[AMA] I love working at Facebook

Feb 6, 2020 980 Comments

Contrary to popular opinion on Blind, I love working at Facebook. I was at Google for 3 years before this. AMA, I won't be a b*itch

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  • Is PIP a real thing? Do you see your teammates being let go every 6 months or 1 year? No matter what, X% employees are forced out of Facebook?
    Feb 6, 2020 47
  • This thread has re-established two facts about FB:

    1) FB performance ratings are assigned according to a fixed distribution, and 10% of engineers receive the lowest "meets most" rating in each semiannual review.

    2) Those who receive two consecutive "meets most" ratings are PIP'ed out of the company.

    This means that a smart manager can simply rotate each of her team members through one nonconsecutive "meets most" rating and avoid putting anyone on PIP. But in practice, this rarely happens because managers strive to maintain their credibility to avoid being PIP'ed as well.

    A friend of mine joined FB at E4 and left after two years to join Google at L5. He thinks that working at Facebook reduced his life expectancy by a few years.

    There is also a third fact about FB, documented elsewhere by its employees on Blind:

    3) Those who are not promoted from E3 to E4 within 24 months receive a PIP, and those who are not promoted from E4 to E5 within 33 months receive a PIP.

    A PIP (performance improvement plan) is how FB and other big tech companies create documentation to terminate employees for performance reasons. Its duration and name vary by company, but it often starts 1 month before the employee is terminated.

    Given that the OP disputes these facts, this thread may be a Facebook HR ploy to improve its image on Blind, since Facebook's hiring difficulties and its stack ranking forced employee firing system have recently been publicized:

    https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2019/05/16/facebook-has-struggled-to-recruit-since-cambridge-analytica-scandal.html

    https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-recruiting-2019-5

    https://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/facebook-culture-cult-like-former-employees-report.html
    Feb 8, 2020 29
    • Apple / Eng
      FB E6

      Go to company page Apple Eng

      PRE
      Facebook
       FB E6
      Bloomberg's logic here is basically

      Supports my viewpoint = Facts
      Refute my viewpoint = HR ploys

      You said these are "documented facts" but only #3 is really documented (even then you don't always necessarily get a PIP). The articles you've cited so far is more speculations from external perspectives than proof. CNN could speculate all they want about Amazon firing bottom 50% of their employees all they want but it doesn't make that a fact or documented.
      Feb 13, 2020
    • Indigo / Eng
      HagU21

      Go to company page Indigo Eng

       HagU21
      As a person who worked at FB, I confirm all of the above. There is a stack ranking (10-18 percent slated to not meet expectations), and up-or-out on lower levels. Results in 85% of engineers who are either IC5 or IC4 needing to perform at IC5 to not be kicked out. Too many cooks. Brutal and toxic.
      Feb 18, 2020
  • Oracle
    iOFR21

    Go to company page Oracle

    iOFR21
    what do you love there?
    Feb 6, 2020 9
    • Funny I kinda wish I worked with more nerds. Non of my friends are in tech or are nerdy, so I wanna come to work and talk about tech but whatevs
      Feb 7, 2020
    • Google
      Rbmj23

      Go to company page Google

      Rbmj23
      Woww I actually sadly agree 🤣that people at FB were actually very chill and cool. No-one tried to seem too nerdy and people were even more human than college nerds. Something to actually cherish😂
      Feb 9, 2020
  • CGI / Eng
    cgidood

    Go to company page CGI Eng

     cgidood
    What team did you work at Google vs facebook?
    Feb 6, 2020 10
  • Amazon / Mgmt
    jhfbkig

    Go to company page Amazon Mgmt

    BIO
    WHAT. IS. HAPPENING.
     jhfbkig
    True story: I declined an offer from Facebook after signing and accepting because during on boarding they made me sign in to my personal FB account and it completely changed my news feed. It was full of photos and videos of other employees working at FB talking about how amazing it was. The final straw was when I opened FB Messenger app and it gave me a pop up that said “Do you think Facebook is doing good for the world?”, with like TT scale response options. There was only UI to close but it looked disabled, no ignore or dismiss. That was creepy AF and I decided to stay at Amazon.
    Feb 8, 2020 13