He is now a Facebook “learning and development partner,” charged with keeping the company’s famously open, unconventional corporate culture alive and well. It has turned out to be a great fit for Welsh, who in fact had a personal interest in the field. “I love to read about leadership, emotional awareness, management. As soon as I graduated from college I was reading those things,” Welsh says. “I never realized there was a career in that. I was trying to be the best I could be. I was doing due diligence. I’m a learner by nature.” Welsh had envisioned a future grounded in numbers, not people. He graduated from RMU’s integrated five-year bachelor’s/master’s in accounting and went to work in the Pittsburgh offices of PricewaterhouseCoopers, then McCrory & McDowell, becoming a CPA, certified fraud examiner, and certified valuation analyst. The skills he learned still serve him well in his current position. “I don’t do accounting at all now,” he says, “but the analytical way of thinking I learned at RMU, now that I’m in what’s perceived as more a ‘touchy-feely’ field, I’m still very analytical. So I’m able to draw on that way of thinking and creating a framework that was at the heart of what the professors were teaching us.” A logical, data-driven approach plays especially well with a company of engineers and computer scientists. “That helps me connect really well with the audience that I’m training and developing, because they tend to think that way too,” he says.
including a recent half-marathon under the redwood trees. Welsh has been around for some high-flying times at Facebook, including an IPO in 2012 and growth to more than 10,000 employees — four times the 2,500 there when he arrived. The company boasts 936 million average daily users as it has developed its mobile services and purchased other social apps. It recently announced groundbreaking partnerships with major news media to publish their reports on the Facebook site.
SOCIAL MEDIA TIPS FROM A FACEBOOK INSIDER CAREER-CHANGING LEADS AND REFERRALS USUALLY COME FROM THE “WEAK TIES” IN A BIG NETWORK, NOT YOUR CLOSEST FRIENDS. FOLLOW UP A WORK MEETING WITH A FRIEND REQUEST, BUT PERSONALIZE IT WITH A REFERENCE TO SOMETHING YOU DISCUSSED. KEEP YOUR NEW NETWORK LINKS INVESTED IN YOU BY SHARING THINGS THAT WILL APPEAL TO THEM PERSONALLY. CONNECT PEOPLE IN YOUR NETWORK WHO CAN BENEFIT FROM KNOWING EACH OTHER. PAY ATTENTION TO INTERNATIONAL LINKS. IN JAPAN, FACEBOOK IS TREATED AS A PROFESSIONAL TOOL.
His day-to-day tasks include developing training programs that focus on effective, straightforward communications, and working with managers to tweak their organization or involve other teams on a problem. He also organizes off-site retreats, where co-workers bond over a climbing course or tower-building challenge. He speaks at HR conferences and meets with members of other organizations to discuss Facebook practices.
A McMurray native, Welsh returns to the area once a year or so to visit family in Pittsburgh and Ohio. But he says San Francisco now “feels like home,” and he takes full advantage of the natural scenery and opportunities to hike, bike and run. In April, he completed the Big Sur International Marathon, and plans to run his eighth marathon in San Francisco this summer. He also competes in trail races,
While some things have changed, Welsh says the open culture endures. Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg still hosts weekly Q&As with employees, and even responded personally to an email from Welsh seeking clarification on a wording change to a company value. That might seem like minutiae, but at Facebook, such company slogans can end up on posters hanging on office walls. Long before joining Facebook, Welsh was comfortable with putting himself out there. At RMU, he completed five internships and helped revive the Association of Future Accountants. In Pittsburgh, Welsh signed onto a charity biking team at PricewaterhouseCoopers and became friendly with several much more senior members of the firm. He’s now an M.B.A. student at U.C. Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, partly to grow his West Coast network. “I never thought of myself as a networking type,” Welsh says. “I’m actually an introvert, but I network effortlessly because I’m looking for real and solid connections with people. I tend to build relationships because I pay attention to what matters to people. And I’m really good at keeping in touch with people,” through e-mail, phone calls and, of course, Facebook.
As for the potential for Facebook and other social media to threaten personal connections, Welsh says it’s all about balance. “I try to be intentional and be present. If I’m talking to someone, I don’t want to pull out my smart phone and be looking at it. I make a conscious choice to not fall into that habit,” he says. Instead, he uses social media to build relationships. “I find that it’s so useful to have the information that people are willing to give to you. It helps you to have a more robust connection with people. I see it as an aid.” WRITTEN BY KIMBERLY BURGER CAPOZZI PHOTOGRAPHY BY SANDY LEE
R O B E R T M O R R I S U N I V E R S I T Y F O U N D AT I O N S • 2 3