Hey Reddit. My name is Will Barnett and I am an engineer recruiter on Facebook's University recruiting team. Historically, the recruiting industry hasn’t been known for transparency and at Facebook we work hard every day to make the world more open and connected – and this is my team's effort to do the same.

We want to answer all your questions about getting hired at Facebook, what it’s like working here, what types of candidates we look for, how to prepare for interviews, and anything else you’re wondering about.

Recruiters from across the company – University, Engineering, Tech, Business, Sales and Marketing, Diversity, and Programs – are lined up to help me out today so we can answer as many questions as best as possible.

I am going to do my best to answer your questions. There are some things like product decisions that I am not equipped to answer and am not going to go into the specifics of anyone's application.

We'll be answering questions from 1PM - 6PM ET.

EDIT: Thanks for showing up everyone - This was a lot of fun! We're closin' up shop on this AMA for now, will probably still respond here and there for a few hours.

Comments: 684 • Responses: 39  • Date: 

daniellejuice88 karma

What sort of information do you mine from a serious applicants personal Facebook profile?

facebookrecruiting66 karma

We take privacy very seriously at Facebook and no applicants profile is accessed beyond what any other user would be able to publicly view.

SawRub8 karma

If it got me a good job at Facebook, I honestly wouldn't mind.

facebookrecruiting4 karma

we wouldn't mind either - given we have alot of open roles. Apply for the ones you are most passionate about

andrewphf44 karma

Would Facebook hire someone w/o a college degree? I'm 15 and I've been programming for 8 years, and I'm fluent in 6 programming languages and I know 7 others fairly well. However, school isn't really going well for me and I'm doubtful that I'll even be able to attend college (I have a 3.2 atm). Would Facebook or other big tech companies consider hiring me?

facebookrecruiting51 karma

it would we weird for us to require a college degree (see Zuck). if you can build awesome stuff and have big impact, that's all we're really looking for.

TLinden317 karma

[deleted]

facebookrecruiting19 karma

Our biz/finance roles have more requirements in terms of training, usually that means some kind of degree or certificate program. if not a degree, probably some decent amount of track record is needed

andrewphf1 karma

Okay thank you. What kind of stuff would be helpful to have if I didn't have a degree? Would certifications in different languages help? I know I should get a GitHub set up.

Would it be remotely possible for me to get a job straight out of high school if I had sufficient experience?

facebookrecruiting7 karma

links to stuff you've built or your github commits are great. we're not language specific - as long as you can write code and learn new languages. In an interview, we'd ask you your preferred language and have you to go the whiteboard and code in that.

daniellejuice25 karma

What is the corporate culture of Facebook like? Do they offer relocation to all jobs, or only the more senior level?

facebookrecruiting24 karma

We're a culture of builders... of hackers. We don't just expect our engineers to move fast and ship stuff, but everyone in focused on building product and services that create a more open and connected world.

Relocation is provided for everyone for any full time or intern position.

SawRub2 karma

What's the dental insurance situation like?

facebookrecruiting3 karma

we provide dental insurance, but the exact coverage varies by country

cardinals5022 karma

How much emphasis do you put on GPA as opposed to out of the classroom type work?

I have always been a big believer in education outside the classroom through internships and the like.

Do you weigh one more heavily than the other?

facebookrecruiting21 karma

We look at the whole candidate package - GPA is one signal but never the only signal. Some candidates do well in school and well in our interview process, and get hired. Some have been coding for years before school and work on tons of outside projects and don't make school/grades a priority. People who can display their actual skills by building real things beyond class projects are very frequently the stronger candidates. Ultimately, we want to hire people that build amazing things and push technologies to new heights.

eoz18 karma

Is Facebook a welcoming environment for trans people? Are there specific policies, and is there health coverage? What about for LGBT people in general?

facebookrecruiting37 karma

Our whole philosophy is about being your authentic self at work--last year we even had over 400 employees march in SF Pride. For trans employees we have gender neutral bathrooms and our insurance policy covers gender reassignment surgery as well. You'd find us very welcoming.

quackdoodle17 karma

Why would Facebook need a recruiting team in the first place? AKA What do you actually do?

facebookrecruiting16 karma

we need the best talent globally to help build new products to serve our 1B+ users - that takes a lot of work. we work closely with teams and hiring managers to identify what they need and help them go out and get it. Our hiring managers know that recruiting is their responsibility but sometimes they need help to identify what they need and where to find it.

bacontomatolettuce12 karma

What special perks do employees get?

facebookrecruiting16 karma

our perks approach is to provide the benefits that most allow people to focus on their work and have impact. things like food, transportation, small teams, laundry, healthcare, flexible hours, it resources/equipment, connectivity are a priority for us.

