Zelcastalumni map

People who leave PayPal most often go to Google, Amazon and Meta. 6% found something next. 13% go small. Median stay 2y 1m

These are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer, not PayPal's headcount: 173 people on a map of 26,572, the No. 51 company on it by people. Updated August 20, 2026.

People on the map
1730.7% of everyone on the map
There now
2816% of the people here
Moved on
14584% of the people here
Median tenure
2y 1mmiddle half 1y 4m to 3y 11m

Put PayPal side by side with another company, every number against every number.

Came from, went to

Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Honey. Most leave for Google (7% of recorded departures).

PayPal142 in · 147 out
4Honey3Amazon3eBay3IntuitGoogle117%Amazon64%Meta53%eBay43%Apple32%Coinbase32%Uber32%Yahoo32%
13 of 142 recorded arrivals shown, 129 more from 121 other companies38 of 147 recorded departures shown, 109 more to 101 other companies

After PayPal

  • 6%Founded something8
  • 13%Joined a startup19
  • 27%Joined a big company38
  • 55%Elsewhere

Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.

The PayPal mafia

8 of the people who left went straight to a founding role, 6% of those who moved on, half of them the same month they left. The bars are the ’15 to ’26 classes; earlier founders count in the total.

How long people stay

15%<1y
30%1-2y
31%2-4y
20%4-7y
4%7y+
2y 1m median tenuremiddle half 1y 4m to 3y 11m

131 stays with both a start and an end on the record.

Who comes and goes, by year

12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
joined left2026 is a partial year

2012 to 2026: 170 joined, 149 left.

Caliber

80mediantop 10%89
0Eng Scorer caliber, 173 scored99

Titles held here

  1. Software Engineer Intern42
  2. Software Engineer41
  3. Senior Software Engineer26
  4. Software Engineer II20
  5. Staff Software Engineer7
  6. Engineering Manager6
  7. Software Engineer I6
  8. Senior Engineering Manager4

8 most common titles, by people who held them.

First job on the record for 14% of people here.

Behind the median

Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.

  • 17%Exceptional or strong29 people
  • 36%Solid62 people
  • 42%Emerging72 people
  • 6%Unproven10 people

173 of the 173 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.

Exceptional and strong are the top two of the five tiers. 29 of the 173 people here with a read sit in them, 17%. A tier is the band an Eng Scorer 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 together with the one next to it, because a bucket that small is a person rather than a pattern.

Whether a title rose here

The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.

32%Titles that rose47 of 145 classified people

  • 32%Rose47 people
  • 62%Stayed level90 people
  • 6%Fell8 people

145 of the 173 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 who recorded one title here and then left, it is 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. A title that matches no rung is left out rather than guessed, and product, program and project managers are left out entirely, being a different ladder. That leaves 145 of the 173 people here classified, and it leans towards people who have left: someone still here on a single recorded title has nothing to be measured against.

Where they studied

  1. UC Berkeley19.9%
  2. UCLA5.3%
  3. USC4.1%
  4. Georgia Tech3.5%
  5. NYU3.5%
  6. UIUC3.5%
  7. University of Maryland3.5%
  8. Columbia2.9%

The 8 most listed schools among the 171 people here with a school on file.

Of the 171 people here with a school on file, 34 list UC Berkeley, 9 list UCLA and 7 list USC. A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.

Public work

one square is one in a hundred
39%have a public GitHub account on their profile

68 of the 173 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts. An account the check did not find reads the same as no account, so this is a floor rather than a census.

Across the 325 companies on the map that can show this figure, the median is 38%.

Where they are now

62% of the people who have worked at PayPal and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map.

PayPal
Everyone on the map
  • 62%SF Bay Area108 · map 47%
  • 19%New York33 · map 33%
  • 9%Los Angeles15 · map 6%
  • 4%Washington DC7 · map 7%
  • 2%Seattle4 · map 3%
  • 3%Somewhere else6

All 173 people who worked at PayPal 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 they worked at PayPal: a metro here does not mean the company has an office in it. The lower strip is the same metros across the whole map, for comparison.

Key facts

  • 173 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at PayPal: 28 are there now and 145 have moved on.
  • The most common next employer after PayPal is Google (11 people, 7% of recorded departures), followed by Amazon and Meta.
  • The most common previous employer before PayPal is Honey (4 people), followed by Amazon and eBay.
  • The median tenure at PayPal is 2y 1m (middle half 1y 4m to 3y 11m).
  • Of those who moved on from PayPal, 6% went on to a founder title, 13% joined a company with 200 or fewer people, and 27% joined a company with 10,000 or more.
  • The median Eng Scorer caliber of people who have worked at PayPal is 80 on the 0 to 99 scale (173 scored).
  • The most common title held at PayPal is Software Engineer Intern, then Software Engineer.
  • Of the 171 people here with a school on file, 34 list UC Berkeley (19.9%), then UCLA (9). A person can list more than one school, so these overlap rather than add up.
  • 62% of the 173 people here who list a location live in SF Bay Area today, against 47% of everyone on the map. That is where they live now, not the office they sat in while they worked here.
  • 39% of the 173 people here whose profile was checked for public accounts have a public GitHub account on it.
  • Of the 145 people here whose title could be placed on a ladder both before and after, 47 rose, 90 stayed level and 8 fell.

About this data: built from 144,786 jobs across 26,572 engineers in the Zelcast network and Eng Scorer reads, updated August 20, 2026. A move counts when the next role starts within 24 months of leaving; companies with fewer than 20 people on the map are not shown, and destinations with fewer than 3 people are folded into the totals. Caliber is the Eng Scorer score.

Worked at PayPal? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 26,572 engineers.

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