After Zip
- 20%Joined a startup3
- 80%Elsewhere
Shares of those who moved on, by their next stop.
People who leave Zip most often go to OpenAI. Of them, 20% go somewhere small. The median tenure is 1y 10m
Not Zip's headcount: these are the engineers in the Zelcast network and the profiles run through the Eng Scorer. 70 people on a map of 67,181, No. 339 on it by people. Updated September 30, 2026.
- People on the map
- 700.1% of everyone on the map
- There now
- 5376% of the people here
- Moved on
- 1724% of the people here
- Median tenure
- 1y 10mmiddle half 1y 2m to 3y 11m
Came from, went to
Ribbon width is the number of people who made the move. Most arrive from Airbnb. Most leave for OpenAI (20% of recorded departures).
24 of 69 recorded arrivals shown, 45 more from 42 other companies3 of 15 recorded departures shown, 12 more to 12 other companies
How long people stay
16%<1y
38%1-2y
23%2-4y
23%4-7y
0%7y+
69 stays with both a start and an end on the record.
Who comes and goes, by year
<3<316
0017
0018
<3019
0<320
7021
18022
11323
5424
23425
3326
joined left2026 is a partial year
2016 to 2026: 70 joined, 17 left.
Caliber
83mediantop 10%87
0Eng Scorer caliber, 48 scored99
Titles held here
- Software Engineer47
- Engineering Manager7
- Senior Software Engineer7
3 most common titles, by people who held them.
Behind the median
Everyone here with an Eng Scorer read, placed in their caliber tier.
- 13%Strong6 people
- 50%Solid24 people
- 31%Emerging15 people
- 6%Unproven3 people
48 of the 70 people here carry an Eng Scorer tier.
6 of the 48 people here with a read sit in exceptional or strong, the top two of the five tiers, 13%. 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.
Whether a title rose here
The level of the first title recorded here, against the last.
58%Titles that rose14 of 24 classified people
- 58%Rose14 people
- 42%Stayed level10 people
24 of the 70 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
- UC Berkeley31.4%
- Stanford10.0%
- Georgia Tech8.6%
- UIUC5.7%
- Cornell4.3%
- UC San Diego4.3%
The 6 most listed schools among the 70 people here with a school on file.
22 of the 70 people here with a school on file list UC Berkeley, 7 list Stanford and 6 list Georgia Tech. A person can list more than one, so these overlap.
Public work
one square is one in a hundred
47%have a public GitHub account on their profile
33 of the 70 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
89% of the people who have worked at Zip and list a location live in the San Francisco Bay Area today, against 41% of everyone on the map.
Zip
Everyone on the map
- 89%SF Bay Area62 · map 41%
- 10%New York7 · map 18%
All 70 people who worked at Zip 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 Zip: 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 Zip, at any point in a career.
Key facts
- 70 people on the Zelcast alumni map have worked at Zip: 53 are there now, 17 have moved on.
- Most leave for OpenAI: 3 people, 20% of recorded departures.
- Most arrive from Airbnb: 8 people. Then Meta and Amazon.
- Median tenure at Zip: 1y 10m, middle half 1y 2m to 3y 11m.
- Of the people with a recorded next move after Zip, fewer than 3 went to a founder title next, 20% joined a company of 200 or fewer, and fewer than 3 joined one of 10,000 or more.
- Median Eng Scorer caliber here: 83 on the 0 to 99 scale, across 48 scored people.
- Most common title held here: Software Engineer, then Engineering Manager.
- Top school: UC Berkeley, listed by 22 of the 70 people here with one on file (31.4%). Then Stanford (7).
- 89% of the 70 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.
- 47% of the 70 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 Zip? See how your profile reads to a startup hiring manager, and where it ranks among 67,181 engineers.
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