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

7 points by _RPM ↗ HN
One of my dream jobs is to work at Facebook. I didn't go to an Ivy League school, but I'm about to have my CS degree from a public university. I am self-taught developer as well.

20 comments

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SamReidHughes
Facebook hires a number of Stanford people and that's not an Ivy League school.
flylib
Stanford has a better CS program then any Ivy League school so that's not a surprise
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.
davidalves
Yes, it's possible.

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

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?

_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 :)
throwaway344
Just as a quick note, Stanford isn't an Ivy. The ivies are Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Penn, and Yale.
samfisher83
CMU is one of the best schools for CS so...
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!
fbguy
I attended University of Illinois (also a public university) and dropped out, and I'm an engineer at Facebook. :)
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.
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.
_RPM
Did you create an account to answer this question?
mfdutra
Yeah, I didn't have one, I guess. I was hoping to get notifications from this thread, but no. :-(
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.
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?

devanti
I know several engineers at Facebook. None of them went to an ivy league school
27182818284
Hi!

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

Then remember WhatsApp's founder was rejected.

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