LITC presents ‘Laurier likes Facebook’

(Photo by Kate Turner)

On Oct. 10, the Laurier Innovation and Technology Club (LITC) hosted their first major event of the year: “Laurier Likes Facebook.”

Three Facebook employees, Daniel Habashi, a marketing solutions manager, Sean Hutchinson, manager of partnerships and operations and Sachin Monga, a platform and market developer, came to Wilfrid Laurier University to speak to students about their experiences working for Facebook, and the new opportunities available within the company.

“Facebook is coming to Laurier in order to give us an inside look into the company; they’re going to talk about marketing strategies, how they’re going to execute the strategies [and] their vision for the future,” explained Bob McMaster, LITC’s vice president of internal affairs.

Michael Gagliano, LITC’s co-president, explained why the club chose Facebook as the company to come address students.

“Basically, Laurier is in one of the top tech cities in North America, and never before has Facebook, one of the most important and relevant companies today, hired from Laurier,” he said. “And Laurier, being one of the two universities in the city, we wanted to give them [Facebook] an opportunity to come here.”

“I think it’s a really cool opportunity for students, and hopefully they hire a few of our attendees tonight,” he added.

The networking session for students occurred after the panel discussion. It gave students that attended a chance to speak with the Facebook employees, and hand out resumes. This idea, according to McMaster and Gagliano, was Facebook’s idea.

“Their office is in [Toronto] in a business development, and marketing and sales offices, so we’re hoping it’s going to be a perfect crowd [for the event],” added Gagliano. “We’re hoping it’s going to be a perfect crowd for them [to recruit from].” During the discussion panel, plenty of advice was given to the audience about how to secure a job within Facebook.

“We look for people that are flat-out smart,” explained Hutchinson. “We just look for people with an interesting background … and huge brainpower.”

Problem solving is a key element in securing a job with Facebook. As the panelists explained, they don’t have technical job descriptions, as their goals are constantly changing depending on whatever project they are working on. As a result, being able to hold your own is essential.

“We reinvent ourselves often … we basically hack our own jobs,” Hutchinson continued.

Habashi echoed these statements, and emphasized the need for goal-oriented employees who are willing to put in ample time and effort into their jobs.

“We need doers,” Habashi said. “There are a lot of people that can talk the talk, but you have to do things too.”

The panels also discussed new aspects of Facebook that are currently in a testing stage, and will hopefully be released soon. One of these was a new “want” button.

Monga explained that the “want” button is similar to the pre-existing “like” button.

It can be used by businesses to publish lists of their products, and then users can “want” items that they would like to purchase.

“It shows aspirational aspects of your identity,” he explained, which is part of expressing yourself on the website in a positive environment.

Overall, the event, much like Facebook itself, strived to provide a positive experience for its audience in order for people to develop.

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