Facebook's Focus On Mobile Comes From Intensive Training Program

Facebook has no doubt been focusing more and more on mobile platforms. Granted, it took them a while to come around to the idea of a native iPad app, but the social network has apps on all the major mobile platforms now, and the company is constantly adding and updating mobile features. Where's all this effort coming from, though? An intensive training program that started last year.

Speaking with Engadget, Facebook's director of mobile engineering, Mike Shaver, explained how Facebook made the transition to focusing more on the mobile platform. The social network ended up starting an intensive training program in July of last year to inform and train employees on coding native apps for Android and iOS.

The training program consists of five straight days of training for eight hours per day — a typical work week — and anyone who completes the 40-hour training program can move onto actually start writing code for mobile apps. So far, 450 Facebook employees have completed the training, most of which are engineers, but designers, product managers, and other employees can take the training course as well.

Essentially, the training program is to get Facebook employees to develop a "mobile first" mentality, and it's also the company's plan to build "mobile empathy" among its employees. Facebook wants a majority of its employees with mobile app developing skills and experience, so while that may seem like a good thing to put on your resume, Facebook thinks its old hat.

[via Engadget]