破解Facebook招聘文化

    Facebook不同于谷歌（Google），这一点对希望进入Facebook工作的工程师们来说是一大福音。Facebook无需应聘者拥有斯坦福大学（Stanford）或卡内基梅隆大学（Carnegie Mellon）的计算机科学学位；或者拥有博士学位以及近乎完美的平均分；或许连学术能力评估考试（SAT）成绩单的复印件也不需要。毕竟，Facebook是由大学中途辍学、热衷黑客精神的学生、而不是致力于研究海量网页相关性等看似复杂难题的博士生们创办的。

    坏消息是：不需要上述各种资历证明，并不是说就可以轻松获得Facebook的工程师职位。

    随着Facebook的不断发展，马克•扎克伯格不再担任编码工作，转而担任公司的管理工作，这就需要源源不断地招聘工程师。应聘者不仅要精通程序设计，而且要接受Facebook尊崇的黑客精神。许多人成功地通过了Facebook繁复的招聘流程，而其招聘对象并不仅仅局限于那些知名学府。Facebook技术总监乔斯林•戈德费恩称：“相对于斯坦福大学排第30名的学生，我们宁愿选择德克萨斯大学（U.T.）或中佛罗里达大学（University of Central Florida）的头名毕业生。”招聘人员无法前往的大学，Facebook设计了编程难题，学生们可以尝试给出解决方案，从而得到Facebook的关注。

    接下来，有幸通过首轮筛选的学生需要做好充分的准备，展现自己的黑客才能：第一次面试将会涉及到编码，而不是20世纪90年代由微软公司（Microsoft）首先使用的智力测试题。戈德费恩称：“编码测试会让应聘者的实际能力展露无遗，因此，对我们重点考察的候选者来说，这是第一个立竿见影的测验。”

    通过编码测试的应聘者将受邀到Facebook公司，参加四轮紧凑的结构化面试。毫无疑问，应聘者将接受更多的编码测试。戈德费恩称，其中的两场面试是纯粹的编程测试。另外两次面试则主要针对应聘者的实际能力：“解决棘手的问题”和“技术问题”。面试官将至少利用其中的一次面试，从“行为学”角度判断应聘者解决、分析问题和寻求帮助的能力。

    目前，谷歌CEO拉里•佩奇仍会审核每一份《入职通知书》；与谷歌公司不同，扎克伯格通常不会参与《入职通知书》的审核事宜。但是，有关面试的详细报告将会提交至（由Facebook顶级技术专家组成的）招聘评审委员会。戈德费恩表示，“应聘者被淘汰的原因大多是因为他们的技术水平不过关。”

    但是，有一个方法可以让你绕开整个招聘流程：那就是成立一家初创公司，并用产品和发展速度来吸引扎克伯格或其他高管的注意，当然黑客精神也依然必不可少。近年来，Facebook收购了28家以上的公司，主要原因便是觊觎它们的工程师资源。多数情况下，Facebook会放弃这些初创公司的产品。硅谷给这种传统并购的变异体命名为：员工收购（acq-hire）或人才收购。

    虽然这种代价高昂的招聘活动并不是Facebook的首创，但是它在Facebook的制度化程度无人能出其右。而且，在有些人才收购中，被收购企业的员工最终发展成为扎克伯格最得力的副手。事实上，在扎克伯格五位负责关键产品领域的直接下属中，有两位便是在各自企业被收购时加盟Facebook：前谷歌员工、社交聚合网站FriendFeed联合创始人布莱特•泰勒，以及扎克伯格就读哈佛大学时的哥们、文件共享服务提供商Drop.io创始人萨姆•列森。扎克伯格在2010年的一次采访中表示，发掘热衷黑客精神的企业家型人才，这种招聘方法绝对物超所值。他说：“如果一个人能在自己的职位上实现卓越，跟那些表现出色的人相比，他们的优势可不止一点点，甚至可以说是天壤之别。”

    译者：乔树静/汪皓

    For engineers hoping to land a job at Facebook, here's the good news: Facebook is not Google. You don't need a computer science degree from Stanford or Carnegie Mellon. You don't need a Ph.D. You don't need a quasi-perfect GPA, and you may not have to chase copies of your SAT transcript. After all, Facebook was started by a college dropout with a passion for hacking, not by a pair of doctoral students working on the seemingly intractable problem of finding relevance in a sea of Web pages.

    Now here is the bad news: none of that means joining Facebook's engineering ranks is easy.

    As the company has grown, and Mark Zuckerberg has moved from coder to curator, he has needed a never-ending supply of engineers who are not only smart programmers but also embrace Facebook's hacker ethos. Many have come through the company's vast recruiting operation, which has reached well beyond the top schools. "I'd rather have the top student out of U.T. or University of Central Florida than the 30th best from Stanford," says Jocelyn Goldfein, an engineering director. To reach students in schools where it cannot send interviewers, Facebook has set up online programming puzzles that students can try to solve in hopes of getting noticed.

    Those lucky enough to make the first cut should be prepared to show their hacker chops: the first interview will involve coding, not brainteasers first popularized by Microsoft (MSFT) in the 1990s. "There's no hand-waving your way through a coding interview," Goldfein says. "So it's just sort of a great first litmus test that we're dealing with someone serious."

    Those who pass that test will get invited to Facebook proper for a series of four tightly scripted interviews where, no surprise, more coding will be expected. Indeed, two of the interviews are purely programming exercises, says Goldfein. The other two will depend on the expertise of a candidate, but they will involve "solving hard problems" and "engaging on a technical level," she says. In at least one of the interviews, Facebook will be taking a "behavioral" look at how candidates tackle a problem, how they break it down, how they ask for help.

    Unlike Google (GOOG), where CEO Larry Page still reviews every offer, Zuckerberg is not typically involved in approving most hires. But detailed reports from the interviews go up to a hiring review committee of Facebook's top technologists. "The most common reason for us to pass on a candidate is that they just are not up to the technical bar," Goldfein says.

    There is, however, a way to bypass this whole process: start a company that gets noticed by Zuck or his top managers for its product, its speed and, of course, its own hacker ethos. Over the years, Facebook has acquired more than 28 companies largely for their engineers. In most cases, it killed the startups' products. Silicon Valley has a name for this peculiar twist on the traditional M&A: the acq-hire, or talent acquisition.

    While Facebook didn't invent this costly recruiting practice, it has institutionalized it more than any other company. And some of its talent acquisitions have produced hires that became Zuckerberg's closest deputies. Indeed, two of Zuckerberg's five direct reports who oversee key product areas joined Facebook when their companies were acquired: Bret Taylor, a Google veteran and co-founder of the social aggregator FriendFeed, and Sam Lessin, a buddy of Zuckerber's from the Harvard days who founded Drop.io, a file-sharing service. In a 2010 interview, Zuckerberg said this approach to recruiting top entrepreneurial -- read hacker-friendly -- talent was well worth the price."Someone who is exceptional in their role is not just a little better than someone who is pretty good," he said. "They are 100 times better."