180 days at Facebook
I landed my job at Facebook about a half a year ago and it turned out to be even more fulfilling than I expected.
I still remember my interview day. I remember lying on the puff chair in the hall, waiting for my interviewer and looking at people passing by. The fact that they were passing by was pleasant by itself — it was still morning but not too early, maybe 10 or 11 AM. So I already could tell that people don’t feel guilty for showing up later than 9 AM. It was a good sign. Then, when my first interviewer showed up and we walked through the corridors I noticed something else. I saw a lot of relaxed smiling faces, different nationalities, different genders, very different appearances and…quite a lot of pregnant women who looked perfectly comfortable in their place. To be fair, I have never seen visibly pregnant women in the office before. It felt refreshing. There is a common fear among young women in the industry that once you decide to start a family, your career is basically doomed. Here it’s the first time in my life when I feel that I can have both and it won’t be a problem. Facebook is extremely supportive when it comes to family — it encourages you to have one, it makes sure you have enough time for it, it allows you to take maternity and paternity leaves and it provides with an opportunity to get back to work when you’re ready. You feel absolutely safe in this matter.
Another huge discovery was the company culture. I never believed that such thing even exists, it always sounded like another empty buzzword to me, but it’s real and Facebook has it. If I could use an only one word to describe it, I would choose the word “transparency”. At every moment of time, you know what the company mission is, what your department mission is and how it all comes along with what you do personally. Whenever you start doing something, you set a number of goals and expectations so you always keep track on how things are going. You can easily find information on what other teams do. You know what exactly will it take for you to move forward in your career and you can estimate how much efforts and time it will take. Almost every activity you participate is followed by collecting feedback — and it’s not just collected, it’s analyzed and the necessary actions are taken, and the reasons behind these actions are always published. You’re not afraid to talk about problems, you’re not afraid to ask (even dumb) questions, you’re not afraid to try new things, to switch teams, to step out and suggest something — it all comes very naturally. Facebook provides a lot of perks to its employees, but no perks can replace this feeling of freedom and meaningfulness.
The last but not least is the fact that Facebook is a huge company which works on almost everything. Seeing it operating from inside is an incredible experience. Being outside you always know about every flaw and failure but you never know how much work is behind, how much research, details, collaborations, ideas are there. I’m still amazed at discovering new teams and what they do. And I’m always learning, in all possible ways — I read notes and articles, take classes, watch lectures, try new things and take on the experience of those who I admire and respect. Here my world is never limited to my own code — or to any code. It’s always so much more.
