This is my experience with Meta, position: Applied research scientist/Research data scientist (Netherlands/Remote). TL; DR: Rejected for the position of Research Data Scientist. Sharing the experience incase it is helpful for others and also requesting for referrals (positions with machine learning modeling work) in the Netherlands. Background - 3 YOE (before Ph.D.) + currently in the final year of Ph.D. (applied ML) I saw job posting from Meta and applied through LinkedIn. After 2 weeks recruiter contacted and I understand the process and what to expect during interviews. Received the prep materials for the virtual phone screen. And the interview happened at beginning of April. Phone screen - one hour. The first question was a coding question. Fumbled for the first one minute, but then could solve it optimally. There was one bug that the interviewer pointed out, I could fix it immediately. Eventually landed at the optimal solution in 20 minutes. The second question was a statistics question. Easy and a known type of problem. Could solve it immediately. Third question A hypothetical ML problem. The interviewer asked how I can approach and I thought I tackled the question well. The recruiter contacted me within a week and I moved to virtual onsite. 6 rounds. Also received a detailed prep material doc. Round1 - Statistics/machine learning theory: It Felt like a rapid-fire round. Started with a probability question, and hypothesis testing and ended with Neural network fundamentals. I felt I did answer all the questions and felt very comfortable throughout. Round2 - Machine Learning Coding: The interviewer shared tabular data and had to do some Exploratory Data Analysis and build a model. This was the most comfortable round for me. Apart from my Ph.D. work, I also participate in Kaggle competitions, so it was easy. The interviewer asked some follow-up questions at the end, but mostly it was me who did all the coding and talking. Update - By this time, the hiring freeze news at meta came in and I had a small chat with the recruiter. The recruiter said that while the Applied Research Scientist position had been frozen, I can still interview for the Research data scientist position and the rest of the interview process would be as it was. Because these two positions apparently have similar requirements. I said yes and moved on. Round 3 - Partnership and cross-functional: This was a tricky round. Mostly the questions were based on hypothetical scenarios. example - let's say you are working at meta and you have to convince some partner about X. What do you say? While I felt that I did a good job in this round. Apparently, this round was one of the rounds where my feedbacks appear to be not reaching the bar. Round 4 - Machine Learning system design: I had very little knowledge about this round and was shit scared. Watched some YouTube videos and nothing else. However, the interview went really smoothly. The interviewer was really nice and it felt like we are both discussing the pros and cons of different steps overall had a very positive vibe. Round 5 - SWE coding: By this time, I know that I might receive common questions if I do the LC tagged 100 questions. I was well prepared for that. Got one medium and one variation of hard (after the variation I guess it's a medium question). Could solve both within 35 minutes. Had a chat afterward. Felt really positive. Round 6 - Behavioral: Well, this was the deal-breaker. I thought that I had prepared well. I had 2-3 examples ready for failures/ constructive feedback/ conflict etc. However, never felt comfortable during this round. I felt the interviewer was also pushing a lot with some follow-ups and I was not prepared enough. I could not comply well with the STAR method and was a bit unsure about this round and anyway it is very subjective. 3 weeks after the onsite, the recruiter called and informed me that they are not moving forward with the application and the major reason is that my examples in both partnership and behavioral were not complex enough (which I agree with, but I still don't know how can I bring in more complex scenarios). I felt sad and requested if I can have followup behavioral round, but the recruiter said that's not possible. I am reaching out here to see how fellow blinders review such a rejection. Here is also a request to fellow Blinders. Let me know if you can help me with some referrals for the companies based out of the Netherlands. I would prefer some machine learning work and would not be interested in SQL tasks. Much appreciated. TC: 🥜 (still a PhD candidate) YOE: 3 years (before PHD) + 3.8 years(during PhD)
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Which level did you interview for? I thought Meta L4 does not require sys design.
It was never specified. Upon asking once, the recruiter said that they would decide after the interview.