By Meta Careers
Seattle-based software engineer Ariane joined Facebook three years ago because she craved a career change that would be fast-paced and challenging. Today, she’s part of a scrappy team of engineers who quickly jump on problems that may have stumped others. We’ve heard so much about the team’s work that we wanted an insider’s look at what they do on a daily basis.
For Ariane and the rest of her team, no two days are the same. From working to improve performance across Facebook products and dealing with tricky problems that get tossed their way, to bonding over the simple joys of being parents, each day is filled with new challenges as well as opportunities to grow together as a team. To dive deeper, we asked Ariane to share what a typical day in her life looks like at Facebook.
Good Morning! Who Needs an Alarm Clock When You Have Two Young Kids?
If you’re a parent to young children, your day likely starts off like mine — being lovingly woken up by two energetic kids at the crack of dawn (the plus side to this is that I never need to set an alarm!). After getting dressed and eating breakfast, I send my boys off to school and head to catch the shuttle bus to Facebook Seattle.
A Bit of Calm After the Morning Rush
Bus rides are my time to get centered, and I spend this time getting caught up on things from the day before and planning out the day ahead. I also keep three days out of the week meeting-free to give myself more time to code, and the freedom to focus on any new projects or issues that may pop up.
Speed Team, Unite!
I always set aside two to three hours during my meeting-free mornings to code, and today is no different! After a few hours of coding, I connect with the rest of my team to see what's flared up today. It could be that we need to help with scroll performance in Instagram, add instrumentation in Messenger, or figure out what's causing deadlocks in Facebook. Who knows? The variety is really what makes the job so interesting. I see my team as investigators who not only look for signal on performance problems, but also build and augment tools when we find ourselves at the edge of our current understanding.
For example, today, we gather a lot of pieces of performance data to see how things are going in terms of speed and working coherent framework. We focus on why one app performs slower in a newer OS release and how to fix it (spoiler: new OS versions often take tuning time!). We also take into consideration how to adjust our application for great performance, even when we're on dramatically slower networks. During the holidays, we often see a spike in people using the new devices they get as gifts on slow networks, which makes this work even more important - who wants a terrible experience on a brand new device?
Working on Android is especially interesting because there are so many different types of hardware; and even if devices are running the same OS, both devices’ performance can vary dramatically.
Lunch Time is Bonding Time
Next up is lunch! Most days the Speed Team eats lunch together so that we can share what each of us is working on and troubleshoot as a group. The majority of us are also parents so most days we share fun stories about our kids (both human and furry!). That kind of personal bonding makes us even stronger as a team when we’re trying to solve problems together.
After Work Fun
The other thing I love about Facebook is how we prioritize work-life balance, and how every member of my team respects my ability to set boundaries and unplug before and after work hours. This allows me to not only participate in activities outside of work but also truly enjoy them knowing I’m not leaving anyone hanging. Most days after work are spent picking up my kids from soccer practice or helping them with their homework.
I came to Facebook looking for a change of pace, and I’ve found my calling!
Inside Facebook Mobile Podcast
Catch up with Ariane in Episode 7 of Inside Facebook Mobile, where she joins Pascal and Mihaela to talk about performance logging. Tune in to hear why instrumenting performance markers is important for a healthy app, what makes a good metric and how to build sustainable logging systems: iTunes, Spotify, Google Play or Pocket Casts.
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