

Ask HN: Is it possible to get a job at Facebook without going to ivy league? - _RPM

One of my dream jobs is to work at Facebook. I didn&#x27;t go to an Ivy League school, but I&#x27;m about to have my CS degree from a public university. I am self-taught developer as well.
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Slizyboy
I went to CMU and am a software engineer at Facebook.

Out of curiosity, why do you think that having an Ivy League degree is
necessary? Is there anything we did to convey that impression, or anything we
can do to combat it preemptively?

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_RPM
Well, I just have noticed that many people have gone to Stanford or Harvard,
you know big name schools. I don't have hard data, but thanks for the comment
:)

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throwaway344
Just as a quick note, Stanford isn't an Ivy. The ivies are Brown, Columbia,
Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Penn, and Yale.

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mfdutra
I'm a drop out from a 3rd world country and I'm an engineer at Facebook. I'm
also an interviewer, an trust me guys. We really don't care where and if you
graduated. If you are good, you are in.

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_RPM
Did you create an account to answer this question?

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mfdutra
Yeah, I didn't have one, I guess. I was hoping to get notifications from this
thread, but no. :-(

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davidalves
Yes, it's possible.

Source: I went to San Jose State University and I'm a software engineer at
Facebook. :)

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akuhn
Hello. I am an engineer at Facebook. My CS degree is from a small school. Our
CS department had 5 professors and 50 graduates per year. One of our cafes on
campus is called "Living the Dream". That is the kind of people we are looking
for. We hire by talent not by school. That said, keep living your dream!

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mrcorey
I have a non-technical BS from Ithaca College, did my graduate work in social
science, and do research at Facebook. It is a wonderfully heterogeneous place.

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fbguy
I attended University of Illinois (also a public university) and dropped out,
and I'm an engineer at Facebook. :)

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damnmachine
Just like Google, I'm sure they only admit the best of the best. However, if
the skills, creativity, and out-of-box thinking that they desire are present,
it shouldn't matter where you went to school. You either have "it" or you
don't.

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27182818284
Hi!

Please, please, please, please, please, please, don't forget the opening text
from Y
Combinator:[http://ycombinator.com/ad.html](http://ycombinator.com/ad.html)

Then remember WhatsApp's founder was rejected.

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_RPM
Hi. I don't understand. I've read it, but can you please share some insight to
what that means?

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27182818284
Whenever I see a post that is like "How do I get a job at
<POPULAR_COMPANY_XYZ>" I am reminded of the fact that Google tried to sell to
Yahoo before they were Google, and that the founder of WhatsApp was turned
down by Facebook.

I just have a feeling that you aren't interested in Facebook as much as you
are in doing something interesting, which might include a new company.

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devanti
I know several engineers at Facebook. None of them went to an ivy league
school

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sangkancilguru
You can do better than work at Facebook. It is now a big company with all the
travails of Corporate Tech America, on the same levels of Ebay and Google.

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krapp
Well, the 'pro' arguments are that these companies you named probably pay
well, involve working on interesting and cutting edge technologies, and,
having one on your resume would guarantee consideration for jobs in the
future.

The cons are, what... they're not tiny startups which no one will even
remember a year after they're gone?

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SamReidHughes
Facebook hires a number of Stanford people and that's not an Ivy League
school.

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flylib
Stanford has a better CS program then any Ivy League school so that's not a
surprise

