(TIPS at the bottom)
##Intro##
As in quite a few big tech companies, they have completely butchered their hiring processes.
The very first impression for a candidate is with a recruiter that makes you question their own recruitment screening when they were hired.
Make no mistakes. My intention here is not to put you off before an interview, but merely prepare you for what I went through and hope that Facebook read this and improve their recruitment process. We all know Facebook to be a great place to work (just check the employee reviews), but their recruitment process as it is now certainly does not make justice to themselves.
##Expectations...##
I expected an enthusiastic recruiter, who would be happy to get to know the person behind the candidate, not just tick boxes, and most of all, who would be an enthusiastic marketeer, happy to talk about how awesome working at Facebook is (like I used to do for my previous employer when I interviewed applicants). I was regrettably wrong. I had been told that Facebook values candidates and employees but the phone call I had was completely one way street. I'm quite disappointed.
##... v Reality##
Over and over again I tried to establish human connection with the recruiter on the phone, giving enough answer to allow for follow up questions so that we could have a more pleasant interaction, making a joke or two to try and break the ice, but all my attempts to connect were brutally shot down and it soon became clear that my personality would be completely irrelevant to this step. This on its own was concerning enough as I would have assumed that the team would have sought strong, lively personalities to "move fast and break things" and "build social value".
##Here is where it gets truly frustrating..##
The recruiter delivered a tone of superiority, in my opinion to intimidate and keep (a very bumpy) control of the call. To start with, they were late for the call and didn't even acknowledge it, let alone apologise for it. Secondly, they tried to dismiss my questions as quickly as possible. Thirdly, when I asked if there was anything we talked about that left a blank, the answer was "no, I already asked my questions. I ask the same questions in order to assess everyone fairly". This answer showed that this person does not take the questions as a framework to play with. They have a checklist and zero flexibility to work around it. This is a liability to any team, let alone a recruitment department that has such an important task of evaluating people.
##Considerations...##
I expected that they, of all Facebook employees, would know everyone is different and that's the beauty of diversity (Mark Zuckerberg understands it, how can the *recruitment specialist* not?). How can they not know that it's *they* who should feel the candidate and apply different approaches to different applicants in order to assess everyone fairly? How can they lack so much social intelligence?
I am someone who strives best when I am able to establish a human interaction. That did not happen, so Facebook was unable to assess *me*.
And let's face it, if the questions were rigid, why not have an online test system I could fill in within a timeframe? Why throw off competent, hard-working and pleasant candidates (I'm pretty cool despite this review) with such a terrible phone call? I genuinely had more pleasant and way more productive phone calls with full-on corporates than this.
##(very obvious) Outcome...##
Needless to say, with such a disastrous call, they decided not to proceed with my application. I was objectively a really strong candidate and I should at least have been given a shot at the next interview.
##Tips...##
So to all who are applying for this position, my tip is: prepare for what I did not. Prepare to not be yourselves. Rehearse speaking to the wall and still maintaining a smile (yes, you will look crazy, but it will definitely help). Prepare for a recruitment phone call that sees checklists, not people. Prepare for a recruiter who shockingly has no clue of what "active listening" means, while they just transcribe your words onto their computer.
I will apply again in the future because my values align with Facebook's. But I will make sure to prepare for the worst - the same recruiter.
