After Instagram
- 7%Founded something15
- 13%Joined a startup30
- 41%Joined a big company93
- 39%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Instagram most often go to Meta, Google and Airbnb. Of them, 7% found something next and 13% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 2y 5m
Not Instagram's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 340 people on a map of 67,181, No. 67 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 3400.5% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 10832% of the people here
- Moved on
- 23268% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 2y 5mmiddle half 1y 5m to 4y 3m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Meta. Most leave for Meta (30% of recorded departures).
175 of 314 recorded arrivals shown, 139 more from 122 other companies108 of 233 recorded departures shown, 125 more to 102 other companies
The Instagram mafia
15 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 7% of those who moved on, half of them the same month they left. The bars cover the ’20 to ’26 classes; earlier founders still count in the total.
How long people stay
14%<1y
27%1-2y
30%2-4y
24%4-7y
5%7y+
276 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
6<313
3<314
6315
14716
271217
352018
452519
593420
453921
545122
212723
191424
191125
6726
joined left2026 is a partial year
2013 to 2026: 359 joined, 253 left.
Caliber
85mediantop 10%94
0Eng Scorer caliber, 219 scored99
there now 84 moved on 85. Current staff and alumni score about the same.
Titles held here
- Software Engineer126
- Software Engineer Intern73
- Senior Software Engineer44
- Staff Software Engineer35
- Engineering Manager23
- Machine Learning Engineer19
- Data Engineer12
- Senior Staff Software Engineer9
8 most common titles, by people who held them.
First job on the record for 3% of people here.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 8%Exceptional17 people
- 35%Strong77 people
- 43%Solid93 people
- 14%Emerging or unproven31 people
218 of the 340 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
94 of the 218 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 43%. A tier is the band a caliber score falls in, so this is the same measurement as the median on the caliber card, opened up. A tier holding fewer than 3 people is printed with the one next to it, because that few is a person rather than a pattern.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
48%Titles that rose123 of 256 classified people
- 48%Rose123 people
- 50%Stayed level127 people
- 2%Fell6 people
256 of the 340 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
- Stanford8.9%
- University of Waterloo8.9%
- Carnegie Mellon7.4%
- UC Berkeley7.4%
- Harvard4.7%
- NYU4.1%
- UCLA4.1%
- University of Michigan3.8%
The 8 most listed schools among the 339 people here with a school on file.
30 of the 339 people here with a school on file list Stanford, 30 list University of Waterloo and 25 list Carnegie Mellon. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
50%have a public GitHub account on their profile
171 of the 339 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
50% of the people who have worked at Instagram and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Instagram
Everyone on the map
- 50%SF Bay Area169 · map 41%
- 41%New York140 · map 18%
- 3%Los Angeles9 · map 5%
- 1%Seattle5 · map 5%
- 0.9%Washington DC3 · map 13%
- 4%Somewhere else13
339 of the 340 people who worked at Instagram list a location, and every share here is over those 339.
Where they live now, from the profile as it reads today, not where they sat while working at Instagram: 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 Instagram, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 340 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Instagram: 108 are there now, 232 have moved on.
- Most leave for Meta: 71 people, 30% of recorded departures. Then Google and Airbnb.
- Most arrive from Meta: 118 people. Then Google and Amazon.
- Median tenure at Instagram: 2y 5m, middle half 1y 5m to 4y 3m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Instagram, 7% went to a founder title next, 13% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and 41% joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 85 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 219 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Software Engineer Intern.
- Top school: Stanford, listed by 30 of the 339 people here with one on file (8.8%). Then University of Waterloo (30).
- 50% of the 339 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.
- 50% of the 339 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub.
- 123 rose, 127 stayed level, 6 fell, out of the 256 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.
Worked at Instagram? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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