5 ms·

Why? Work 70 hours a week finding new ways to put more ads in people's lives.

jonathanjaeger 14y ago
Don't trivialize Facebook. There's no other place online that so easily melds chat, messaging, wall posts, and general keeping up with those closest to you (even when they're not close to you physically). Despite its problems, Facebook provides a lot of utility for many people without having to be cynical about it. I'll put up with all the ads that are somewhat relevant and are not so obtrusive to the extent that they are popups.
- cantankerous 14y ago
  I don't think anybody who trivializes Facebook is speaking to the problems they have to tackle at the scale they're at. I think the real cynicism comes from the real added value coming from Facebook at the cost to society it brings (i.e. lost time, ad sales, impact on human interaction, etc.).
  - jonathanjaeger 14y ago
    Impact on human interaction is a concern in the age of social media. We will always find a way to lose time. I'm not sure if any generation is/was immune to that.
nvarsj 14y ago
Same reason people work at any famous BigCo: money, security, nice benefits. Not going to change the world, but not everyone wants to do that.
satori99 14y ago
It does make me a little sad that so many smart and talented people spend their careers making, delivering and working out how to get people to click on more ads. I don't just mean programmers. The advertising industry hires many of the most talented people in many areas.
dmishe 14y ago
Money, line on a resume, scale, connections
nilkn 14y ago
I was thinking of applying, but... is it really 70 hours a week? Because that's not going to fly with me. I don't do more than 45 as a worst-case average no matter who the employer is.
- dmoy 14y ago
  I don't know many Facebook employees, and I don't know any in California, but 40-45 is what I hear, not 70. I don't know if that's representative of what a normal employee does, but 70 sounds implausible.
  - mjmahone17 14y ago
    I'm going to be starting this July. I know a good number of people in my class who interned there, and wouldn't have joined if I'd heard of 50+ hrs/wk being the norm. From what I've heard, it's a place where you may work long weeks on rare occasions, but that would be due to your desire to get something done, as opposed to external corporate pressure. Not being a current employee, I may be wrong, but that's the impression that I get.
bbillings 14y ago
I'm not sure why this is such a common misconception. I almost never work 70, or 60 hour weeks. 50, often, but that's usually my own fault for making promises to others I want to keep. I've managed inside Engineering at Facebook and am now back to just being a straight Engineer, and my advice to everyone I work with is the same: Don't kill yourself working 70/80 hour weeks. We pay you to give 40 solid hours, and that is what I want. What I ask of you is that you set expectations for the people and teams around you as accurately as you can. Don't make a bunch of promises you have to work crazy hours to keep. The majority of our most successful engineers have a very good work-life balance.
- aaronbrethorst 14y ago
  Because it seems like every mainstream news article about engineering at Facebook is written like this one: http://www.fastcompany.com/3005165/how-facebook-survived-34-intense-days-lockdown-build-graph-search http://www.fastcompany.com/3005165/how-facebook-survived-34-... Maybe it's Facebook PR's fault.
  - bbillings 14y ago
    So we do lock-downs still, but it's not about working crazy hours, it's about focus. Under lock-down you are allowed to push the other stuff to the side for awhile. For instance I typically do 2-3 interviews a week, help with training new interviewers, etc. This can easily be 5-6 hours of total time out of my week. This is part of being an engineer at Facebook. Onboarding sessions, new engineer mentoring, etc. This is all part of normal workdays, unless you are in a lock-down, then you focus on getting whatever it is you need to get done done and not worry about the rest for awhile. I personally disagree pretty heavily on sleeping in the office and working crazy hours. I find it very counter productive and generally think it leads to bad decisions, bad code, and ultimately bad products. It is certainly the exception, and not something you should be doing if you aren't 22 years old and/or more than a little crazy. I personally haven't worked crazy hours at Facebook since probably 2009. Talking about this sort of thing from a PR perspective seems has to balance getting people excited about our environment and explaining our goals and day-to-day. I've found it's something the media outlets love to play up. The normal day-in-the-life of an engineer is fun, but chill, and not particularly news worthy.

