

Facebook's Method for Hiring Designers - zt
http://firstround.com/article/An-Inside-Look-at-Facebooks-Method-for-Hiring-Designers

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feverishaaron
Facebook is missing something here that's key. There are a lot of "yet to be
great" designers out there who aren't working to their full potential due to
their employment circumstances.

I've found absolutely fantastic designers who are struggling through go-
nowhere jobs in the depths of enterprise companies that don't care about
design, design agencies that are structured like puppy mills, and the like.
When finally given the opportunity to build their vision, they excel.

The designers who have "designed apps you admire" are just the obvious, low-
hanging fruit.

~~~
spader725
This is exactly how i feel right now. I am, by unfortunate circumstances, the
only designer in one of the offices of an enterprise company being ran by dev-
minded people. I know my weaknesses and strengths, but I need a design-
influenced team and company for me to better than what I'm outputting right
now.

If I were to look for a job now with a portfolio of the products I've worked
on at the company over the last year, it would definitely be an uphill battle.

~~~
notduncansmith
You're not the only one. I wouldn't categorize my current place of employment
as "enterprise", but it sucks not being able to design to your full potential.
It's an agency, so you can't give the client the best you can do unless
they're willing & able to pay for that (and many aren't).

I'd recommend doing as many side projects as you can. I know it can be hard to
find the time (I have a one year old son so I'm familiar with the struggle)
but if you can put something together over a few nights/weekends, and really
design the hell out of it, it'll make stomaching your day-job constraints much
easier. Just remember the Sex and Cash theory:
[http://gapingvoid.com/?s=sex+and+cash+theory](http://gapingvoid.com/?s=sex+and+cash+theory)
What you do at work is strictly to pay the bills. If you happen to enjoy it
sometimes, great; but remember that what really matters is what happens
outside of that.

Another example: I used to flip burgers, but I enjoy cooking at home. I wasn't
ashamed of the nasty food I pumped out of that fast-food kitchen, because I
knew it wasn't a representation of my cooking abilities, it was just what I
did to pay the bills. Apply the same thinking to your situation.

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thinkbohemian
From firsthand experience I would have thought their designer hiring strategy
would have read something like this:

Buy a company of 30, fire most of them and use the severance pay as leverage
to force the designers into staying with Facebook. Wait a year or so until all
those designers you strong armed into joining your company quit, then repeat.

~~~
finkin1
Has anyone actually figured out what the retention rate is for FB acqui-hired
employees? I'd be interested to know how many people hang around after their
shares vest.

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coldcode
Every time I use FB I swear at whoever designed the damn sort. Either it picks
some useless articles to show you as "Top Stories" or it sorts the articles by
the latest comment date. Plus it keeps switching on its own back to "top
stories." Maybe it's not designers but whoever made that design decision
pisses off everyone I know. Designing for users and designing to enhance
income is not usually the same.

~~~
untog
_that design decision pisses off everyone I know_

I bet you it doesn't. All the tech-inclined developers you talk to about how
terrible it is, maybe. But your siblings, parents, non-tech friends? No.

Facebook are not stupid. The feed is ordered very deliberately and they
carefully monitor what gets the most clicks. It's just that you (and I) are
outside of the majority here.

~~~
dragonwriter
Most of the non-technical users I interact with feel the same way about the
feed as the upthread complaint. I do think the feed is ordered very
deliberately based on Facebook's data, but not around pleasing users, instead
around assuring the marginal value of spending money for reach so that more
people will do that. That's why "get stories sorted by our in-house secret-
sauce algorithm" keeps getting pushed forward while "most recent" keeps
getting made less useful and harder to get to (to the point where it is no
longer _possible_ to have it the default feed display on the Android app.)

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mqsiuser
Basically Marc created a super successful company

And now there are a lot people profiting from that

I don't say that she might not be a great designer or that her contribution
isn't awesome or that the job is easy. I am just saying, that some people are
fortunate and manage it onto successful projects that others created and
became wealthy and important too

