My Failed Interview at Facebook

– 14 September 2018

I’m with the Facebook recruiting team and I thought I’d check in to see if you might be open to new opportunities.

It all started like this through a message on LinkedIn. At the time I was not actively looking for new opportunities but the idea of working at one of Silicon Valley’s giants was just too attractive to let it go unnoticed so I answered and schedule my first call.

michael jordan yes GIF

– 25 September 2018

I had my first phone call with my recruiter, we went through my professional experience and she asked some basic technical questions about the Android platform. A couple of days later she contacted me for scheduling a second phone call.

– 03 October 2018

In my second phone call, my recruiter gave me further detail about the next step in the process, which is a 45-minute technical interview, this is where things get interesting. She gave me a lot of useful information as well as resources so I could prepare for the technical interview, this included videos, recommended readings, and platforms for coding practice as well as some personal tips on how to approach the interview. She also provided some background information about the company and the culture at Facebook.

– 26 October 2018

The interview was conducted through BlueJeans, a video and audio conferencing platform used by Facebook. First I was asked a few questions about me and my experience as well as some Android platform basic questions for about 10 – 15 minutes and then I was presented with the main part of the interview, the algorithm to solve:

K’th Smallest/Largest Element in Unsorted Array

Despite my panic, I managed to come up with the simplest solution, (order the array and return the specified position), but when I was asked to think of a more efficient solution my head just went blank.

rick scott what GIF

– 30 October 2018

As expected, I got an email letting me know they will not be moving forward with my application this time due to the volume of interviews and the quality of candidates.

– The Takeaway

Interviewing at Facebook, one of the most important tech companies, was an exciting experience for me despite my rejection. I was able to know a little more about the interview process at Facebook and interacted with very nice people who really wanted to help me succeed.

I wasn’t fully prepared and that ended with my interview so if you are aiming to get a job at Facebook don’t be like me and be ready, study, practice, follow your recruiters advise and go get it.

My History with Open Source

About 6 years ago, at the university where I got my Software Engineering degree, a professor gave my class this advice:

Open a GitHub account, if you don’t have one yet, and start contributing to open source projects.

Then he told us about all the wonders of Open Source and how, thanks to his own contributions, he got an amazing job at a fast-growing startup, Xamarin.

The truth is I didn’t follow this advice. I was just to “busy”, I was already working part-time in a cool startup, I was focused on concluding my degree, and, as hard as it is to accept it, my ego kept me from contributing by convincing myself I was working on very important and innovative stuff, my bright future was waiting and I didn’t have time for Open Source.

aint nobody got time for that GIF

Since then, Open Source has been in my mind, I took some reality punches, I stepped  down my cloud and realized how much I didn’t know, how much there was to learn, I changed my perspective and realized that Open Source was a world of possibilities for me, endless opportunities to learn from people all around the world while contributing to projects you believe in.

More and more, the urge to contributed continued to grow, I started looking projects for a possible first contribution for a LONG time, sometimes feeling encouraged, other times a bit scared about not being good enough, and finally last year, I tear down the fears and insecurities that were keeping me from contributing and I made my first tiny open source contribution. It felt great!

Right now I’m actively contributing to a few projects and I’ve open sourced some personal projects. The truth is I wish I’d started when I first received my professor’s advice but better now than never, right?

This is how my GitHub profile looks right now, I’m committed to seeing it a lot more greener a year from now and the truth is I can’t feel more excited about the places where Open Source will take me.

github-contributions

Posted in Dev