What are some tips on making it through the job interview process at Facebook?

I recruit, coach and guide both senior engineers and engineering leaders (levels 6 and above) through the interview process at Facebook. While every team, position and even product are different, here are 6 common things that might help.

1. Prepare - I can’t stress the importance of this one. The difference can be night and day. If you’re seriously considering Facebook, you should take some time to prepare on both the technical and behavioral questions. In many cases, your recruiter should be able to help you figure out what to focus on or provide some clarity on key things to consider. Some recruiters, like myself, will even provide specific prep for the interviews you’ll encounter.
2. Familiarize yourself with the product or team - There are are a lot of resources on a team by team basis that helps candidates learn more about what specific teams do and how they fit within the Facebook ecosystem. For example, I recruit primarily for our production engineering (PE) team. Specific resources I’ve shared with candidates include a PDF of some of the teams we have in our organization, a link to the PE blog, recent announcements from Facebook, a video overview of our team, some of our open source projects, and what our 10 year plan looks like. I do this because people find different things valuable and consume content in various ways. I want to help them prepare with as little friction as possible.
3. Be Transparent - Let your recruiter and interviewers know what you’re passionate about, what products excite you and how your experience can add value. If you’re an intern or recent grad, focus on identifying you’re areas of strength, whether it be traditional software engineering or something else. If you’re interviewing for a non-technical role, focus on creativity, execution, ownership and process and tie these things in accordingly depending on the role you’re interviewing for.
4. Know what you know and know what you don’t know - This one applies across the board. It’s totally okay to not know something. Our interviews are designed to push your limits on knowledge and that’s how we gauge for experience at specific levels and roles. If you don’t know something, it’s okay to let your interviewer know how you might figure it out. We’re owners and everything is our problem.
5. Focus on Impact - When talking about past projects or experience, position your answers from a “how did this impact the team/product/user/company?” perspective. If it was a failed project, what did you and the team learn from it? While each role is a bit different, you should always be as specific as possible. Cookie cutter stories just aren’t real life.
6. Be Yourself and Be Confident - It’s important to be comfortable with who are and we encourage it. It’s also important to be confident and put your best step forward. This is an interview after all. You should also showcase your excitement and no I’m not talking the fireworks and rockets type. You should be genuine in what matters to you and what makes you most interested in pursuing this role and Facebook in general. Lastly, try to turn the interview into a conversation but still make sure to answer your interviewers questions.

We’re all humans. Don’t treat this as if there is often a right, systematic answer. There isn’t. In many cases, we’re just trying to get to know you and we want there to be a mutual feeling that working together would be impactful and fun. Last but not least, if things don’t work out for any reason, we hope you’ll give us a shot again in the future.