The new way to land a job at Facebook

it's either evidence they're passionate or they're forced to work long hours. given the context i'm assuming the former. which is certainly a good thing...

I'm going to apologize in advance if any of this seems too stern or rude.

You seriously don't have the correct mindset about this. You are thinking in a way that a lot of other people share, but it's not practical. In the real world you have to learn new technologies and languages consistently. Every day something new comes out or gets improved that makes doing a difficult task easier, and people/companies that can adapt and not be left behind do well.

If I were in your position (which I guess I kind of am, I'm also college-age but I've spent just under half my life doing some level of professional programming) I would be learning EVERYTHING I can or at least everything mainstream I can so that if I come by a cool piece of code online or at work I can tell exactly what it does.

It's true that PHP isn't as a strictly written language as some of the other languages (by this I don't mean syntax, I mean that doing two analogous operations have completely different names/attribute orders in the standard library) but it's still used by tons and tons of people. PHP isn't dying. I hate the term "dying language" because there's always something else out there that's good for that each specific language.

I'm assuming that Flash is also "dying" in your POV but just today I had to whip up a quick SWF to allow copying something to a user's clipboard because it was the simplest and quickest way to allow one-click clipboard access that I could think of and I have spent time learning Flash/AS in the past so I had that knowledge.

Now, when you say:

  it seems like it might be a waste to spend time at Facebook using PHP if the rest of the tech and start-up world has moved on

I have no idea what you mean. Do you mean that Facebook not restructuring their entire codebase to a cooler and more popular language is a waste of Facebook engineers time? Or do you mean that you learning PHP to work at Facebook would be a waste of your time? I don't understand how either of these two statement could be argued so if you meant something else I'd love a clarification.

There is absolutely nothing that Facebook can not do with PHP that they could do with Python or Ruby. Any business logic can be written in a myriad of ways. And I believe to be a strong candidate for a "wow" employee after you graduate you should be able to drop head first into any codebase and at the very least quickly get a simple grasp of what's going on.

If Facebook gave you an internship today would you reject it because you've heard bad things about PHP?

Sorry about the rant, but I've spent a lot of time working to hire other developers and it really irks me when I hear something like "oh so and so's a dying language, it's useless to learn it" because it shows that you don't have the drive and love of technology that my ideal person would.

If PHP is putting you off considering working at Facebook, then it may be useful to know that there are many developers who hardly ever touch PHP at Facebook.

Most back-end services (ie, the systems that build your feed, or detect spam) are in C++. Java is used in some back-end services (including, for example, in Hadoop, Hive, HBase, and the messaging product) and for the Android app. Objective C is used for the Facebook app, Messenger, Camera, and so forth on iOS. Python is used primarily in the automation and operations space. You will also find a bunch of Ruby, Haskell, Scala, and so forth around.

I am not generally a fan of PHP and much of the ecosystem around it, but using it at Facebook is very different. I also would not say that time spent learning and using PHP is time wasted - the important things to learn typically transcend language, and learning anti-patterns / deficiencies is useful too. That is also why Facebook does not expect any particular language knowledge before you start/when you interview.

"Passionate" does not necessarily mean you work long hours "like animals". Obsessive usually does.

Working pass the normal cut-off is a lose-lose proposition for anyone that puts in honest levels of work during the day. You burn yourself out, diminish your capacity, make mistakes, and most of the time don't even realize it. This can go on for years, sometimes even decades.

Most of the referenced-here "passionate" behavior is probably a combination of unhealthy focus (the obsessive type or the type you use to forget about your issues), self-image, having-to-prove-something, and outside-pressure (expectations for you, matching your co-workers, etc).

The better option is to work intelligently and maintain a healthy amount of self-awareness at all times. Then leave it, shut-off, or go enjoy something that matters.

You'll produce 200% the results of your "passionate" co-workers.

One shall find happiness at all costs, anywhere it can be found.

But, I wish for brilliant, hardworking people a better endeavor than a CRUD Web site.