My day at 1 Hacker Way aka the Facebook HQ in Palo Alto
A friend of a friend works at Facebook and when I was there, I decided to drop in and get the tour. First he wouldn’t stop raving about the food (not exaggerated!) and all the things Facebook does for their employees. Let me make a list of things my friend doesn’t have to do:
Cook - The sprawling Facebook campus has multiple restaurants with a rotating menu. Whom are we kidding, they have a culinary team. Say bye to boring salads and sad sandwiches! You can get dumplings, dessert, burgers, Indian food, pizza... My friend never has to buy groceries. It’s a bachelor’s dream come true. No cooking. EVER.
Buy groceries - This is legit. You can drop your grocery list at the reception. Be specific and mention what things you want from which store, and just pick your groceries on your way out of work, that’s if you ever eat at home.
Do laundry - You can drop your dirty underpants and even your comforter and voila, clean clothes for you the next day. They are also ironed.
Pursue a Hobby - They have a poster making classes, a woodwork area and other fun stuff. If you like making things, this is the right place. No need to look elsewhere.
I also got to see where Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg sit (Mark was on paternity leave then).
Enough said. Just look at the office now.
Even the parking garage is all fancy! They have two campuses opposite each other and the parking lot is huge. They even have valet service. #NoParkingProblems.
This is what the buildings look like. Bright colors and then whites. Certainly eye catching.
The image tells you, my visit was dated. They call themselves the “Hackers Collective.”
A view inside the HQ on a really cloudy day.
I’m pretty sure this was one of the restaurants and inside a cafeteria. chuck the food, that display caught my attention.
And cool original artwork.
It’s this huge wall of touch screens where trending search terms keep flashing.
Another touchscreen wall with the world map. You can pinch and zoom into the desired country and see stats. I decided to check out India with all the #FreeBasic debate going on.
Alo the screen doubles up as a theater on movie nights. And there’s always free food.
A sample poster from the poster making class. Certainly eye-catching.
Other posters. They also have a tiny printing press where they can make multiple copies of your poster. They also get artists to make posters and hold workshops.
In case you forgot, there’s now an Instagram office inside the FB HQ too.
The Insta wall. People can sit inside #JessieThePacer and then operate that neat little camera from the dashboard and post/share pictures on Instagram and Facebook.
Welcome to the ‘90s. There’s an authentic gaming arcade in the campus. Street Fighter, Donkey Kong and a bunch of other arcade games.
Inside the office building. Huge open spaces with no dividers/ cubicles.
And let’s not forget the famous rooftop garden. The landscaping has small sitting areas interspersed with a lot of greenery and some hills. They have concerts and parties on the rooftop.
The physical Facebook wall. I don’t know which came first.
And lots of art work.
This is a staircase disguised as a mural.
And just another artsy another staircase.
So overall, I had a great experience going through the office and I left with a lot of goodies and Facebook merchandise.
