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The Trials and Tribulations of a Would-Be Facebook Employee
An anonymous reader writes "It may be hard for Facebook HR infrastructure to keep up with the rapid growth of the company, so scheduling and performing Skype screening interviews with the prospective new developers appears deteriorating into disorderly jumble. In a blog post, a recent candidate for a development job at Facebook has shared his excruciation at coordinating and then having this preliminary interview, pointing out the unhelpfulness of HR staff at Facebook during all stages of the process."
Maybe Facebook does not want help. That's a good thing, because no one should want to help Facebook.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
I could see going to work for Facebook before the IPO, but now? You've missed the chance to get rich. Working for Facebook seems to be crunch hell in giant bullpens with bad bosses.
Facebook seems to have peaked in terms of users and traffic.Now it's all about "monetizing the user base", i.e. shoving as many ads as possible at the users and selling tracking data.
HR is always a bunch of ass-sucking sycophants. That is true in every industry. Never count on meeting an intelligent person is HR. And NEVER count on them as an ally -- they are there for the company, not you. They ONLY time they might take your side is (if they are capable of understanding you) when you explain to them their managers have fucked up so badly, they will likely lose a lawsuit.
Fuck HR. It is always a pink ghetto.
This should come as no surprise though. In these modern times of recession and people being made unemployed due to robots it really is a buyer's market and employers can pull as much "shit" as they like and still have a queue of people outside the door looking for jobs.
- Email problems with the HR drone
- Skype call interview organised for a time not convenient for him
- Network issues during the call
Um, cry me a river?
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
It was horrendous. Not the best speaker at the best of times, it was a total flop over video. The format made it hard to read body language and get a feel for where the interview was going, the lag made it a PITA with people talking over each other and also made it hard to read how the discussion was going. In the end, though I was well qualified for the position, I realized I had not made a single good case for why they should hire me. Naturally, I didn't get a call back and I couldn't blame them. I would avoid doing it again in future if at all possible.
from the rant:
"I've been using the best Internet connection available -- the wired LAN at the Israel Institute of Technology. (To give an impression of its network infrastructure: the Institute had been allocated two of the handful Israeli class-B IP ranges.) On the day of the interview, I've made a test call to a friend in Israel (some 120km away from the Institute), to confirm that the call quality is perfect. Nevertheless, when the interviewer called me, I couldn't hear him properly"
Does he have any idea how the internet works? Just because you have a good connection to another part of the country does not mean you get good connection to the rest of the world.
I don't think this guy understands much about how corporate networking works. If he's a developer, I suppose he doesn't need to, but maybe he could check into details before writing:
"isn't it worthwhile for Facebook recruiting to prepare for such a case, and make the interviewer able to switch to a different Facebook IP range, to give Skype routing a second chance?"
Yeah, um, I don't know of *any* company that would set up their HR staff for such a scenario. And this interviewee doesn't seem to understand how Internet routing works. Assuming the particular Facebook HR office is BGP multi-homed, the Facebook NetOps staff would have to determine what IP address the interviewee is connecting with and then modify BGP local-preference for that AS number to use a different ISP outbound. Or, have two networks with different outbound ISPs available at every desk with staff trained to switch between them.
It would be utterly ludicrous to do something like this for an interview.
What's surprising is they didn't try another option like Google Hangouts. Perhaps as a Facebook competitor, it isn't an option. Did the interviewee not have a speakerphone? He mentions being unable to both type and talk... I think they solved that problem in the 1980's.
Vote Libertarian
Especially the part about preparation, why should the company give you time to prepare an interview? If I were the company, I want to see the real you, not you with a month of preparation.
I was confused in reading the write-up. If the interview was scheduled three months in advance, why did he say that he only had one day to prepare for the "CS" style interview? Where did this "December Interview Preparation Tips" come from? Only partial bits of data are given, none of which support the poster's side of the story.
And what phone were you using that didn't have speaker phone capabilities? Nearly all land line phones do that, as well as all mobile phones. Skype crap happens all the time, even on perfect connections. You roll with it. And, if you can't, then you'll likely have problems in a technology company.
In summary, this reads as: "HR department had too many applicants and I slipped between the cracks for scheduling, then I bombed my interview but it really wasn't my fault. Really!"
The HR rep told him in October that his interview would be in December and he procrastinated prepping until he knew the exact date. Yet he bitches about not having enough time to prepare? Also, I don't understand why he couldn't type and talk at the same time if they ended up having to use a phone call for audio. All cell phones have a speaker phone function and if he was using a landline he could've held the phone to his ear with his shoulder.
His whole blog post is just a giant whine-fest. If he can't handle the stress of the unknowns in an interview then how can he expect to handle the stress of working at a fast-paced company like Facebook?
Many share their good and bad interview experiences with {Google, FB, MS, Apple etc} on a daily base. Why is this one getting any extra attention?
If you have difficulty expressing yourself in front of others for whatever reason (stage fright, for instance) consider joining Toastmasters.
It's a club for people who want to learn to speak in front of an audience. It's got branch clubs all over the world, so there's probably one near you. They meet twice a month (more or less - depending on the club) and have a nominal yearly dues.
After about two years of going you start to "get the hang of it" and become more relaxed and fluent when talking to groups.
If you think you might get a Skype interview and if you have trouble with presentations, you should check them out.
That's how I would describe the summary for this article. Does anyone interview candidate Slashdot editors before offering them jobs?
Tired of being "punished" by the Slashdot $rtbl since 2002. I'm now over at http://soylentnews.org/ .
It started out like this
Recruiter sitting at his desk with his head in his hands and a half-empty bottle of cheap Scotch nearby, just waiting for the axe to come down. The phone rings. He picks it up to stop the noise and
"Hello, Facebook recruiting. I think you have the wrong number."
"No, I'm looking for a job at Facebook."
"Hey, that's great, my first one since...uhh you do know Facebook already had the IPO, right? I tried not telling people that but the boss got mad."
And it was all downhill from there.
Someone had to spend time emailing, calling, and skyping to interview for job? I think I might cry...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I was all eager to read the article and nod in disgust at Facebook's incompetence, but after reading a bit, I have to say, "Grow up, crybaby!"
Boo hoo hoo! It's called living life as an adult. Sorry you're used to not having to plan future commitments. If the interview is so important, keep your day open, kid!
Boo hoo hoo! If preparing for the interview is so important to you, cancel your precious "plans". How is their HR supposed to know you have a keg stand to appear at over the weekend?
Boo hoo hoo! I don't know my shit like I should, so I'm going to have to "cram" instead and try to sound smarter than I am! This is really stressful and hurts my feelings!!
Boo hoo hoo! I couldn't guess what my interviewer would ask me, which is sooooo unfair, and I wasted a lot of time trying to fool them!