5 ms·

Largest photo site in the world looking for HNers (Facebook job post)

107 points by Sam_Odio 16y ago

When looking for talented engineers I know of no other community with a higher signal/noise ratio than HN (well maybe Stackoverflow?). I also know of no project to work on that is like Facebook Photos. The team is about the size of an angel funded startup, yet the scale of the fbPhotos is larger than any other app (Facebook or not) that I know of. By almost any metric it's an order of magnitude larger than any other photo sharing website. =====Why?===== You'll work on hard problems at a huge scale. Expect to be responsible for mission critical features that will touch hundreds of millions of people. You'll be deploying code your first week here. I'm not kidding. This isn't HR-speak. Client-side image editing algorithms, third-party API integration, data processing & warehousing, facial recognition, hi-res uploads, image matching[1], ... there are plenty of hard problems to solve. I can promise you that it won't be easy, but it will be rewarding. =====Interested?===== Don't email recruiting, I'll refer you internally [2]. Find my Facebook email in my profile. Use it to email me 3 sentences. One should be why you're excited about photos (or hard problems). Another should describe a cool project you've worked on. Links/examples of deployed code is best. The last sentence should be why you're going to pass Facebook's engineering interviews [3]. Hesitating? Go ahead and send that email. It might just be the best decision you make today. --- 1. http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=robust+image+hashing - does that excite you? 2. Internal referrals are given priority. Also, there is a referral bonus. Once you complete Bootcamp and join the photos team I will give 50% to you and 50% to the photos team (for trips, cool toys, etc). 3. I don't have the authority to bypass the standard interview process. There will be lots of algorithm questions (sorting / tree traversals, etc.) http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Facebook-Engineering-Interview-Questions

nevster 16y ago
Last link is broken. Probably meant to be this: http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Facebook-Engineering-Interview-Questions-EI_IE40772.0,8_KO9,20.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Facebook-Engineering-Inte... Also see: http://reza.lotun.name/entries/12052007a.html http://reza.lotun.name/entries/12052007a.html
dotBen 16y ago
There is something fishy about this, or just not cool about it. He's going to give 50% of the referral fee back to the candidate? Links to the answers of FB's engineering questions over on a 3rd party site (presumably to help you pass the interview process)? I'm sure its a legitimate call for applicants by a member of staff - it just seems fishy, or at the very least not the right way to go about things.
- Sam_Odio 16y ago
  I understard that it's unusual for a large corp to make a personal appeal on hn. However fb is more like a startup than a big corp. It's pretty standard practice for fb employees to give part of their referral bonuses back to their friends. Are you suggesting that I keep it for myself?
  - dotBen 16y ago
    Um, yeah if you don't feel the need to take a referral bonus for yourself then why take it in the first place? I've been a hiring manager in the past. A company uses referral bonuses to incentivize staff to bring in the top talent into the company. If you are really not motivated by the referral bonus (eg your startup was aquired and you're not short of cash these days) then you shouldn't take it - the start up could use the valuable cash elsewhere. I guess burn isn't a big problem for Facebook, but then to your point in your comment, Facebook is still a big startup isn't it? (is it?) I also think its poor to offer image on the interview questions/answers (yes, even if they are on a public site somewhere). If I was the hiring manager I would be upset by that as it skews my ability to interview all candidates equally (ie the ones who did see the interview questions and the ones that did not). I don't think you are coming from a bad place or doing anything under-hand but I think it isn't the right and professional way of obtaining talent.
    - Sam_Odio 16y ago
      No offense but I'll let the hiring manager at facebook (not some guy on the 'net) decide whether I should get a referral bonus. All I'm saying here is that anything I get will go back to the team/applicant. I'm not sure how that's shady. I'd take down the glass door link if I could to appease you. Personally, I think it's better that all photo team applicants see it rather than the few that find it through some cursory pre-interview research.
OoTheNigerian 16y ago
Sam, I think you have done no wrong here. From my experience, if you appear 'too helpful' people become suspicious. Strange, but that is the reality. Human beings are not expected to be that nice, period. Cheers dude! I hope you get the best people.
mahmud 16y ago
No one knows image manipulation more than this guy: http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=DarkShikari http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=DarkShikari At least no one that I know.
- app 16y ago
  He's already worked for Facebook :)
brlewis 16y ago
Hi-res uploads? Has any site successfully sustained a "free" model while serving hi-res photos? Or do you just mean just during the upload process -- photos scaled down permanently and the originals discarded?
nedwin 16y ago
Dude, this is one of the coolest job postings I've seen on HN for a while. Not so much what the job involves (which is pretty cool in itself) but that you're reaching out to the HN community to hopefully bring some people like yourself onto your project. You were obviously passionate about Divvyshot, glad to see it's followed through with FB.
abyssknight 16y ago
Just some advice for anyone going on to interview with Facebook. 1. Know _why_ you want to work there. Really think about that one. 2. Crack open an algorithms and data structures book. They ask some seriously off the wall questions. 3. Be prepared to fail gracefully. 4. Have an ivy league degree. Not saying that's a requirement, but it certainly helps. 5. Do some of the puzzles for Facebook engineering. It makes the interview process go quicker, and you'll be a little more prepared for the technical interview. That said, I failed my interview earlier this year. Your mileage may vary, but good luck!
clayrab 16y ago
Is this in San Francisco?

