7 list UC Berkeley and 4 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
25%have a public GitHub account on their profile
15 of the 61 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
38% of the people who have worked at FIRST and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
FIRST
Everyone on the map
- 38%SF Bay Area23 · map 41%
- 20%Washington DC12 · map 13%
- 13%New York8 · map 18%
- 8%Seattle5 · map 5%
- 21%Somewhere else13
All 61 people who worked at FIRST 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 FIRST: 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 FIRST, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 61 people on the Zelcast alumni map have been part of FIRST: 3 are there now, 58 have moved on.
- Median tenure at FIRST: 2y 8m, middle half 9m to 3y 10m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after FIRST, fewer than 3 went to a founder title next, 38% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 17% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Most common title held here: Robotics Mentor.
- Top school: Georgia Tech, listed by 11 of the 60 people here with one on file (18.3%). Then UC Berkeley (7).
- 38% of the 61 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.
- 25% of the 61 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 4 rose, 4 stayed level, 20 fell, out of the 28 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder before and after.
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.
Been part of FIRST? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
Arrow keys move along the map.