"How is working at Meta?"

I get this question asked a lot - enough that I thought writing an article about it would be helpful for anyone thinking about joining Meta.

The Bad

• "Some" people don't like Facebook these days. Often ignorance takes over and you personally get blamed for everything wrong in the world. This could be anyone from strangers on a flight to your loved ones on Thanksgiving. Most of us brush it off, but sometimes the pile-on can be a lot. Similarly, since I have joined, rarely a week passes by without a story about Meta in New York Times or Wall Street Journal. Often the stories portray a myopic view or fail to provide necessary context about the issue at hand. At best, it is annoying, and at worst, it kind of ruins your morning.?
• The stock price is quite down right now. At my current level, Meta stock makes up ~20% of my salary. Since I joined, Meta stock has gone down ~40%. Such volatility is quite rare for big tech firms. Some people believe Meta can only go up from here. Others believe the vision for metaverse won't pan out for a long time, and with a stagnant (or even declining) user base, the stock value is unlikely to change much any time soon.??
• Meta is too big now. You need to be comfortable with the idea you will never know everything, even about a small subset of the infrastructure or product. I have been a part of my team for 6 months now, and I am nowhere close to being an infrastructure expert. With that, your team likely spans across different offices or even countries. So, make sure you are comfortable with Zoom.?
• Documentation is surprisingly inadequate. Often you have to schedule 1:1 meetings with a tech lead or senior engineer to use/debug internal products. The learning curve is fairly steep. Without a supporting team like mine, this could be a nightmare.?
• Meta's unhealthy focus on impact: every year, you get evaluated on how much impact you landed. Few issues: a) It may demotivate people from taking on risky projects because no results = no impact b) Long term stability, reliability, and investment for rainy days often get deprioritized for short-term, made-up metrics-driven impact. (Meta is actively addressing this issue to prevent this in the future. However, technical debt created due to this culture is an ongoing battle.)

The Good

• New grad or senior manager - we all sit together. You don't know anyone's level or seniority; people will never not listen to you just because you are a 21-year-old. The default is people respect you, listen to you, and give you the flexibility and autonomy to do whatever work you want to do (as part of your team). Obviously, some priorities are set in a top-down manner as well.
• You are surrounded by the smartest and kindest people you will ever meet. Most people are extremely accomplished yet down-to-earth. You get an opportunity to learn from them - yes, all of them. Message them and schedule a lunch; no one has ever said no to me yet. Meta employees are an amazing network to have: you get a chance to build those life-long relationships here.
• Meta has the power to build technology people can't live without. And with great power comes great responsibility, AKA very interesting problems to solve, both on the infra side and the product world. You can work on truly fascinating projects as you build your career; e.g a) the autoscaling code you shipped reduced server usage by 100k, reducing carbon footprint and saving the environment b) people can call internationally for free with end-to-end encryption, and many other examples. Meta helps billions of people connect with their loved ones every single day - it is an amazing feeling to be a part of this journey.
• I have talked to Mark, Sheryl, Ajit, and many other senior leaders. Meta has an astonishing culture where you can reach out to anyone, including the leadership team. However, I do want to add some context: it is not like Mark invites me for coffee, but I am fairly confident that if I message a VP asking for advice, I will get my 30 minutes with them.???
• Pay is pretty good. Free food. Free transportation. Free laundry. (Almost) free healthcare. Free life insurance. Free massage. Free 1:1 match on 401k (up to 50% contribution limit). Lots of corporate discounts - Enterprise car rentals are often 50% off. And much more.

I hope this gives you a peek into life @ Meta. Check out my featured posts about the TPM Role, How To Get a Referral, and Getting FANG Internships if you are interested. Good luck!?

Disclaimer: The views in the article are my own and may vary widely among employees depending on their level, job title, and location. Please reach out to your recruiter or HR contact for the most recent information. This post is not reviewed or endorsed by Meta.?