1 Anzai
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).