A look inside Facebook's New York office, where employees of the $280 billion company enjoy virtual reality games and an in-house pastry chef (FB)

Sarah Jacobs

Known for its incredible perks, impressive salaries, and great corporate culture, Facebook is one of the world's most desirable places to work.

The Menlo Park, California-based tech giant consistently earns top spots on rankings like Business Insider's annual "best companies to work for," Glassdoor's "best places to work," and LinkedIn's "top attractors," among many others.

To see what all the fuss is about, Business Insider recently visited Facebook's Manhattan office ... and let's just say, we get it.

Here's what we saw and learned during our tour:

We arrived at Facebook's Greenwich Village office on a mild Friday afternoon in November. Once we checked in, we were greeted by engineering director Jeff Reynar and corporate communications manager Jamil Walker.

The first thing that jumped out at us on the tour was this physical embodiment of a Facebook "wall." Reynar told us New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker recently stopped by to sign it. “What’s kind of fun about this is that there’s a wall at most of our offices," Reynar says. "It’s kind of temporary. At some point, we’ll probably do some kind of construction and this will go away and we’ll start a fresh one with new signatures."

Across all of its 66 offices and data centers worldwide, Facebook — which has a market cap of $280 billion as of mid-November — employs almost 16,000 people. About 1,000 of them work in the Frank Gehry-designed Manhattan location, which also houses members of the company's Instagram team. Facebook occupies four floors of the building, which was once a Wanamaker's department store.

Source: Markets Insider