Electro_Syphilis12 karma

Won't you hire a chemical engineer? You know, for shits and giggles?

facebookrecruiting15 karma

We like to shit and giggle here - so please do send via the career site

Sprechensiedeustch11 karma

Any research thrusts into the hardware realm?

facebookrecruiting15 karma

Definitely! Facebook actually custom designs and builds the hardware that goes into our data centers, so research and ingenuity are imperative as we continue to scale out our infrastructure. The designs are open-sourced, and can be viewed here: http://www.opencompute.org/

Rape_Van_Winkle11 karma

It seems it is a trend in tech companies to create an all inclusive environment geared towards young engineers. Free breakfast, lunch, and dinners. Laundry service. Ground transportation to and from work. Pool tables and lounge rooms.

While this appeals to a younger person without as many family obligations and who doesn't mind living 3/4 of their day at a campus, what kind of perks do you make to middle age tech people? Someone who has children and a spouse who isn't attracted to eating dinner and playing some ping pong at campus at 8pm on a Tuesday?

freshfunk11 karma

(FB Employee here) I work at FB and I have 3 kids.

Facebook is very generous when it comes to parental perks IMO. 4 months parental leave on a new arrivals, Baby Cash / Allowance for baby-related purchases and Dependent Care FSA to help pay for day care. They also provide a free subscription to Care.com. The environment, in general, tends to be flexible to accommodate working parents.

While many of the engineers tend to skew younger due to the recruitment of people right out of college, a fair percentage of employees are married and/or have children.

facebookrecruiting7 karma

Also, I would add that we promote a work life balance for everyone. We provide 21 days vacation per year, and also welcome families on campus to have a meal, snack, etc. I have a two year old and will be expecting a second next month, and can say that the company is very flexible and generous. It is sometimes a challenge to balance work and children, and I haven't felt this way at all.

lonebeta10 karma

Do you get a lot of people applying just because it's Facebook? No matter how severely under-qualified they are. They just apply?

facebookrecruiting6 karma

We receive hundreds of thousands of resumes per year and do our best to review all of them.

altoid_trapezoid10 karma

Do you feel that there is a 'rivalry' between Facebook and Google or Apple? Do you make fun of them?

EDIT: Grammar.

facebookrecruiting13 karma

We are often times competing for similar talent, but we respect them tremendously.

hiragar8 karma

do you ever recruit from countries outside US?

facebookrecruiting6 karma

That we do - you can find a full list of open roles at our careers page: https://www.facebook.com/careers. You can search for roles by function and by location as well.

ZipEmUp117 karma

I am about to graduate law school (top 10% of my class) and do not really want to be an attorney. I have a philosophy background and am interested in facebook. Any good positions for me?

facebookrecruiting6 karma

congrats on the graduation and top 10% - and I hear that a lot actually. You are welcome to apply for anything, but your experience could be cool on the user operations intellectual property team? Or something like the law enforcement response team lead? It would allow you to use some of your law-dog learning without having to go the attorney route and it could give you an advantage over other applicants.

Matagorda4 karma

What are you looking for in Law Enforcement Candidates? I hear that y'all hire people with LE experience to help out with Search Warrant investigations. I am definitely qualified.

ken272384 karma

How many blue hoodies does Zuckerberg have?

facebookrecruiting6 karma

noone actually knows - but we can go with more than you do

Kmc123 karma

I went through the Facebook recruiting process for a position in Customer Relations in Austin. I was surprised and disappointed to not get the job (as I'm sure everyone who gets rejected is), but I was also sort of confused. What are dealbreakers for you guys when you recruit for that position? I thought I had a pretty good shot -- good grades, ivy league education, long history of technical work, got along great with my interviewers, etc. I'm happily employed elsewhere after getting a bunch of other offers, but that rejection has stuck with me and I'd love to know.

