The Anti-Hacker

Note: This article was written after I watched an archived episode of the relatively unknown MTV show, Diary. The episode was predominantly about Facebook and it’s anti-corporate culture. However, Erin and the work that she does for Facebook played a small part in the show and I thought she was worth researching and writing about.

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So you want to work for Facebook but you’re not a coder, nerd or hacker? No problem. Some of the best jobs at the best companies aren’t necessarily in the departments you think to find them.

Erin Kanaley, the head of consumer marketing at Facebook, is one of those lucky few.

“I like to be at work more than being anywhere else,” says Erin.

Four years ago Erin graduated from the University of Colorado where she had studied marketing. She got a job in the advertising industry and they were about to block Facebook from the servers at her job, “so that we would all stay off it and continue to do our jobs.” Says Erin

“The day before they blocked it, I clicked on the ‘jobs’ link on the bottom right hand corner of my Facebook page. Two weeks later I was up in Palo Alto with a new job.”

Erin spends her days working at her desk, which is situated on the vast and open floor Facebook’s famous offices.

Erin and Randi Zuckerburg

Image: (Berger/Bloomberg)

“I work on the consumer marketing team, says Erin, “We work with public figures to help them build a presence on Facebook and interact with their audience in a unique way that you can’t do anywhere else. It’s unbelievable to be a part of it.”

According to Erin, Facebook prides itself "on having a real 'hacker culture' where ideas can come from anywhere. They don't have to come from the top down. They come from any employee. I'm pretty proud that our marketing team embodies that hacker culture also, it's not just engineers."

Facebook is a very unique place to work since it, “Touches every single industry and every other person. It also feels like a small company. “

Marketing, according to Erin, is just as important as coding. “It’s important for the engineers to see how the things that they build each day really effect peoples lives.”

What about those all night hack-a-thons, made famous my the film The Social Network, and stilly very much so a integral part of the Facebook culture? “Well, for those of us that can’t code, we’ve brought in some really classes like baking, juggling, painting. It’s a testament to show how important it is in our culture to keep learning and growing and trying new things.”

Facebook employees hard at working during a Hackathon

While most people might not antiquate Facebook with pretty blonde girls from advertising agencies, Erin and the other members of her Consumer Marketing team consider themselves to be the lucky ones.

“Facebook is all about creativity,” says Erin, “Sometimes the best way to succeed both personally and professionally is to turn off your working brain for a while and try something new.”