I was contacted by a Facebook Recruiter to discuss this position. I have over 12 years of experience while the position expected someone with just 4+ years of experience. This made me wonder if it was too junior a position for me. But the recruiter explained that at Facebook most employees with 4+ years of experience are expected to be able to do this job. It's not that the position is of a junior level; it's just the caliber of people expected at Facebook. This, both, impressed and intimidated me. After the initial chat with the recruiter, I had a 45-minute interview with the Hiring Manager. Although he was poker-faced throughout the interview, he was warm and never made me feel uncomfortable. He went to great lengths to explain the role, it's position within the company and the culture of FB. I came away wanting to work there even more! When I didn't hear back from the recruiter for about 2 days after the interview (I'm impatient!), I emailed her requesting a feedback. She immediately called me back and said that they were working on trying to bring me back for more detailed interviews with the team. And within a couple of days they scheduled another on-site for me. This time I was to be interviewed by the Hiring Manager again, his boss and 3 of his direct reports who would be peers of the position that I was interviewing for. The interview would last for almost 4 hrs of 45minutes with each interviewer. I was surprised to be interviewed by the Hiring Manager again but I soon realized that my initial chat with him had been just that - an informal chat. This time around he grilled me in detail about the various projects I had managed in the past. He made me draw a process flow of the Business area that I would be supporting and asked detailed questions of every aspect; he didn't miss a thing. The same pattern followed with the other interviewers too. They came prepared with specific questions about my work experience and as I answered them I realized that they were able to extract from me all the information they needed to learn about my working history and experience in a very precise manner. Looking back at the interview, those 4hrs at Facebook were quite grueling and taxing for my mind because I hadn't had such an intense interview in years. I had never had to draw process flows or explain SQL statements or present a graphic outline of the various systems within my business area before. However, I now realize that they probably have a very good idea of what I know and especially, what I don't know. Throughout the interviews all of them said the same thing to me - do not worry; there is no right answer; it's okay if you don't know. As for me, I learnt a lot about the culture at Facebook and what this position would require of me if they offered me the position. I learnt that they expect things to move along at a fairly quick pace without any bureaucratic culture. They don't expect you to succeed in every venture you take up and would never punish you for occasional failures that are bound to happen. They just want enthusiastic, intelligent and passionate people to work with. Each and every interviewer at Facebook came across as super-smart and passionate about their jobs. 3 out of the 5 told me that they cannot imagine working anywhere else now. I came away knowing that not only will this be a challenging place to work but it will also be an opportunity to work with some really smart people who completely enjoy what they are doing. I haven't received any feedback from FB yet but no matter which way this goes, I feel super happy about having had the opportunity to interview there and get a glimpse of its working.

Was contacted by a recruiter for an Internal Tools Engineer position. During initial phone screen, the possibility of applying instead for the Technology Partner role was presented (based on my diverse background as a founder/PM and application developer). After thinking it through for a couple of days, I opted to proceed with the Technology Partner interview. My first phone interview (45 min.) was with the hiring manager. I was asked a broad range of questions, from the expected ("Why Facebook?") to the very specific (questions about using data to inform product decisions at my prior companies). There were a handful of process questions--fairly standard product management type stuff. After the initial phone interview, I was contacted by the recruiter to setup a phone interview with the hiring manager's boss. This interview was similar in format to the prior phone interview, and the same types of questions were asked. I could sense that they were looking for specific data points on prior product decisions, so having a handful of "for instance" answers proved very helpful. At the end of this call, I was told that the recruiter would be arranging my travel details for an on-site interview. The onsite interview process was fairly straightforward. Facebook is awesome about scheduling travel for out of town applicants, and the arrangements were made without a hitch. The on-site interview consisted of six 45min. interviews as well as lunch with the recruiter. While I can't provide specific questions, make sure you brush up on your SQL! For this position, there was one basic engineering interview (which I found to be very enjoyable, having to do with the style of the particular engineering manager, and the types of questions asked). In addition to the engineer, I interviewed with two Technology Partners, the hiring manager, the hiring manager's boss, and an analyst. I was very comfortable with the questions asked, other than a brief stumble on a SQL question. I enjoyed the personalities of everyone I interviewed with, and everyone was punctual and very reassuring. I emailed the recruiter a week after the onsite interview, and was promptly phoned. They opted to pass on making an offer. The recruiter was very gracious, and indicated that all the feedback from the interviewing group was positive, and they'd like to keep me in consideration for other positions in the future.