facebookrecruiting2 karma

This one is tough because I don't know the details of your particular situation, but I am sure that you did have a pretty good shot. The truth is that we are often in the position of selecting the best fit from a slate of great candidates. I have interviewers tell me all of the time that they could happily work with several of the people that they interviewed, but we are often only hiring at that moment for 1 or 2 and the interview team debriefs to select the person or persons who consistently performed the best across each conversation. It is often very difficult and with small hiring numbers for specific positions, we know that we decline great people all the time. Not my favorite part of the job, for sure.

tceeha3 karma

Which schools do you hire the most candidates from?

facebookrecruiting2 karma

you can check out the schools that we visit most frequently here: https://www.facebook.com/careers/university (right hand column), but we also hire from about 100 additional universities

bilsh2 karma

Would you hire someone who has no Facebook page

facebookrecruiting2 karma

yes, and we have in the past

vreeland2 karma

What exactly are you looking for in the ideal candidate?

facebookrecruiting3 karma

Your question is pretty broad so reposting part of this answer: We're a culture of builders... of hackers. We don't just expect our engineers to move fast and ship stuff, but everyone is focused on building product and services that create a more open and connected world.

camjuar2 karma

Not directly related to recruiting but how often do you have kegs in the office? If >= 1 time a week, what is the beer of choice?

facebookrecruiting3 karma

At any given time you can probably find a keg somewhere on campus. If that proves difficult, we have a company sponsored happy hour every friday afternoon. The beer offered varies, but a good sampling would be stella, blue moon, sierra nevada, gordon biersch, and the list goes on.

ReadMyPosts2 karma

How does your company encourage employees not to use Facebook (during work hours), while they're working for Facebook?

facebookrecruiting3 karma

Using Facebook is central to most of our jobs here, whether it be through testing, groups, chat, etc, so it's definitely encouraged. Plus, everyone needs a little distraction from time to time.

FlirtsWithGoats-2 karma

Where does Facebook typically recruit from? If it's mostly from colleges, then which ones?

facebookrecruiting2 karma

You can see a full list on www.facebook.com/university of the schools that we have a strong presence at. We source from all top CS programs across the country and around the world.

[deleted]2 karma

Do you guys have any fix-everything positions, similar to Google's Server Reliability Engineer spots?

One thing that I've been troubled with in the past is running into bug after bug, and not having the access to fix them. My team became very good at tracking down their scope and likely fixes without code or proper access, but it was a lot slower that way. Would be nice to be able to work across titles and platforms to get things fixed without red tape or involving five teams.

facebookrecruiting2 karma

We have a few teams within Facebook Infrastructure which are working on similar areas of impact. Here is where we post those openings - https://www.facebook.com/careers/teams/infrastructure. Continue to check back as we are adding new positions all the time.

The__Bass2 karma

Do you ever look at facebook pages to "discover" people?

facebookrecruiting2 karma

we use our graph search product. It's a great recruiting tool to target people based

smilemachine2 karma

What sorts of opportunities are available in the DC Metro area for someone with a non-technical background?

facebookrecruiting2 karma

A lot of our policy and policy communications work is done at our DC office. Feel free to check out the DC careers page: https://www.facebook.com/careers/locations/washington

quasexort2 karma

Serious question: does Facebook hire MBA's for anything?

facebookrecruiting2 karma

Yes, we do...and we love them. We formally recruit on a few MBA campuses for internships, but we list all of roles on our careers site as "University Business Intern..." and review all applicants who apply from any school. Every year we hire 2nd years that apply for roles through our site, but at this point we do not go on-campus for any full-time needs.

DrTacoPHD1 karma

What is work like at Facebook? Hectic? Calm? LMS for an edited pic?

facebookrecruiting2 karma

I think 'energy' sums it up well. People here are passionate about what they do, bottom line. You can feel this walking around. You can see this by the time people have put into painting walls and decorating the space around their work areas. People are here at all hours because they don't want to be anywhere else. There's always something fun going on, always amazing food to eat, and there's always someone incredibly smart to sit down with to figure out a hard problem.

bradenalexander1 karma

Will you hire me?

facebookrecruiting3 karma

submit your resume - that is the best way to find out