At this point in the game, can any new employee expect to get options that are not insanely diluted?
I guess if you're a Lars Rasmussen-class talent you're going to get some special class of stock to entice you to come over, but what about the rest of the new hires?
How does the stock thing work? Is it given to all engineers? It seems to be just Silicon Valley companies who give away stock/options as a matter of course, so I'm a little mystified.
Yeah... but does any of that work benefit man-kind at all? More than 500 million people also use a toilet every day. So what? 500 million people and the most interesting thing on it is a "virtual farm". That's just plain ridiculous.
If I may start from your good points:
1.) In a network of 500 million users already are the scaling problems still open?
I would suspect that the biggest scaling problems appeared much earlier.
If somebody knows what are the scaling problems that such an enormous networks faces would be very interesting.
2.) I would guess that top programmers can have top benefits in several companies. Even less excellent programmers could get a decent paycheck in many places
3.) I am not familiar with the demographics of facebook but my gut feeling is that most of the programmers are in their early twenties or mid-twenties. This was also my impression during one of the job fairs that I have attended.
#4 doesn't really apply so much to newer employees. granted I don't know this for a fact, but at this point I'd be surprised if your average software engineer gets jackpot-level equity.
I like their philosophy that you can make changes and push them often so that you do see immediate gratification that your work means something. A typical non-startup developer's work could take years before it ever hit a desktop.
While the stock options that others mention is a motivator, typically companies use options to buy down your salary. You would make $120k, but, we're going to give you $90k + $30k in options that could be worth more than $30k in a few years. Pre dot-bomb, extremely greedy employees would work for a .com, trade huge amounts of salary for options and live frugally until the IPO. I can think of one guy that worked for Real Networks for a few years that took 66% of his pay in options which were underwater when his options matured.
Options are a payment type and are a gamble on the employee's part. The employer believes that shared ownership will also motivate employees, which makes those options worth more.
It's not for the money - any of the talented folks could go work at a hedge fund and make 10x. The secret sauce is that it's a fun culture, great product, and the company has huge potential to innovate into new areas. And you get fed.
There's a potential with Facebook that isn't there with many other companies. It has an enormous social graph but hasn't found a way to fully unlock its value. The challenge is to help find Facebook's business-model and technical equivalent of Adwords, if such a thing exists.
Thrill of a start-up but with the "security" of some serious investment and traction. It's the wild-west and they encourage experimenting by hiring the smartest people they can find. 15-20 years ago you might have asked the same thing about Microsoft.
You get to tell your friends you work at Facebook and they get to be like oh sweet and they say what are you working on and you get to say oh the billing platform for virtual goods and they get to say like whoa that is so exciting!!
[+] [-] tgriesser|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joezydeco|15 years ago|reply
I guess if you're a Lars Rasmussen-class talent you're going to get some special class of stock to entice you to come over, but what about the rest of the new hires?
[+] [-] toolate|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] BarkMore|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] citizenkeys|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] random42|15 years ago|reply
1. Good quality true "Web scale" work.
2. Top benefits (and I suppose a decent paycheck too).
3. Smart peers.
4. Realistic chances of hitting the IPO/Acquisition jackpot through equity.
Whats not so great at working there?
[+] [-] gsivil|15 years ago|reply
2.) I would guess that top programmers can have top benefits in several companies. Even less excellent programmers could get a decent paycheck in many places
3.) I am not familiar with the demographics of facebook but my gut feeling is that most of the programmers are in their early twenties or mid-twenties. This was also my impression during one of the job fairs that I have attended.
[+] [-] brosephius|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] karmawhore|15 years ago|reply
While the stock options that others mention is a motivator, typically companies use options to buy down your salary. You would make $120k, but, we're going to give you $90k + $30k in options that could be worth more than $30k in a few years. Pre dot-bomb, extremely greedy employees would work for a .com, trade huge amounts of salary for options and live frugally until the IPO. I can think of one guy that worked for Real Networks for a few years that took 66% of his pay in options which were underwater when his options matured.
Options are a payment type and are a gamble on the employee's part. The employer believes that shared ownership will also motivate employees, which makes those options worth more.
[+] [-] mfringel|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] cmutiff|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] richardw|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] willheim|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drivebyacct2|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bhiggins|15 years ago|reply