Pros: I have worked at the company for six months, but I like how the company works and operates. One of its policies is openness - this includes the famous weekly Q&As. Senior management tries to explain the background behind decisions, so you know why one thing or another had to be done. In general, everything focuses on making a product that would be better for customers. There have been a number of mistakes made from a privacy perspective, but there is a trend to improve this. This is a very good approach - instead of hiding mistakes, the company focuses on fixing them. After getting an offer, I was not sure about joining the company because of its reputation, but being inside, I figured out most of this is an exaggeration to create hype in the news. Work style is very flexible - you want to deliver new things, to make an impact, but from another perspective, it is not demanding, and it is far from a sweat factory like some other companies. It leaves time to learn something; you can attend many meetings remotely. Work-life balance is very good - it is difficult to improve it without affecting the work (someone should do the work, right?). There are a lot of young people around (ex-students, but usually with great knowledge), but there are also a number of experienced people - so aging doesn't seem to be a problem at FB.

Cons: Work style is open space. Many new buildings are awesome, while a number of old buildings are depressing, with dimmed lighting and gray ceilings. Some buildings have a quiet policy, but for others, it is not so good. I'd recommend remodeling old buildings (hack, paint the ceiling white so it will reflect the light, install better lighting, work with designers!), splitting large rooms into smaller, team-sized rooms, and adding more VC rooms so people could more easily get on conference calls without disturbing others. Another minus is the hyper-concentrated campus in Menlo Park. It is difficult to find good, reasonably priced rent in that area. It works well for young people, but for families with kids, there are a lot of other factors to be taken into account, so the Menlo Park area just doesn't work.

Pros: - large range of technical problems, working alongside motivated people (often industry leaders) - people management is taken seriously; it’s a separate career track, generally done by those with aptitude and care for others - growth-oriented culture; you’re always pushed to tackle something that challenges you - switching teams is low-barrier; hack-a-month concept allows for a two-way tryout (team/you)

Cons: - Constant negative press associated with the company. - Mandatory promotion to E5 with a “you’ll be fired after 36 months if you’re not on track to get promoted” policy. - Data-oriented to a fault, at times. Everything has to be proven to others; experience and believability weighting is lacking. - Tricky to achieve work-life balance since expectations are high and the pace is fast.

Pros: - Many projects in many very different specialties. - Very good engineering level. - Fast moving, changing, adapting.

Cons: Open space setup for all. It's loud, sometimes overpacked (it's better now). I've never been as unproductive. Changes are sometimes hard to track. Your project might be "reformulated" along the way. Very young. The least "social" of the places I've ever worked at.