the Mark Pike

I recently received a few emails from students at my law school alma mater who were looking for career advice. I thought I’d go ahead and post one of my replies publicly in case anybody else was interested in it. I know I would have appreciated the opportunity to read about somebody else’s input during the grueling job search process. Hopefully this helps, and please feel free to get in touch if you’re interested in any of the work I’ve done.

Do you actually have a web/tech background?

Prior to law school, I wouldn’t say that I had a technology background in the computer science / coding sense. Throughout college, I was pretty fascinated by the web as a medium for sharing information. Napster was in its prime during my freshman year and I signed up for Facebook during my last week of classes. I dabbled in some HTML in between (and ever since). As this was happening, I was studying at Duke’s Public Policy school and became interested in technology from a policy perspective.

More generally, was there anything specific in your background (or a combination of factors) that you emphasized when you applied for the EPIC internship?

I emphasized that nearly every job I had after graduating from college had something to do with technology, policy, and the intersection of the two. While at the Center for American Progress, I worked in online communications and helped out with a lecture series on topics like net neutrality, creative commons, and the wealth of networks. Whether working with an innovative digital music distribution service, campaigning for a national election, or interning for a non-profit devoted to empowering technology, all of my employment experiences made me confident that I could research and write about everything from consumer privacy lawsuits, e-voting fraud, and the digital divide.

Based on the work you’ve done for each organization, how did your summer with EPIC compare?

My summer at EPIC (an EPIC summer) gave me the opportunity to work on a bunch of different issues. Each week the IPIOP fellows were given new and engaging assignments and we got to explore a lot of different subjects. As a watchdog group, a lot of what we did was staying up to date and reacting to new policy issues. It’s fast-paced, fun, and you feel like your contribution makes a difference both internally for the organization and for the larger cause.

My summer associate job was a great opportunity to learn about private practice. I researched case law and wrote memoranda on a variety of legal matters including technology, corporate, real estate, and contracts. I never knew what I’d be working on next, and that was exciting. But, the work itself was fairly traditional and I was more interested in working on cutting edge technology issues and bigger picture policy work— things that my current position provides.

My fellowship at DHS helped me get a feel for how larger government agencies operate. It felt very stable, but very slow moving. It was difficult to quantify the impact I was making in such a large organization and that can be disorienting. But, in reality, the work you do in these types of agencies do make a large impact. I was working in the procurement office, and I learned a lot about legislation and regulations that deal with competition issues.

Lastly, I’m curious about the kind of work you do now for Facebook. Your job title (Platform Operations, Specialist) sounds more like a tech position than a legal position. Is that correct, or are you involved with the legal side of the company?

My current position does not require extensive coding knowledge, but it does require some level of literacy in order to talk about the issues. A large part of my daily job is to communicate policies to the developer community in order to ensure the best possible Platform user experience. I work cross-functionally with a number of teams at Facebook, including the Legal group to discuss issues like privacy and intellectual property. I’m not of counsel, but I do use skills learned in law school regularly to provide analysis. I love my job and I’m excited by the work we do at Facebook.