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How do they work on Facebook? Values ​​and hiring in a company

Work in the largest Open Space may seem like hell, but not for Andrey. Two and a half years ago, he posted his resume on Facebook, which offered him a place in the company and arranged a move from Israel to Silicon Valley.

Andrey is a former IBM engineer. In an interview on our YouTube channel, he talked a bit about why he chose Facebook, how the company develops ambitious projects and takes care of its employees.

The article is a small extract from an hour-long interview.

We attach the full video below.



Facebook working conditions


Facebook has the largest Open Space in the world with an area of ​​40 thousand square meters.

The company building was built in two stages: in the first year one half was completed, the next - the second. At the moment, there is an extension of the third part.

The building has only one floor, where employees work directly. Below is a parking lot for cars, and on the roof there is a park where you can take a break and take a walk in the fresh air. In general, it takes about 15 minutes to get from one end of the building to the other. It is so long.

Facebook takes its employees very seriously, because they are the main asset of the company. The building is constantly improving working conditions. For example, special lighting was created in order to minimize eye strain when working with a computer.

The company provides buses that bring employees every morning to work and deliver them after dinner, there is a post office, laundry, gym. There is even a service center where you can make minor car repairs.

And, of course, there are restaurants and canteens. Facebook buys products itself and does not spare money for it. If you compare an ordinary restaurant, about 100 people visit it on a day, and in a Facebook building there are about 5 thousand of them. And you need to feed everyone. Therefore, employees have a choice of two large dining rooms and three specific restaurants with Asian, Mediterranean and Indian food. Thanks to this, the food is very tasty and varied. Andrew emphasizes that after he got a job on Facebook, he gained a few extra pounds.

Another interesting feature of the company is that all employees have the same jobs. And it doesn’t matter if you are Mark Zuckerberg, vice president or simple development engineer. Meetings are always held in glass booths, as if emphasizing the openness of the company. Curtains very rarely fall.

As for openness: weekly Mark Zuckerberg speaks to employees. During the week, teams collect questions and arrange a vote. Zuckerberg prepares and answers in detail the three questions with the most votes. After that, the microphone becomes available to everyone who still has questions to which he wants to get an answer. In general, the hall can hardly accommodate 1 thousand people, but you can watch the broadcast on the Internet.



What are the principles and values ​​of Facebook


The company has five values:

1) Build social value ("create value for society"). The task of employees is not just to bring profit to the company, but also to create first of all value for users. When Facebook was created, no one assumed that the company would turn into a giant advertising agency.

2) Move fast. Facebook once had the slogan “move fast and break things”. When Mark testified in Congress, every question he was asked was associated with this slogan. Many believed that it was because of him that the company was doing a lot of mistakes, which led to problems with privacy. But this is not so. This slogan refers specifically to the engineering culture of Facebook. He encourages people not to be afraid of mistakes. Indeed, because of fear, you can miss the opportunity to create something new and original.

3) Be bold. This principle is also associated with constant innovation. His idea is to not be afraid and take risks. Facebook dictates: take risks and don't be afraid to make mistakes. This allows the company to stay afloat, as the world has changed very quickly lately, and if you do not adapt to the changes, the corporation slows down, remains behind or completely ceases to exist.

4) Be open. All information and company data is available to everyone. Anyone can go and get the necessary information - code, data, metrics, etc. This is very convenient, because often it happens that you need something from another team, and in other companies you can run after them for years and ask for access. Everything is different here.

5) Focus on impact. Here we are talking about priorities.

Like any other company, Facebook has metrics that relate to maintaining the number of users and delivering product value. For example, there is a CAU metric, Care About Users - “user care”. Any new product will be evaluated on how it will affect the user. Another MSI metric, Meaningful Social Interaction, is “meaningful social interaction.” It evaluates how much the user is involved in the product.



How to get on Facebook


“Every week a stream of new candidates comes to the company. Three years ago there were about 150 people in my stream. The whole process is very fast and efficient. It took me no more than 2 months, starting with the first contract with a recruiter and ending with receiving an offer. And the whole process of hiring basically took place when my family and I lived in Israel.

I asked a friend to pass on my resume. Moreover, this in no way can affect your chance to get into the company. It is possible that this only accelerated the process of reviewing my resume. The very next day, a recruiter called me and scheduled a telephone interview. In total, I had two of them. After that I was invited to the USA and bought a plane ticket. Here I went through about 5 interviews, mainly with engineers.

In general, any employee can conduct an interview. The company even has training courses on how to conduct interviews. What for? Because a huge number of job seekers come to the company every week, and the interview should be conducted responsibly and quickly.

In my experience, in many interviewing companies, much attention is paid to such issues as: “Tell us about yourself. What did you do? Where did you work? What do you like and dislike? ” Facebook is different. Acquaintance takes place in 2 minutes, and the remaining 95% of the time candidates write the code. And it doesn’t matter what position you are counting on - a chief or an engineer. Everyone is writing code.

During the interview, you do not choose any particular team. Although there are such cases when a specific project requires a specialist with some narrow focus. In most cases, Facebook hires simple engineers.

If you have successfully completed an interview, the so-called Bootcamp is held for you and another new group of engineers. For at least 5 weeks, a maximum of 8-9 weeks, people listen to lectures, take courses and get used to how Facebook works. And this is the first stage.

Then people begin to communicate with different teams, find out what they are doing, and actually choose the team that suits them. Recruits have a mentor who helps them during their training and adaptation. But he cannot attract newcomers to his project. There is a certain day for this when all teams and new employees gather in one place.

In general, the whole process is very long. 3-4 weeks pass until a person gets acquainted with the boss, engineers and their work. At this time, he can already take on some tasks in writing code.



Team Development Inside Facebook


“The boss’s job on Facebook is to promote their employees. I do not remember all the criteria by which an employee in a company is evaluated, although I have to do this periodically. Once every six months we all give each other feedback. To do this, we write reviews of ourselves, colleagues and the boss. This process is called Performance Review.

It is held twice a year, and this is not just a formality. This is a very serious process, people are preparing for it and are afraid. The task of the manager is to put together all the feedback and give each member of the team an assessment. However, each boss can have his own narrow horizons, because he, for example, has only 5 employees, and he can compare them only with each other. Therefore, after putting down marks, leaders get together and discuss their subordinates and the marks put down. This is a very long and serious process. And apparently, he works, because all employees always try to do their job better and better.

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