Working at Facebook

It has been a while since I posted anything here. I started working at Facebook in Palo Alto last week. I have to admit it is pretty different from my previous work term. First, the working hours are way different from what I’m used to. I have to reconsider my definition of being late and leaving late. One good thing is that there are a lot of smart people working there and some unbelievably interesting projects. You can’t get a better work environment when it comes to motivation. I have to say the free food is also pretty good. The company is also really open with its employees, holding regular talks where everybody is invited to discuss issues and new projects.

For those interested in getting a job there, here are a couple of tips I learned from my interviews. First, do stuff on you own. Everybody does the school projects, that doesn’t make you special. Don’t go over the “reverse a linked list” or “how do I find anagrams” algorithms before your interview, you would be losing your times. They come up with unusual questions that are not too hard, but that require some knowledge of basic algorithm concepts (e.g. dynamic programming) and that test your problem solving skills, not your memory. If your want to train for these, Project Euler is a good place to start. Also, make sure to visit their programming puzzles page.