Hi all, I've joined FB about a month ago, and I can tell that WLB here is pretty bad. I have interned here before and know many people here, so I think I've talked to enough people to draw this conclusion. People on Blind say that it depends on the team, but the culture constantly pressures us to work harder, and many FB friends I talked in person to all confirmed this. I personally came from a grad school where I did my PhD, so this is actually pretty surprising to me. My grad school friends and I have imagined that industry would be way more relaxing than academia. Well - it's not at all! If anything, I feel that being a grad student was way more chilling given the freedom we used to have. (I don't know about a faculty's life, I'm sure it's crazy.) My friends used to say, "Wow, now that you're going to industry, you don't need to think about work after coming home or during the weekend!" Well - I already find myself picking up extra hours to work after coming home and some time in the weekend and know many people at FB who do that. People say at Google, WLB is better, but I'm not sure if that's true. I know a few friends at Google who work really hard (like 80 hours a week) and say that getting promoted at Google is pretty hard. I guess the difference is that at Google, you can choose to chill more, whereas at Facebook, you have no choice because they kick you out when you don't meet the bars after a while. (e.g., the promotion deadline) For those who are at Facebook and complain about WLB, it makes me want to ask you what makes you stay in the company. Despite WLB, do you still enjoy the work? a high compensation? (Does FB pay the most competitive package?) or because you don't want to go through leetcoding and interview again? I've heard many people complaining about WLB at Facebook, and they're really many competent, impressive engineers here. I'm sure they have other options if they decide to go somewhere. I guess I wanted to discuss is whether WLB at any other company is that much better (e.g., do you not worry about work at all once you come home?) and for Facebookers, if Facebook's WLB is that notoriously bad, what makes you still want to stay?
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Are you in Infra or product? I have friends in product teams, their wlb is pretty chill. None of them complained about wlb.
Tesla is good
The culture does not pressure us to be anything but ourselves. I work 40hrs a week as do many many others. Fb rewards “impact” not work hours. I would suggest you ask your manager what projects would be the most meaningful, prioritize those, and do not spend time on other stuff.
Yeah, ideally if you can make "impact" by working for 40hrs, that's great. But in reality, a lot of people work 40+ hours, and as an average FB engineer, I feel that I need to put in extra hours, and I have as an intern.
You need to learn how to work smarter. I’m doing less than 40 hours per week but was in grind mode to start. Learn to prioritize and socialize your progress so your manager and xfn partners can provide input if you’re working on the right items
Solving the most interesting problems of my career, working with a great group of people, and being compensated extremely well for it, is what keeps me here.
That's great! I just really wanted to hear from people on the positive sides of the company when everyone seems to complain about WLB.
Know that the first few months are going to be rough. I almost left after my first few months but you just have to push through and get to know the process and the company. Meet with your skip levels, and your xfn leaders, get to know them and what problems they’re trying to solve. Get as much high level perspective as you can so you can focus your energy effectively. The company is trying to solve some massive problems, dig into those and start contributing. Seeing results on a massive scale always helped motivate me. Maybe it’ll help you too.
You haven’t been through one review cycle. Meets all is fine, seriously and can still lead to promo. And MM does not lead to pip unless you get multiple. You need to recalibrate how hard you’re working
That's true! I haven't been through a cycle. We'll see :)
Come to microsoft we work like 30 hours a week
And they still manage to push a billion mandatory updates!! 😂 jk
Btw please check your dm
P.S. the comment about industry being more relaxing than academia applies to normal industries and companies. Fb is competitive. Even still you work less than assistant profs pulling 70 hour weeks.
That makes sense. For your last sentence, are you saying that still assistant professors work harder than an engineer at the most competitive company? (just clarifying if I understood correctly.) I know a friend at FB who works 80 hours a week.
Lot of pressure to make tenure It’s up or out for most universities from assistant to associate
I stay because of how awesome my peers and manager are. I’m also continuing to learn a ton
That's great! That's what I like about being at Facebook too. :)
WLB = F(your skills, company, team) where IMHO your own productivity carries a lot of weight.
Come to LinkedIn