The interview road to my new role @Meta
TC: 220
YOE: 10+
TLDR: I interviewed 5 times and got rejected, until I focused on my soft skills improved and got an offer.
Salesforce has excellent WLB, great culture, and I was doing meaningful work, TC was meh, but I though it was very good until I learned about blind. Despite the TC I was very happy and didn't really want to leave, until some shit went down in my org, and a portion of my team got let go and others got force moved to another project.
I freaked out updated my resume, and for the first time in my 10+ YOE started to LC, and learn the fundamentals of data structures and algos. I have no formal education in CS, but I'm a pretty decent programmer and just grinded for a few weeks. 30Medium/30 easy. It was a struggle, a slog. I figured if I got hards in an interview, there was no chance, so I didn’t focus on it at all. Algorithms and Data-structures don’t have that much to do with the craft and art of software development except in rare cases, so its not something I spent much time on in my career.
First I applied internally at Slack, not wanting to leave Salesforce.
First Slack interview for Staff level position. No LC, easy peasy conversation, I really thought I was going to move teams. Ghosted after months.
Second Slack Interview. Team had red flags, no LC, easy peasy interview Hiring manager said he wanted to move forward. Later denied.
Third slack interview. No LC questions, easy peasy conversation, I was highly qualified for the position with over a decade of experience in the stack. Later denied because I didn’t have enough experience ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
Finally I just decided to give up on Salesforce, but I didn’t feel I was ready for Meta, or Google, and applied to Auth0, Microsoft and Amazon, to my surprise I got interviews at these with no referrals.
Auth0 -
Phone screen easy, no LC, Tech interview round was interesting, kind of like system design. I moved on to the next round, but I didn’t want to work on the project so I decided not to move forward.
Microsoft-
Phone Screen: LC Easy, solved optimal
Full Loop Rounds: Mix of easy/medium, I solved each of these without a whole lot of trouble, maybe a hint or two. In the bar raiser round the hiring manager wanted to poach me for his team, and gave me a softball question reverse a binary tree type thing. I just over thought it, and was foolish, and just really struggled. Ghosted for months, finally rejected. I thought I nailed all behavioral questions.
Amazon-
Phone Screen: LC easy
Final Rounds:
1 hard which I struggled on, but solved, not optimally.
1 hard I struggled on but with help solved optimally
The rest medium, which I also sort of struggled on. I think I nailed the behavioral questions. One of the interviewers connected with me on LinkedIn.
Ghosted for months, finally rejected.
After 5 rejections I started to feel like an imposter, but decided to YOLO for a dream job at Meta, to my surprise I got an interview.
Before interviewing I reassessed the 5 rejections. I realized that my LC wasn’t great, but I could probably charm my way into hints and solve the problems well enough for a passing score so long as I rocked behavioral and highlighted my experience and real accomplishments. I focused 80% of my study time working on behavioral prep, being confident, and being prepared for the behavioral questions. Despite thinking I did well on the behavioral in my previous interviews, I obviously did not, especially since Slack rejected an obviously qualified candidate with no coding rounds. I had to accept that I did poorly, despite thinking otherwise. Educative.io has good resources on STAR interviewing, and I highly recommend it.
Meta - Phone screen LC easy Slam dunk
Final Rounds, 4 of the 5 rounds were LC easy/medium level questions; slam dunks.
1 round had a non LC coding questions that I sort of struggled with. I got asked some light system design questions that I answered confidently. Another round I solved one of the LC medium question easily, but then was asked to solve it another way, and I just couldn’t see a different solution. I felt bad about it, and resigned myself to getting rejected again.
The difference this time with Meta, was that I focused way more on soft skills, and this helped dramatically even during coding rounds because I was able to be articulate about my solutions, and was able to better read and gage the interviewers reactions.
I ended up having a 6th round. Mostly talking about the project, and a LC Easy. Nailed it
Finally got an offer. During negotiation the recruiter said I was pretty much the only candidate who was qualified, and did well. (surprised to hear that since it gives up leverage). I accepted a decent offer and I’m grateful and humbled for the opportunity, I’m feeling relieved, validated and excited for my new project. Don’t give up, don’t take rejection personally look objectively at your flaws and improve them.
Want to see the real deal?
More inside scoop? View in App
More inside scoop? View in App
blind
SUPPORT
FOLLOW US
DOWNLOAD THE APP:
FOLLOWING
Industries
Job Groups
- Software Engineering
- Product Management
- Information Technology
- Data Science & Analytics
- Management Consulting
- Hardware Engineering
- Design
- Sales
- Security
- Investment Banking & Sell Side
- Marketing
- Private Equity & Buy Side
- Corporate Finance
- Supply Chain
- Business Development
- Human Resources
- Operations
- Legal
- Admin
- Customer Service
- Communications
Return to Office
Work From Home
COVID-19
Layoffs
Investments & Money
Work Visa
Housing
Referrals
Job Openings
Startups
Office Life
Mental Health
HR Issues
Blockchain & Crypto
Fitness & Nutrition
Travel
Health Care & Insurance
Tax
Hobbies & Entertainment
Working Parents
Food & Dining
IPO
Side Jobs
Show more
SUPPORT
FOLLOW US
DOWNLOAD THE APP:
comments
Also, ex Salesforce here, welcome and feel free to ping if you want any help :)
This was a great story for me to read. I’ve had 7 loop rejections so far and it’s extremely frustrating. You reach out for feedback but get ghosted and so you are left to guess about where you went wrong.
Got a virtual Meta E6 loop in 3 weeks and prepping hard, fingers crossed!
Might ask a few friends for mock interviews, but I have done several now so it’s less about nerves and more just making sure I know the material.