gordonsum09news - The Gordon School

ALEX UNGER ’O3
Alex, a junior at Brown University, is
interning at Facebook headquarters in
Palo Alto, CA this summer. Despite his
busy schedule, we were able to find
some time to talk about this extraordinary
opportunity.
How did you get the internship at
Facebook?
The process started with a long all
night recruiting event at Brown called
a hackathon. Facebook had a mini
hackathon at Brown to attract and find
potential hires. After my team won
the prize for most interesting project,
Facebook was interested in my whole
group. I had an on-campus interview,
a phone interview and two interviews
out in Palo Alto.
What are your responsibilities during
the internship?
I’m working on the Platform team which
supports applications on Facebook
like Causes and Connect sites like
Digg. So far, I have built and modified
some of the ways in which applications
access data from Facebook. I also have
a main summer project related to
Events. This project is about unreleased
features and therefore I can’t tell you
more than that.
What are you enjoying?
I love working with a group of highly
talented people. Many times I feel that
almost everyone here is smarter than
me, which is a good thing. It forces me
to strive to be better and learn more.
It’s also been interesting to see how a
software company works and what it is
like to work there. The sheer amount
of code used to run Facebook presents
unique challenges that I had never
been exposed to before. I also love the
weather out here. It’s beautiful all the
time and I’m able to travel often.
How did your Gordon experience
prepare you?
Gordon taught me how to think and
experiment. Facebook is very focused
on developers being self-sufficient
and independently creative. One of
Facebook’s mantras is “move fast and
break things.” The focus is on being
innovative and cleaning up minor
mistakes made along the way after
the feature is prototyped. My Gordon
teachers encouraged me to be intellectually
curious by challenging me to
take risks and form opinions.
Were there any teachers in particular
at Gordon that made a lasting impact
on you?
All of my teachers at Gordon were
memorable and I could say things
about each one but there are a few that
really helped me with what I’m doing
now. They are Karla Harry, Deb Cusack
and Dave Macdonald. Those three
people taught me four important
things; if you’re excited about something
and express that interest enough
someone will notice (and let you
re-shelve books in the library); trust
and reliability are valuable things (and
if people really have faith in you they
might give you the password to the
whole network); don’t worry about
tinkering, experimenting and learning,
(they are only computers and they can
be fixed often by just restarting), and
most importantly, compassion and
dedication to others and their ideas are
the most valuable qualities in a person.
What are your plans after your
internship at Facebook?
I’ll be going back to Brown in the fall
for my junior year and I will be a Head
Teaching Assistant for CS15, Andy van
Dam’s intro computer science course.
Over the last several years, I also worked
as an engineering intern for Afferent
Technology, a web site programmer
for Embolden Design, a programmer
for VAEIS, Inc. and a head teaching
assistant in Brown’s Computer Science
department, as well as running my
own small business akutech.com.
Technical aspects of programming and
engineering, teaching, and the business
and team management parts of the
work I have been involved with have
all been interesting. I’ve enjoyed and
learned a lot working for startups and
for a larger firm like Facebook, as well
as running Akutech and working for
Brown. I am not sure where I am headed
after college or even next summer.
But I am pretty confident there are a lot
of great opportunities ahead. Gordon
did a really wonderful job teaching me
how to take advantage of opportunities
and I am really thankful for that.
Don’t forget to join Gordon’s
Facebook page and reconnect
with your classmates, view
archived photos and learn
about upcoming events. We
also love hearing about your
successes so please email
Siobhan Sheerar Welsh at
swelsh@gordonschool.org
with any class notes and
photos. We will share them
with your classmates in the
Winter 2010 issue.
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