What I Hate About Working At Facebook • Hacker News Board

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#31

Post by natrius » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 2:54 AM UTC

rblion wrote: post #14

"There is a fully-working hot tub in the New York office that interviews are conducted in. I didn’t believe this until I saw the photos on Twitter. It was billed to me as a way to test candidates’ resilience under pressure. I was told that it’s used rarely, and only on exceptionally good candidates as a way to probe the extent of their mettle. This is about the least professional thing that I have ever heard of, and…

That probably does violate laws in several states.

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#32

Post by meanJim » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 2:55 AM UTC

Yeah if it weren't for #5 I would've thought you were completely out of your mind.

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#33

Post by coenhyde » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 2:56 AM UTC

I actually agree with #1. Code is the enemy of all codebases. Though i'm not arguing against the company culture that produces such productivity. It's just more a case of "with great power comes great responsibility".

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#34

Post by blantonl » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 2:57 AM UTC

Jeeze.. Facebook has taken it on the chin since it's IPO. It is great to see an insider's positive perspective from a satirical perspective.

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#35

Post by stephenlambe » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 2:59 AM UTC

turns out Su actually got the Seattle office a (waterless) hot tub http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleys...

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#36

Post by jamesvl » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 3:00 AM UTC

Satire is well and good, but i can't grok #9. Interviews in a hot tub? So... even for the women? Or is it used preferentially for high pressure engineers only (whom of course are all men)?

It may be just me, but I can't see the HR department in any state being okay with that. And if it's not for interviews... what's it for?

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#37

Post by Empro » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 3:02 AM UTC

Absolutely hilarious.

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#38

Post by emmelaich » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 3:04 AM UTC

I'd pretty much assumed that it was tongue in cheek from the title. I'm completely baffled as to how anyone can read more than a few lines without realising it's not serious.

Is there something wrong with me or everyone else?!

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#39

Post by jganetsk » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 3:05 AM UTC

the_cat_kittles wrote: post #21

Wouldn't this be better as "10 things I love about working at Facebook"? Why not just drop the "hilarious" satire angle and say what is awesome directly. I hope I don't sound like the death of fun... It sounds a little smug as it is now.

I agree, and he's slyly discouraging serious debate of his points since Facebook is so "cool". Software actually does need to be discussed. Leadership is critical in any structure of any size. The thought that every brogrammer is making decisions makes me think that he's either overstating this fact (every programmer in the world makes some decisions everyday), or that Facebook is chaotic. The rate of source code commits is fairly meaningless: with 1 shitty rushed commit, you might have to check in another 4 to fix it up. So, with 5 commits in, are you 5x more productive? Hackathons are a great way of interfering with life outside the office. There are other (possibly better) ways to give people a chance to crank out good work on side projects. Like a sabbatical where you spend a few weeks working on something you think is important. The hot tub thing makes me think Facebook is a testosterone-heavy environment.

Maybe I'm just uncool and took his flame-bait. Facebook does sound like a great place to work. But these kinds of puff pieces have a naivete that makes Facebook look like a frat house with a dark side that is not actually discussed.

Re: What I Hate About Working At Facebook

#40

Post by coopdog » Wed, Aug 15, 2012, 3:07 AM UTC

jamesvl wrote: post #36

Satire is well and good, but i can't grok #9. Interviews in a hot tub? So... even for the women? Or is it used preferentially for high pressure engineers only (whom of course are all men)? It may be just me, but I can't see the HR department in any state being okay with that. And if it's not for interviews... what's it for?

They say they only use it for high calibre candidates, who presumably already have the job our could otherwise just tell then to stop being silly