{"id":10070,"date":"2020-12-07T08:51:45","date_gmt":"2020-12-07T16:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.codingdojo.com\/blog\/?p=10070"},"modified":"2023-03-09T07:54:25","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T15:54:25","slug":"how-to-become-a-coder-at-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.codingdojo.com\/blog\/how-to-become-a-coder-at-facebook","title":{"rendered":"How to Become a Coder at Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ask a programmer in the world where they\u2019d like to work, and nine times out of ten they\u2019ll probably say they’d like to become a coder at Facebook. It\u2019s one of the most famous brands on the planet and anybody would bite off their own arm to get to work for them.<\/span>
\nBut what does it take? And, more importantly, what are they looking for? Let\u2019s look at what you need to know before you start applying and see how to get a software development job at Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n

Get to Grips With Facebook\u2019s history<\/span><\/h2>\n

It all began in 2004 at Harvard College. Mark Zuckerberg originally created it for students and within about a month, half the students at Harvard had signed up. Later that year, they expanded to other universities until, in 2006, they opened up to everybody.<\/span>
\nSince then, it now has fingers in a huge number of pies, like video gaming, instant messaging and virtual reality. And it\u2019s one of the biggest companies in the world, earning around $70 billion in 2019 with about 50,000 employees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most Jobs are in North America<\/span><\/h2>\n

In November 2020, Facebook was only advertising for 1,855 jobs across their whole business on their own website. Only 192 of those were for software engineering. So it\u2019s evidently a tough company to break into, with very few open positions. Perhaps that\u2019s just the time of year we searched, but it definitely seems sparse compared with the 84,000 software development jobs that are on Indeed right now.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nThe majority of Facebook\u2019s software engineering jobs are in North America, while Europe seems to be their second-most common place to hire. Not surprising.<\/span><\/p>\n

California is the Place to Go<\/span><\/h2>\n

Unsurprisingly, Menlo Park takes the top spot, with Seattle and New York close behind. But London does manage to break into the top five at fourth place, with a respectable number of jobs considering how many are available.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\nIt would seem that if you want to work for Facebook, you either need to live in the United States, London or Tel Aviv. All of which are tech hotspots, so if you don\u2019t manage to land a role at Facebook straight away, at least you\u2019ll have other options.<\/span><\/p>\n

There aren\u2019t many remote jobs<\/span><\/h2>\n

On their website, there are only a few remote positions available. At least, they\u2019re not explicitly remote. But that might change in the near future. Since the pandemic, Facebook has been allowing people to work from home and it seems that they\u2019re expecting the trend to continue. In fact, they might have half their workforce working from home in the future.<\/span>
\n\u201cWe\u2019re going to be the most forward-leaning company on remote work at our scale,\u201d Zuckerberg said in an interview with the Verge. \u201cWe need to do this in a way that\u2019s thoughtful and responsible, so we\u2019re going to do this in a measured way. But I think that it\u2019s possible that over the next five to 10 years \u2013 maybe closer to 10 than five, but somewhere in that range \u2013 I think we could get to about half of the company working remotely permanently.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>
\nThat\u2019s an impressive and ambitious goal. But it could completely change how you break into the tech giant, since you won\u2019t be so confined. However, it\u2019s worth noting that their FAQ mentions that you\u2019ll need to live in a nearby state, even if it\u2019s remote. (This could be for legal reasons or because they want you to be able to come into the office occasionally.) If you want to learn more, <\/span>have a read of their FAQ<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Check often, as things could change<\/span><\/h2>\n

At times, we\u2019ve seen cities like Tel Aviv and Singapore get a sudden surge of new positions. Saying that, the ratios do seem to match with their largest offices, so we think it\u2019s a useful gauge.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the big trends Facebook is looking at?<\/span><\/h2>\n

While browsing through their job descriptions and career page<\/a>, we spotted some key trends that kept jumping out at us, like the need to understand Android and iOS operating systems. It\u2019s worth making sure you\u2019re up to date and understand all the trends. You never know, you might be the one who makes the next breakthrough. Here are a few we spotted regularly.<\/span><\/p>\n

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence<\/span><\/h3>\n

Facebook is one of the companies doing a ton of research on artificial intelligence. So it\u2019s worth making sure you understand the difference between Artificial Narrow Intelligence \u2013 where a computer is good at a specific task \u2013 and Artificial General Intelligence \u2013 which is the aim to get a computer to think through problems at a human level.<\/span><\/p>\n

Natural Language Processing<\/span><\/h3>\n

This is where you use code to analyze a sentence and figure out what was actually said. It\u2019s a tricky area of programming as human language is full of oddities, like sarcasm. Figuring out what someone means, around all the subtext and non-verbal cues, is quite the challenge. You\u2019ll see this talked about in a variety of ways: NLP, conversational AI, dialogue systems. They all tie into natural language processing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Virtual and Augmented Reality<\/span><\/h3>\n

You likely already know that Facebook owns Oculus and is investing heavily in virtual reality. But you might not know about augmented reality. It\u2019s similar, but rather than completely immersing yourself in the virtual world, you overlay it over the real one.<\/span>
\nThe technology is very similar, though the trick is making sure it fits in with the real world in a natural way. As the world becomes evermore connected, it\u2019s extremely likely we\u2019ll see more and more augmented reality systems coming out, especially from a company so heavily invested in mobile software.<\/span><\/p>\n

What Skills Do You Need to Become a Coder at Facebook?<\/span><\/h2>\n

Looking through their job descriptions, we\u2019ve seen a few consistent languages showing up time and time again:<\/span><\/p>\n