Solutions Engineering at Facebook — From an Intern’s Perspective
Like the majority of other students majoring in Computer Science, my goal was to get an internship as a Software Engineer at a tech company. So, naturally, when I was applying, I focused on that role mostly unaware of the possibility of other engineering positions. After my first round of technical interviews with Facebook, one of the recruiters reached out regarding an opportunity as a Solutions Engineering intern. This was the first time that I had heard about this career path.
I spent the next couple of weeks reading articles and watching blogs about Solutions Engineering. Turns out the role fits me perfectly. Throughout high school and college, I had the opportunity to foster my interests in entrepreneurship and business through a few start-up projects and organizations. Through these experiences, I was able to get a basic, high-level business understanding along with an entrepreneurial mindset, which are two of the three big pillars of a Solutions Engineer at Facebook.
After learning about the possibility of working as a Solutions Engineer, I was excited to interview and learn more about this whole new career path. Talking to each of my interviewers and seeing their unique stories that led them to this field was a truly eye-opening experience and one that truly solidified my decision to pursue this internship.
There were some major differences between the interviewing process for a Solutions Engineer intern versus a Software Engineer intern. A substantial part of the process was focused on understanding the business side of technology rather than just the technical side. Specifically, there was a Business Design interview where I had to practice and flex my entrepreneurial skills, something I had never had to do in an internship interview prior. As these types of interviews are more common for a full-time engineer, it was surprising to see how important high-level, end-to-end architectural knowledge was, even for a Solutions Engineering intern. I was told that throughout this interview, I would be taken through a sample project lifecycle that Solutions Engineers would have to go through and think about the decisions they would make every step of the way. After this interview, I was even more excited about the opportunity than before, as I had so much fun talking through the problem at hand and coming up with solutions together with the interviewer.
Since my start date, I have been able to live many of the things that they were talking about. I have exercised many more skills than at any other internship that I have had in the past, whether it be thinking in terms of revenue and impact, interacting with users, writing code, and more.
One of the many great things that I like about Solutions Engineering is the way in which we are measured. On the one hand, Software Engineers are measured by how much code they deploy, how many issues are solved, and how many ideas they are able to build. On the other hand, Solutions Engineers are measured by how much revenue they are able to unblock and how much impact they are able to make. This is a concept that truly motivates me to pursue a career in this field over traditional software engineering.
Looking back on this entire process, I can now clearly see how valuable a Solutions Engineering internship is for someone looking to build a career in technology. Whether it be as a manager, an engineer, or an architect, a Solutions Engineering mindset is instrumental in thinking of projects in terms of their immediate and long-term revenue, impact, and scale.