Don't trivialize Facebook. There's no other place online that so easily melds chat, messaging, wall posts, and general keeping up with those closest to you (even when they're not close to you physically). Despite its problems, Facebook provides a lot of utility for many people without having to be cynical about it. I'll put up with all the ads that are somewhat relevant and are not so obtrusive to the extent that they are popups.

cantankerous 14y ago
I don't think anybody who trivializes Facebook is speaking to the problems they have to tackle at the scale they're at. I think the real cynicism comes from the real added value coming from Facebook at the cost to society it brings (i.e. lost time, ad sales, impact on human interaction, etc.).
- jonathanjaeger 14y ago
  Impact on human interaction is a concern in the age of social media. We will always find a way to lose time. I'm not sure if any generation is/was immune to that.

nvarsj 14y ago

Same reason people work at any famous BigCo: money, security, nice benefits. Not going to change the world, but not everyone wants to do that.

satori99 14y ago

It does make me a little sad that so many smart and talented people spend their careers making, delivering and working out how to get people to click on more ads. I don't just mean programmers. The advertising industry hires many of the most talented people in many areas.

dmishe 14y ago

Money, line on a resume, scale, connections

nilkn 14y ago

I was thinking of applying, but... is it really 70 hours a week? Because that's not going to fly with me. I don't do more than 45 as a worst-case average no matter who the employer is.

dmoy 14y ago
I don't know many Facebook employees, and I don't know any in California, but 40-45 is what I hear, not 70. I don't know if that's representative of what a normal employee does, but 70 sounds implausible.
- mjmahone17 14y ago
  I'm going to be starting this July. I know a good number of people in my class who interned there, and wouldn't have joined if I'd heard of 50+ hrs/wk being the norm. From what I've heard, it's a place where you may work long weeks on rare occasions, but that would be due to your desire to get something done, as opposed to external corporate pressure. Not being a current employee, I may be wrong, but that's the impression that I get.

bbillings 14y ago

I'm not sure why this is such a common misconception. I almost never work 70, or 60 hour weeks. 50, often, but that's usually my own fault for making promises to others I want to keep. I've managed inside Engineering at Facebook and am now back to just being a straight Engineer, and my advice to everyone I work with is the same: Don't kill yourself working 70/80 hour weeks. We pay you to give 40 solid hours, and that is what I want. What I ask of you is that you set expectations for the people and teams around you as accurately as you can. Don't make a bunch of promises you have to work crazy hours to keep. The majority of our most successful engineers have a very good work-life balance.

aaronbrethorst 14y ago
Because it seems like every mainstream news article about engineering at Facebook is written like this one: http://www.fastcompany.com/3005165/how-facebook-survived-34-intense-days-lockdown-build-graph-search http://www.fastcompany.com/3005165/how-facebook-survived-34-... Maybe it's Facebook PR's fault.
- bbillings 14y ago
  So we do lock-downs still, but it's not about working crazy hours, it's about focus. Under lock-down you are allowed to push the other stuff to the side for awhile. For instance I typically do 2-3 interviews a week, help with training new interviewers, etc. This can easily be 5-6 hours of total time out of my week. This is part of being an engineer at Facebook. Onboarding sessions, new engineer mentoring, etc. This is all part of normal workdays, unless you are in a lock-down, then you focus on getting whatever it is you need to get done done and not worry about the rest for awhile. I personally disagree pretty heavily on sleeping in the office and working crazy hours. I find it very counter productive and generally think it leads to bad decisions, bad code, and ultimately bad products. It is certainly the exception, and not something you should be doing if you aren't 22 years old and/or more than a little crazy. I personally haven't worked crazy hours at Facebook since probably 2009. Talking about this sort of thing from a PR perspective seems has to balance getting people excited about our environment and explaining our goals and day-to-day. I've found it's something the media outlets love to play up. The normal day-in-the-life of an engineer is fun, but chill, and not particularly news worthy.