Formation Monthly Deploy: May 2025

Welcome to the Formation Monthly Deploy, our monthly blog highlighting achievements, insights, and innovations from across the Formation ecosystem. Whether you're a current Fellow navigating challenges, an Alumni building your career, or a Mentor guiding others, this space is designed to keep you connected to your community.

🌎 Market insights from Sophie 

Sophie Novati's latest market analysis highlights a complex but promising landscape. While tech hiring remains selective and senior-skewed, signs of recovery are emerging, especially in AI-related roles, which are driving new demand. 

📉 Tech hiring has been selective and skewing senior. That’s due to a few things: the economy is still shaky, AI is changing which skills are in demand, and there was a spike in layoffs in April (which has now slowed back down in May).

To keep up, focus on learning GenAI tools and leveling up in higher-level skills like system design.

🤖 AI roles are exploding, making up nearly 20% of job postings now (up from just 8% in 2022). These roles are for engineers building on top of AI frameworks and specialized ML roles. Both roles are commanding compensation above the market average and experiencing stronger job security.

🏡 Remote work continues to fade. Only 6% of new postings are fully remote, and they’re very competitive. Hybrid work is now the most common setup, especially in places like the Bay Area, as more companies push for in-person time.

🌟 Last month's Light House winners

Our Light House award recognizes mentors whose guidance illuminates the path for Fellows. February's honorees:

Saurabh Badhwar broke down complex system design topics with clarity and real-world examples.

"Saurabh provided clear examples and insights on various system design concepts around scaling, monitoring, and fault-tolerance."

Jean Leconte turned a solid session into an unforgettable one.

"Great person to talk to. He was an amazing mentor, too. I would highly recommend him to anyone in the future."

"When we finished the group session's exercise early, Jean even offered to answer questions about breaking into or working at a Big Tech company. On top of that, he offered to reach out to a friend for iOS interview prep resources for me! That unexpected bonus mini-session truly set this experience apart from all my other group sessions!"

Adam Stoler created a supportive, thoughtful space to explore the Engineering Method.

"Adam did an excellent job facilitating the discussion on the Engineering Method, and took the time to fill out the feedback form afterwards to highlight what areas I can focus on to improve while remaining supportive and recognizing my positive contributions to the discussion."

Anna Bukareva made the most of a small session by customizing it to Fellow needs.

"Since there were only two Fellows in this session, Anna tailored it to our needs rather than following the standard agenda. I really appreciated the insider tips she shared—especially the insights into the negotiation strategies, mock behavioral interview questions, OpenAI interview process, and the Meta interview prep guides."

🏆 Job placement celebrations

Each new role is the result of grit, growth, and the kind of support only a community can provide. This month’s Fellows pushed through challenges, trusted the process, and came out stronger. We’re super proud to celebrate:

Dalila Nelson → Amazon

Dalila’s advice? Trust your gut — and your timeline. “You’ll never feel 100% ready — but there’s a difference between nerves and not being prepared. I pushed back interviews until I felt confident, and it made all the difference. Don’t let outside pressure rush you. When I finally stepped into the room that led to my offer, I knew I was ready.”

Jedidiah Akano → Applied Intuition

For Jedidiah, it came down to the fundamentals. “Don’t overlook DSA. The better you know the tools, the more confidently you can use and explain them. That makes all the difference in interviews. I’m so grateful to the mentors and community who helped me build that confidence — thank you all.”

Varun Kulkarni → NVIDIA

Varun credits Formation — and the community — with lasting growth. “This platform gave me more than interview prep — it gave me connections and support I’ll carry with me long-term. My biggest piece of advice? Never give up. Keep working. It pays off.”

🚀 Recent launches at Formation

We’re constantly evolving Formation to give engineers the fastest path to leveling up — with tools that mirror real-world work, AI that acts like a mentor, and environments built for learning by doing.

Here’s a look at what’s recently launched:

✨ Nova-powered learning just leveled up

We’ve upgraded two of our most important technical modules — Persistent Storage and Client-Server Interactions — to feel less like reading a doc and more like pair programming with a senior engineer.

Fellows now learn through dynamic chat threads powered by Nova, our in-house AI teaching assistant. Instead of passively absorbing material, they actively engage — asking questions, getting instant feedback, and checking their understanding in real time.

They explore:

• Persistent storage scenarios
• Protocol comparisons (HTTP vs. RPC)
• When to use WebSockets
• And more, all through guided, back-and-forth dialogue

It’s a major step toward making technical learning more applied, interactive, and tailored to how engineers actually think.

🚀 Excalidraw is now live in coding pads

System design interviews demand clear visual thinking, and now Fellows can sketch system architecture using Excalidraw, the same tool used in real interviews.

Inside our coding pads, Fellows can:

• Create system design diagrams with Excalidraw by default
• Collaborate in real time with mentors or peers
• Practice in an environment built to simulate real interview conditions

We also upgraded our platform to support live collaboration, making it easy for Fellows to work through systems together, whether with a mentor or another engineer.

See you next month!

That wraps up our update! We're so happy to see our community doing well, with Fellows landing great jobs and mentors making such a positive impact.

As things keep changing in tech, remember you've got Formation behind you. Keep pushing forward, celebrate your wins (big and small), and support each other! Have questions or something cool to share? Just reach out — we'd love to hear from you!

Until next month,

The Formation Team

This blog is adapted from our monthly newsletter, The Monthly Deploy. If you're not yet part of the Formation community but would also like these updates directly in your inbox, subscribe to our blog.