Meta visit part I

As promised, here is the feedback from my visit to the Meta head office, which I will do in two parts. I'll cover the building tour now, and tomorrow I'll talk about insights picked up about the company. My old school friend, who is now a director of data analytics at the company, spent over 2 hours showing us around the head office campus and chatting about the business.

Funnily enough, it became a bit of a culinary tour as we visited all the themed restaurants in the building. We had two lunches, one at the Indian canteen and then the Middle Eastern section. The ice-cream store also lured us in. I asked why they provided all this free stuff, which included coffee stands and countless fridges stacked with drinks and snacks along the halls.

The main reason is to avoid Meta employees wasting time driving out to get food. Their Menlo Park office is not close to much else. But most importantly, it means employees are not out at restaurants socialising with other tech titans and potentially getting headhunted. Demand for the best talent is very competitive.

The main building we visited is called MPK 21, it is where 'The Zuck' himself works. The art is amazing and there are featured items all over the place. The roof is a garden with over 200 trees and 800 meters of walking paths. They even have a family of foxes living happily in the rooftop garden. It really felt like an amazing place to work, and you get the sense that those working there, especially in the AI division, feel like they are making history. I'll write more about that in part two.