Q: What are you doing?
A: Working for the world’s largest social media network.
Q: Where are you living?
A: San Francisco, CA.
Q: Why are you working at Facebook?
A: I’m working at Facebook because I interned there during my senior year and decided to go back. It was a fun summer working on interesting support projects. I really liked the team I was on and took the opportunity to move across the country to a new city with all sorts of new and exciting opportunities.
Q: How did you snag the internship?
A: An alum who works at Facebook emailed the Misc staff about internships and I applied on the website, then interviewed a few weeks later.
Q: Were there any resources at Vassar that prepared you for the application/interview process?
A: I feel like doing your best during interviews for any kind of job comes from knowing yourself and your experience, not from any particular tips and tricks. Being confident in yourself and your work can really shine in the interviewing process and I really think just being at Vassar and doing what I enjoyed helped develop that confidence.
Q: What city were you working in? What sorts of projects were you working on?
A: I worked at Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, CA and on a team called Content Operations, which handles support experiences and support content on Facebook’s family of applications. In general we create content and launch projects that help people better use Facebook’s products and features, as well as receive help when they need it.
Q: Can you just describe roughly what adjustments you had to make after you started working there?
A: I’d say the biggest change is scheduling. At Vassar you can get away with a lot on short notice. Last minute essays, extensions from professors and pretty flexible hours except for the few hours a week you’re in class. Even working at a fairly laid-back company like Facebook, a lot of planning has to go into what you prepare, propose and write about to be successful in your work.
Q: Is there anything you’ve done so far in your time there that you’re proud of/feel is worth noting?
A: I’m 1/120th of the way through my student loans, so I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.
Q: Is your favorite day of the week the same now as it was in undergrad, or did it change and why?
A: I still like the weekend, but appreciate it even more now that I have to work 40+ hours a week like a normal person.
Q: What’s your favorite San Francisco eatery?
A: There’s this little spot called the Taraval Cafe about ten minutes from my apartment that has an awesome $6 breakfast which is a crazy deal for SF.
Q: Have you experienced an earthquake yet?
A: No (fingers crossed), but watch me have one between now and Thursday when you publish.
Q: How’re your calves holding up with all those hills?
A: Not well. I didn’t like hills before moving to SF. Still don’t like them.
Q: Seven Deadly Sins is coming up. Did you ever attend/have any memories of it that you’re particularly fond of?
A: The power went out and the snacks ran out, so a group of us went to the World Famous Late Night at the Deece instead. Though I do feel bad for all the hard work that Joss put into the event, only to have something like that happen at the last minute. (The power went out a lot in 2014. Vassar should pay its bills.)
Q: Describe Late Night at the Deece for the sad souls here who haven’t experienced it.
A: Vassar never had good late night options (thanks, Aramark) but one semester they tried turning the Deece at night into a hoppin’ place for hot food and moved UpC downstairs, served party food that you could get for meal swipes and it was pretty good. Then they moved it to the retreat and made it cost dining bucks. RIP.