Thursday, August 26, 2010

My Facebook Internship Saga

Without any experience in the professional world, without ever having stayed at another country, but with knowledge that instigates any undergraduate computer science, I got this extraordinary opportunity to work at one of the biggest web giants of the Silicon Valley, Facebook. Being an ardent user of this addictive site, I always wondered how things worked behind the scenes: how did they build stuff, monitor statistics and dealt with the herculean challenge of handling humongous amounts of data. Getting this matchless prospect to work in the heart of the internet was akin to a dream come true.

Wadding up my stuff in early May, I had no idea about what to look forward to. It was only during my first week at Facebook that I realized the extravagant bonanza in store for me. At Facebook, I was given complete freedom to decide what project I wanted to work on for the major part of my internship and shape it the way I wanted. Brainstorming with other engineers about cool features we could enhance the site with were part of the diurnal conversations. And the impact I was making was astounding. My tasks within the first few weeks itself involved deploying some functionality on the live site, impacting the experiences of more than 500 million users globally. Not before joining this splendid place had I envisaged such an impact as possible, specially when I hardly had any prior web development knowledge. Virtually all the languages and tools I was playing with were novel to me, I hadn't even heard about a number of them before but comprehending them was made so much easier with the abet and encouragement of all the engineers around. Adhering to Facebook's motto of 'Move Fast, Break Things', during my 3 months of internship, I enhanced my web development skills colossally and learned innumerable intricacies of social networking!



A major contribution to my remarkable experience was made by the people I was working with. At Facebook, you get to work with the smartest people on earth. Everyone around is an ace in their work and extremely enthusiastic about whatever they are building. The energy in the company is just amazing! I remember listening to the VP of engineering for Facebook during the Grace Hopper Conference 2009 in Arizona. He said, the best thing about your job should be to love what you do. It was during this summer that I realized how true this is. Nowhere else in this world do you get to sit and work with the best coders on earth, have meals with the veterans in the company, play high school sports with your managers or have barbecue at the CEO's house. Facebook is truly amazing.

I had oodles of fun meeting with people from all over the world and participating in intern events like Scavenger hunt, Go Game or Beach Boardwalks. Taking a shot at all those things I ever wanted to do was incredible. Rafting, Skydiving, acquainting my taste buds with every existent cuisine on earth, Facebook Summer Party celebrations and a 3 day long Hackathon provided the icing on the cake. I have clearly had my best summer ever. Having such a great time with a limitless personal and professional enrichment all the time, I can say no less than, Facebook is awesome! And now that I am back, I am much more energetic, revived and excited to be learning so much more. With so much freedom, independence, awesome mentors, smartest co workers, impact, web presence and unlimited fun, I am absolutely sure I couldn't have asked for a better start to my professional journey! :)