Life at Facebook, 3 weeks at a startup

“The Whatbook� my mom replied as I told her I am leaving Intel to go to a startup based in Palo Alto. This was the common reaction I got from most co-workers and relatives who have never heard of the www.facebook.com. To all my college buddies they were totally psyched and pumped that I would be working for one of the coolest websites today. Personally, I had found my dream job. I love the college market, technology and fun times which the site was handling all 3.

A little background on the site is that it is an online social directory for college and high-school students. We have nearly 5.5 million users and around 93% of the users come back at least once a month. That is totally nuts. It is a social directory where college students across the nation can connect with new and old friends. You can list your classes, post photos, create parties and spend hours browsing friend’s profiles.

So far I have been there for a little over 2 weeks and wanted to write how life there compares to Intel. The startup life is definitely for me. I get to try a lot of different roles and have a lot more impact on what will happen in the company. My official title is product manager so I am lucky enough to make the new features come out on the site. For example, tonight we added photo comment notification tonight that posts on your wall. Yea, Facebook speak.

It is extremely fun to work with super bright people who have much better ideas than me. I get to talk with people who have similar interests and care about the Riya launch. Working 10-12 hour days seems like nothing and I could definitely stay there much longer if I didn’t have to shower. Actually I hardly shower and we have a shower in the building�. I think the idea of looking forward to work everyday and missing it when I go home is a nice thought and more people should feel that at their companies.

The site has so much potential and I feel blessed for the opportunity to make it kick ass. If you have any suggestions or just like the Facebook feel free to email me anytime.