Later this year, Facebook is expected to IPO at a valuation close to $100 billion.
More than anyone else, the person responsible for that success is Facebook’s 27-year-old cofounder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.
What’s it like working for him?
We know a lot about what he was like as a boss during Facebook’s early days.
Along with some Harvard friends and a buddy at Stanford, Zuckerberg started working on Facebook in a dorm way back in 2004. Back then, according to personal messages we’ve viewed and written about in the past, Zuckerberg the boss was cut-throat, comfortable leading others, and sometimes awkward about sharing success.
That was a long time ago, of course, and you have to assume Zuckerberg’s leadership style has matured over the years.
Has it?
For a long time, the best answer to this question was Facebook employee Andrew Bosworth’s blog post, “Working with Zuck.” Its four main points where:
- Zuck expects debate.
- Zuck isn’t sentimental.
- Zuck experiences things contextually.
- Zuck pushes people.
More recently, former Facebook employee Yishan Wong has written a long answer to the question on Quora: “Is Mark Zuckerberg an autocratic CEO with whom no one wants to work? Is he a pain to work with?”
The gist is “no” – that Zuckerberg is not a “pain,” even if he “does have a touch of the Asperger’s.”
“If your confidence in your own abilities is self-generated and emotionally secure, and you are seeking someone who will pose to you ever-greater challenges to surmount, then Mark Zuckerberg is a pretty good fit for you. However, he is not there to “develop” you – that’s your own job.”
