職場雙語:破解Facebook招聘文化

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.

Facebook不同於谷歌（Google），這一點對希望進入Facebook工作的工程師們來說是一大福音。Facebook無需應聘者擁有斯坦福大學（Stanford）或卡內基梅隆大學（Carnegie Mellon）的計算機科學學位；或者擁有博士學位以及近乎完美的平均分；或許連學術能力評估考試（SAT）成績單的複印件也不需要。畢竟，Facebook是由大學中途輟學、熱衷黑客精神的學生、而不是致力於研究海量網頁相關性等看似複雜難題的博士生們創辦的。

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

壞消息是：不需要上述各種資歷證明，並不是說就可以輕鬆獲得Facebook的工程師職位。

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.

隨着Facebook的不斷髮展，馬克•扎克伯格不再擔任編碼工作，轉而擔任公司的管理工作，這就需要源源不斷地招聘工程師。應聘者不僅要精通程序設計，而且要接受Facebook尊崇的黑客精神。許多人成功地通過了Facebook繁複的招聘流程，而其招聘對象並不僅僅侷限於那些知名學府。Facebook技術總監喬斯林•戈德費恩稱：“相對於斯坦福大學排第30名的學生，我們寧願選擇德克薩斯大學（U.T.）或中佛羅里達大學（University of Central Florida）的頭名畢業生。”招聘人員無法前往的大學，Facebook設計了編程難題，學生們可以嘗試給出解決方案，從而得到Facebook的關注。

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."

接下來，有幸通過首輪篩選的學生需要做好充分的準備，展現自己的黑客才能：第一次面試將會涉及到編碼，而不是20世紀90年代由微軟公司（Microsoft）首先使用的智力測試題。戈德費恩稱：“編碼測試會讓應聘者的實際能力展露無遺，因此，對我們重點考察的候選者來說，這是第一個立竿見影的測驗。”

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.

通過編碼測試的應聘者將受邀到Facebook公司，參加四輪緊湊的結構化面試。毫無疑問，應聘者將接受更多的編碼測試。戈德費恩稱，其中的兩場面試是純粹的編程測試。另外兩次面試則主要針對應聘者的實際能力：“解決棘手的問題”和“技術問題”。面試官將至少利用其中的一次面試，從“行爲學”角度判斷應聘者解決、分析問題和尋求幫助的能力。

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.

目前，谷歌CEO拉里•佩奇仍會審覈每一份《入職通知書》；與谷歌公司不同，扎克伯格通常不會參與《入職通知書》的審覈事宜。但是，有關面試的詳細報告將會提交至（由Facebook頂級技術專家組成的）招聘評審委員會。戈德費恩表示，“應聘者被淘汰的原因大多是因爲他們的技術水平不過關。”

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.

但是，有一個方法可以讓你繞開整個招聘流程：那就是成立一家初創公司，並用產品和發展速度來吸引扎克伯格或其他高管的注意，當然黑客精神也依然必不可少。近年來，Facebook收購了28家以上的公司，主要原因便是覬覦它們的工程師資源。多數情況下，Facebook會放棄這些初創公司的產品。硅谷給這種傳統併購的變異體命名爲：員工收購（acq-hire）或人才收購。

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 , 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."

雖然這種代價高昂的招聘活動並不是Facebook的首創，但是它在Facebook的制度化程度無人能出其右。而且，在有些人才收購中，被收購企業的員工最終發展成爲扎克伯格最得力的副手。事實上，在扎克伯格五位負責關鍵產品領域的直接下屬中，有兩位便是在各自企業被收購時加盟Facebook：前谷歌員工、社交聚合網站FriendFeed聯合創始人布萊特•泰勒，以及扎克伯格就讀哈佛大學時的哥們、文件共享服務提供商創始人薩姆•列森。扎克伯格在2010年的一次採訪中表示，發掘熱衷黑客精神的企業家型人才，這種招聘方法絕對物超所值。他說：“如果一個人能在自己的職位上實現卓越，跟那些表現出色的人相比，他們的優勢可不止一點點，甚至可以說是天壤之別。”