UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — One of Hannah Furnas’ proudest achievements in her career has been the development of a framework that addresses ground truth data — information that is known to be real or true — with respect to machine learning for Meta.
The Liberal Arts alumna credits successes like these to the opportunities and training she went through during her time at Penn State in the College of the Liberal Arts. Not only did she learn how to execute meticulous research, but she was also able to learn basic skills like interviewing and collaborating with others.
“During my years in grad school and at Penn State, the strength of community and the level of expertise and scholarship really helped to shape me and pushed me to become a stronger researcher myself,” said Furnas, who now lives in South Lake Tahoe, California.
Furnas, who graduated from Penn State in 2017 with a dual-title doctorate in sociology and demography, currently works at Meta as a senior research science manager. She initially started working at Meta while in graduate school as a summer intern, a position she learned about through networking.
“My grad school cohort-mate, Lauren Bachan, was working at Meta at the time, and she reached out to let me know about the role and to see if I was interested.”
After applying for the position and going through a multi-stage interview process, Furnas was offered the internship, and that internship eventually led to a full-time job offer at the company.
The Ohio native always knew she had an interest in taking a non-academic pathway, and her internship solidified that decision. Meta is where Furnas found what she truly had a passion for and could succeed in doing.
“I really enjoyed the pace of work. Things move very fast, which can definitely be exhausting at times, but overall, I enjoy that. It keeps me engaged and motivated,” Furnas said. “Also, the level of impact that you can have with your work and industry is very exciting to me. It's amazing that your research can influence a decision that literally impacts millions of people.”
Furnas said Meta’s commitment to supporting a work-life balance stood out to her while she was completing her internship and is why she accepted a full-time position. She appreciated the privilege of getting to set boundaries between the two, which her coworkers respected. Furnas said Meta also provides an abundance of resources to its researchers to aid in conducting research efficiently and effectively.
“I’m getting to interact with people who are political scientists or statisticians or economists, which is really refreshing,” Furnas said. “There’s also a lot of resources in private industries and tech companies, and it’s a great experience to be able to have the resources and funding to do high-quality research.”
In her position, Furnas manages and supports a team of other researchers while tackling multiple meetings each day. Although managing a team of people who are conducting research that will have an impact on millions of people poses its challenges, she says it is rewarding.
“I feel very privileged to do this job and to have this opportunity,” Furnas said. “Often as a researcher, I'm thinking about the real implications of the work that we're doing so that we're making the best decisions for our users, for the company, and for our team.”
Wanting to give back to the Penn State community who helped her find her passions in research and helped kickstart her career, Furnas was more than excited to accept a position on the Graduate School Alumni Society Board of Directors as the College of the Liberal Arts representative.
“As an alumna, I'm very invested in helping connect current Penn State students and getting them connected to these opportunities,” Furnas said. “For me, if it wasn't for those couple of people who raised this as an opportunity and helped me get interviews, I probably would not be here at Meta. I may not have even known these types of jobs existed.”