107 points by Sam_Odio 16y ago

nevster 16y ago

Last link is broken. Probably meant to be this: http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Facebook-Engineering-Interview-Questions-EI_IE40772.0,8_KO9,20.htm http://www.glassdoor.com/Interview/Facebook-Engineering-Inte... Also see: http://reza.lotun.name/entries/12052007a.html http://reza.lotun.name/entries/12052007a.html

dotBen 16y ago

There is something fishy about this, or just not cool about it. He's going to give 50% of the referral fee back to the candidate? Links to the answers of FB's engineering questions over on a 3rd party site (presumably to help you pass the interview process)? I'm sure its a legitimate call for applicants by a member of staff - it just seems fishy, or at the very least not the right way to go about things.

Sam_Odio 16y ago
I understard that it's unusual for a large corp to make a personal appeal on hn. However fb is more like a startup than a big corp. It's pretty standard practice for fb employees to give part of their referral bonuses back to their friends. Are you suggesting that I keep it for myself?
- dotBen 16y ago
  Um, yeah if you don't feel the need to take a referral bonus for yourself then why take it in the first place? I've been a hiring manager in the past. A company uses referral bonuses to incentivize staff to bring in the top talent into the company. If you are really not motivated by the referral bonus (eg your startup was aquired and you're not short of cash these days) then you shouldn't take it - the start up could use the valuable cash elsewhere. I guess burn isn't a big problem for Facebook, but then to your point in your comment, Facebook is still a big startup isn't it? (is it?) I also think its poor to offer image on the interview questions/answers (yes, even if they are on a public site somewhere). If I was the hiring manager I would be upset by that as it skews my ability to interview all candidates equally (ie the ones who did see the interview questions and the ones that did not). I don't think you are coming from a bad place or doing anything under-hand but I think it isn't the right and professional way of obtaining talent.
  - Sam_Odio 16y ago
    No offense but I'll let the hiring manager at facebook (not some guy on the 'net) decide whether I should get a referral bonus. All I'm saying here is that anything I get will go back to the team/applicant. I'm not sure how that's shady. I'd take down the glass door link if I could to appease you. Personally, I think it's better that all photo team applicants see it rather than the few that find it through some cursory pre-interview research.

OoTheNigerian 16y ago

Sam, I think you have done no wrong here. From my experience, if you appear 'too helpful' people become suspicious. Strange, but that is the reality. Human beings are not expected to be that nice, period. Cheers dude! I hope you get the best people.

mahmud 16y ago

No one knows image manipulation more than this guy: http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=DarkShikari http://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=DarkShikari At least no one that I know.

app 16y ago
He's already worked for Facebook :)

brlewis 16y ago

Hi-res uploads? Has any site successfully sustained a "free" model while serving hi-res photos? Or do you just mean just during the upload process -- photos scaled down permanently and the originals discarded?

nedwin 16y ago

Dude, this is one of the coolest job postings I've seen on HN for a while. Not so much what the job involves (which is pretty cool in itself) but that you're reaching out to the HN community to hopefully bring some people like yourself onto your project. You were obviously passionate about Divvyshot, glad to see it's followed through with FB.

abyssknight 16y ago

Just some advice for anyone going on to interview with Facebook. 1. Know _why_ you want to work there. Really think about that one. 2. Crack open an algorithms and data structures book. They ask some seriously off the wall questions. 3. Be prepared to fail gracefully. 4. Have an ivy league degree. Not saying that's a requirement, but it certainly helps. 5. Do some of the puzzles for Facebook engineering. It makes the interview process go quicker, and you'll be a little more prepared for the technical interview. That said, I failed my interview earlier this year. Your mileage may vary, but good luck!

clayrab 16y ago

Is this in San Francisco?