Facebook – Final
August 25, 2014
This post is really late but will contain a couple of reflections on my time at Facebook.
#1 – Go work there. Seriously, it’s an amazing place to be full of people at the top of their field.
Facebook has perks in the top of the tech hierarchy and the salary is amazing. However, beyond that is the chance to really learn from others. As much as I struggled with some things there, I gained a huge amount from those around me.
#2 – Find out if you want to be a software engineer.
Facebook is a really great place to be a great engineer. It doesn’t seem quite as good if you come in wanting to be involved in research-y stuff, but it’s really available to do on the side. If you want to be a software engineer, Facebook is a good place to make sure of that. If you don’t end up liking it there, chances are you won’t like it anywhere. I found that I wasn’t ready quite yet to be doing software development full time. Lucky I’ve started my PhD.
#3 – Cultural fit is really important.
I found it somewhat hard coming in to my team with no prior internships and no prior work in a formal setting. My team was pretty good at helping me settle in but there were definitely teething problems. It took me more than a little time to find my feet and fit in, and this definitely had an effect on my motivation. I’m not sure if ‘cultural fit’ is something you either have or you don’t. I definitely found my place much later in my internship, and perhaps late enough that it had an impact on the hiring decision of my manager (I wasn’t going to be returning immediately).
#4 – Get involved.
What made the difference between my time at Facebook being miserable and my time being enjoyable on the whole was the level to which I took advantage of opportunities offered. In this case it was going to all the speakers on offer and most importantly, spending lunchtimes with the Vocal Network. Without making good friends, you’ll find it hard to achieve your goals work wise.
#5 – Accept failure and learn from it.
A workplace like Facebook is very intense. Getting an internship there in the first place is really difficult. Converting into a full-time or returning intern, even moreso. Be prepared for things not to work out as you would’ve liked. Sometime’s it’s for the better, sometimes you just lucked out. Maybe you and your manager just didn’t get along, or maybe you ran into too many difficulties with your project. Either way, use it as a learning experience on how you can improve yourself to overcome such hitches on the next run.
Overall my time at Facebook could best be described as worthwhile. Not always enjoyable. Sometimes hard enough to make me want to give up. However, the experiences, education and people I met there will stay with me for far longer than the three months I was there.
Shabbat/Sunday – Day 264/265
April 26, 2013
I slept in pretty late the next day, needing a way to recover from the big night before! Lunch was at Hillel with Sarah, and we chatted in the Rodin lounge for a few hours before going to see my friends from Glee Club and Penn Dance in from their production of Macbeth.
Following that I had only a short while to get changed into a proper suit for the University Choral Society’s performance of Brahm’s Requiem. As a result of having learnt the music well, I was able to more completely enjoy the performance and really threw myself into it. The result as per the recordings later released was pretty glorious.
Sunday was incredibly busy. First thing in the morning it was off to a Glee Gig. A few of the guys and I walked for forty five minutes to get to the historic Pennsylvania Penitentiary where we performed a small set for the benefit of the preservation foundation. After returning home, Sarah spent most of her time with Julia whilst I prepared my final project for security, my final physics problem set and, attempted to study for my Networks midterm the next day.
Thursday/Friday – Day 262/263
April 25, 2013
The next two days were pretty pleasant overall, despite high levels of stress. Thursday was another physics lecture on radiation, not easy but not overly difficult. Then was a group demo for networking. This unfortunately was a complete failure. Our code didn’t compile and even when we submitted a compiling version, it failed all the tests. We received a zero on our project and were sent depressed back to the drawing board, told to redo our project in hopes of at least some partial credit.
Coming away from that a little depressed, it was to Susan Greenberg, a good, Jewish, CIS friend to cheer me up. She did a superb job and I felt I finally got to know her well enough. Despite not spending inordinate amounts of time together, I was glad to have a certain closeness to her, and felt a little disappointed to know I’d be leaving her behind soon. My salad too was almost as enjoyable as the conversation.
I was still in recovery, so I napped a little in the afternoon before a major stuff up: I had accidentally mischeduled a Time to Shine rehearsal clashing with the Brahms Requiem dress rehearsal. I emailed the professor to tell him I’d have to miss it and he let me know that if I did so my grade would be less than acceptable. Thus I was forced to miss a vital part of the Time to Shine rehearsal in which we were filmed for the world tour of the video production.
The Brahms rehearsal was actually quite enjoyable as by now I knew the music well and could both sing and enjoy it at the same time.
Friday was intense. Today was our ‘Time to Shine’ and it began with an early run at 10AM with the full set before our run of it for the largest donors at eleven. The University President Amy Gutmann announced us before we burst onto the stage in our red and blue outfits, singing for Penn. The song itself, Time To Shine, was an upbeat pop number composed by the eminent Sean Altman, of Rockapella fame. I had also previously enjoyed his work on the jewish musical comedy scene and so it was quite an honor to work with him. Additionally, he shared a love of barbershop and so in the backstage rooms he and the members of Glee ran a few numbers together with decent success. The audience greeted us with thunderous applause and through our performance, the stage of the Zellerbach theatre twisted and turned with lights, sounds and graphics projected onto giant screens, glorifying the University.
Getting changed into regular clothes and heading outside, the heat hit fairly hard, so I headed to Hillel for lunch, before a short nap and then off to Penn Park for an on-stage rehearsal for the evenings performance before seventeen-thousand people. It was at this time that dear Sarah Silverberg decided to make an appearance on Penn’s campus, to stay with Julia Poslun’s, another friend of hers, and spend time with the both of us over the weekend.
Following that, back to my room briefly for a change into Khaki Blaze for the PGC performance and then to Penn Park again for the Glee Club Set. Unfortunately I don’t have my own photos of the whole day as I was too busy being part of it by I’ve included some shots taken by Penn photographers.
Following that Train and John Legend performed, and then the Time to Shine chorus that I was a part of. Unfortunately we weren’t exactly well received given the two opening acts and so despite the awesome feeling of being in front of so many people, it could’ve gone a little better. I’ve included below a Penn Communications snapshot of some of the crowd later in the night!
Penn had really pulled out all the stops for this party. Some of my friends in Wharton, the business school at Penn put together an estimate for spendings of around five million dollars on the event. Free food, alcohol, and entertainment for that many people doesn’t come cheap.
From there it was back to Hillel for Shabbat and dinner. Spent some good time chatting to Sarah and Julia, despite being soaking wet from an umbrellaless walk back from Time To Shine in my Shabbat clothes!
I was glad that evening to finally get back to bed and curl up in the warmth.