Meta

Facebook is a good company to work for. They pay well and have great perks. At the beginning, life is good.

Facebook rewards ambition.

The appeal quickly wears off. Your experience at Facebook highly depends on the team you join.

Facebook does not have the best people managers. If you join a team with a good manager who knows the system, you will be more likely to have a productive, prosperous time at Facebook. If you join a team with a bad manager, your work-life balance will be horrible. You will feel extreme pressure with the performance cycle review every six months. Worse yet, you may even blame yourself for what's happening, not realizing the role your manager plays until it is too late.

Facebook is a good company for new college graduates. Even with a bad experience, you can learn so much about practical, applied technology here. For those with several years of experience, or with family commitments, be careful. Come into Facebook with a clear sense of what you need from Facebook that you cannot get anywhere else. Be prepared to leave when that is delayed, or not a possibility, or comes at a cost to your family or external commitments.

For most people, Facebook is not a company that you join and happily work at for the rest of your life. Facebook is a temporary stop that will squeeze as much productivity out of you as it can. When that stops, it forces you out or makes you want to leave.