Facebook – Monday – Day 13
Posted on 10th January 2014
From Monday, everything changed. First day of full-time work ever. I woke up just before my 7AM alarm, brushed my teeth, took my pills and madly rushed about getting ready. What did I need? Where was my shuttle leaving from? After a minor amount of confusion I walked along the street outside to where a group of young people were clustered, presumably some other interns. The shuttle arrived about ten minutes later and the friendly driver welcomed us aboard.
A short ride later and we passed the sign “Facebook, 1 Hacker Way”, and all of us oogled the campus that we were now entering. We pulled up outside a number of plain looking buildings, exited the shuttle and then entered ‘Building 15’. Inside was as chaotic as the airport terminal from the other day. Over a hundred new employees waiting to receive badges and enter the protected courtyard. I said hi to a few people in line, trying to make friends. I met so many people, remembering names soon became an issue. The only one that really stuck out was ‘Sarah’, an Iranian girl reading Nicholas Nassim Taleb’s book “The Black Swan” (highly recommended). After we all were checked in, we had a short tour and then breakfast at “Café Epic”, one of Facebook’s delicious eateries. I enjoyed a fruit smoothie and some fruit salad in the company of Sarah and a few other n00bs (the Facebook term for new employees).
The rest of the day was filled with speakers on topics ranging from legal compliance to Facebook’s company values. Some of the speakers were decently inspiring, though it was hard not to feel that some of them were more enthused than would be normal regarding a workplace or business. I couldn’t tell whether they actually felt that way or were just trying to get us revved up.
After lunch we received our ‘gear’: company laptops and phones. I had chosen and received a Lenovo Carbon X1 and an HTC One. We then had to set it all up, login and get our systems up and running to actually start working.
During the breaks I walked around campus a little, taking the odd snack from the micro kitchens and generally enjoying the ambience. Facebook campus is covered in art and this makes it a much more enjoyable place to work. Additionally there are posters up all over the place, this is one of my favorites:
The buildings themselves are well designed and spacious, open plan with offices that can be requisitioned along the sides.
After a few final talks, I headed home and collapsed almost immediately. There was way too much to take in. I managed a couple of hours checking out the tools I’d been using and reading new hire information until sleep overcame me. This was going to be intense