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To Walk Among Billionaires
What it’s like to work at Facebook SMACK! Jay Hammond’s phone smashes to the ground, shattering the once perfect screen. As he gets off his bike to pick up the remains, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg bends down to get it and mumbles an awkward “Wellll…” while handing the phone back to him. This is Jay’s fourth day interning for Facebook, and it’s off to a great start. Little did he know he would end up working full time for one of the biggest corporations in the world.
Jay started college in 2010. After one year, tuition became impossible and he
returned home in hopes of getting a job at the local grocery store. That’s when YearUp, a nonprofit organization, rescued him. The program helps underprivileged youth connect with real advantages, but due to the program being so small they only had 40 spots available. Jay got in. He was enrolled in certain college classes to train him in project management, technology, and business management. After six months Jay graduated in December 2011 and YearUp landed Jay with an internship—at Facebook.
“I couldn’t believe I was there,” says Jay, still looking amazed three years
later. “All the people around you are the smartest people in the world”.
And it was true. Jay looked around his desk and saw the guy on his left who
created Mozilla. To the right: the creator of Google Maps (no big deal, right?) and behind him to the right was a guy who later left to start his own company called Quip (now valued at over 100 million dollars).
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Jay works in the Information Technology department now, but he’s not your
average IT guy. He has three main “pillars” of his job. First, he supports all the Facebook executives from an IT standpoint. He broke it down in simple language: “Let’s say your computer is having problems. We’ll know about it before you, and we’ll come to you saying “Hey, let’s fix this before it becomes a bigger issue.” Jay also supports the entire Instagram team, managing demo equipment and making sure everything goes well from the IT perspective. Partnering with Burberry’s project manager, Jay set up the iPhone 5s’ slow-‐motion Instagram video for Burberry’s fashion show in September 2013. The third task that Jay does is work with the Monetization and Acquisition team. What? Basically whenever Facebook acquires a new company, he goes to the company and puts a strategy together about how IT is going to work with them. “Man, it’s hard sometimes...but the people make my job easy,” says Jay. “When you think about it, there’s no other company I can work for where the impact I have touches [over] a billion people.”
Work hard. Play hard. Facebook has this thing called the “hacker culture”: as
long as you’re getting your job done, well…have fun! There are unique perks for working in Facebook.
“Our campus is like the Disneyland corporation of America,” Jay states
matter-‐of-‐factly.
Not only do they have a free barber shop, they have cafes, a gym, a rock
climbing wall, a free arcade, a nap room, and my personal favorite: the Instagram
3 Anzai anti-‐gravity office room (really an optical illusion) designed by Nate Bolt and Jay himself.
The perks don’t stop there: they also include traveling and attending events
such as the Grammys, Oscars, and the BMA’s. And of course, we can’t forget the celebrities.
They stop by for projects, events, or out of curiosity of seeing the mysterious
Facebook behind-‐the-‐scenes. Meeting Jay Z, working with Alicia Keys’ non-‐profit, seeing Jennifer Lawrence—and realizing she is actually kind of short—and eating sushi with Miley Cyrus are things that the average person doesn’t see at their job.
Jay’s goal? He want’s to be an IT manager by the time he hits 28. He takes
night college classes and will probably attend his five-‐year high school reunion— which is next year. Let’s face it: everybody secretly wants his job. After finding out what majors a student needed to switch to (psst: computer science, electrical engineering, and/or sales), I asked him what chances someone had at working at Facebook.
“Right now it’s easier to get into Harvard than get a job with Facebook,” Jay
said. “It IS possible—but how ‘Facebooky’ are you? How well can you fit into our culture?”
Every time you get on the Internet and automatically go to Facebook, you
could actually be training for your future career. Who knows—you might soon find yourself walking among billionaires.