7 ms·

For what it’s worth, at Facebook the general hiring process is in two steps. There’s a centralized hire/no hire that most people are aware of and then a second

by vjeux 6y ago

For what it’s worth, at Facebook the general hiring process is in two steps. There’s a centralized hire/no hire that most people are aware of and then a second phase where team selection happens. This is where all the “hire for weakness” steps that the author mention happen. Teams are looking at this pool of people for speciality, levels... that they need and where the matchmaking happens. There are also a lot of smaller but specialized longstanding loops like front-end, AI... and one off “reqs” for special roles that teams need. The world of hiring is very fascinating :)

wikibob 6y ago
Is the 6 week onboarding bootcamp followed by team selection deprecated? When did that happen?
- Impossible 6y ago
  It sounds like OP was talking about the same process, although they skipped mentioning bootcamp and only mentioned team selection. They also accounted for specialist pre-allocated roles. My FB experience was different than many because I was hired to a specific team. I was also the first member of that team to go through bootcamp. It was a weird exception because many of the team members came from the Oculus acquisition, and at the time Oculus had somewhat separate culture. Afaik AR/VR still hires for specific teams and roles externally, although roles in that org are also regularly filled by bootcamp grads with the right experience and/or interests
jghn 6y ago
This is one of those areas where more companies need to realize they're not a FAANG. As Joel has pointed out in the past, you're not getting the cream of the crop as a normal company. Likewise you probably neither need nor even want the top. However what you do need is to plug a few holes here and there. As a hiring manager I find it much better to think in terms of a skill mesh. I'm always looking to bring the collective whole forward. A candidate can do that by bringing new skills to the table, by being awesome at existing skills, or some mix of all of the above.
- rozap 6y ago
  Plenty of "top" candidates don't work and don't want to work at a faang company.
  - lostcolony 6y ago
    Quite honestly I have my doubts FAANG selects for "top" candidates anyway. Unless you define "top candidate" as "those FAANG selects".
    - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
      The loop variance is very high, so there's a lot of error, but in terms of the overall quality of my co-workers, the FAANG i spent five years at was definitely the best. I do notice a substantial difference in average quality between them and less successful Bay Area companies, which does suggest that they are doing a reasonably good job at getting pretty good people in the door.
      - decafninja 6y ago
        I think passion comes into play here. You've got to have at least some amount of drive beyond "clock in at 9 and leave at 5 sharp to collect a paycheck" to get into these top tech companies. Even if at the end of the day, it's still a job, I don't think you can get into these companies unless you dedicate a way-above-average amount of time and effort to do so. Ignore all of the above if you are a natural leetcode wizard; yes I know there are some people like that.
        buttscicles 6y ago
        > You've got to have at least some amount of drive beyond "clock in at 9 and leave at 5 sharp to collect a paycheck" to get into these top tech companies. I can't say how true this is or not, but I know there are plenty that _want_ to get in exactly so they can clock in & out without doing much
kthielen 6y ago
lol this is not how interviewing works at Facebook, at least not as a general practice. I’ve seen fewer unthinking superficial snap judgements elsewhere than at Facebook.
objclxt 6y ago
> at Facebook the general hiring process is in two steps. There’s a centralized hire/no hire that most people are aware of and then a second phase where team selection happens This is not quite how it works. I was a hiring manager at Facebook for several years. It is made very clear to EMs that team selection is not a second interview or extension of the hiring process. We do not consider team selection part of hiring. Now, obviously there is a degree of self selection. And if you have multiple engineers coming from boot camp you can, of course, choose an engineer you feel would be more successful. That’s OK. But I couldn’t turn an engineer down because I felt they wouldn’t be a good ‘fit’ on my team: they’d already been through the hiring process. Conversely, it absolutely can and does happen that people go through the specialist interview loops and end up in a completely different role. For example, you could have spent your entire career writing iOS client code and join a backend server team, no problem. That’s the theory, in practice of course for some people it does turn into a second phase of hiring, which is very much not the intention.
- zerr 6y ago
  Btw, I've heard fb is moving away from leetcode BS stuff for interviews. Can you confirm that?
  - EvilEy3 6y ago
    What are they replacing it with? Back to prestigious university?
    - DenverCode 6y ago
      Well, guess I'm a no.
    - zerr 6y ago
      With the stuff related to the actual day job. I've heard this about their London office.
      - decafninja 6y ago

by vjeux 6y ago

wikibob 6y ago

Is the 6 week onboarding bootcamp followed by team selection deprecated? When did that happen?

Impossible 6y ago
It sounds like OP was talking about the same process, although they skipped mentioning bootcamp and only mentioned team selection. They also accounted for specialist pre-allocated roles. My FB experience was different than many because I was hired to a specific team. I was also the first member of that team to go through bootcamp. It was a weird exception because many of the team members came from the Oculus acquisition, and at the time Oculus had somewhat separate culture. Afaik AR/VR still hires for specific teams and roles externally, although roles in that org are also regularly filled by bootcamp grads with the right experience and/or interests

jghn 6y ago

This is one of those areas where more companies need to realize they're not a FAANG. As Joel has pointed out in the past, you're not getting the cream of the crop as a normal company. Likewise you probably neither need nor even want the top. However what you do need is to plug a few holes here and there. As a hiring manager I find it much better to think in terms of a skill mesh. I'm always looking to bring the collective whole forward. A candidate can do that by bringing new skills to the table, by being awesome at existing skills, or some mix of all of the above.

rozap 6y ago
Plenty of "top" candidates don't work and don't want to work at a faang company.
- lostcolony 6y ago
  Quite honestly I have my doubts FAANG selects for "top" candidates anyway. Unless you define "top candidate" as "those FAANG selects".
  - disgruntledphd2 6y ago
    The loop variance is very high, so there's a lot of error, but in terms of the overall quality of my co-workers, the FAANG i spent five years at was definitely the best. I do notice a substantial difference in average quality between them and less successful Bay Area companies, which does suggest that they are doing a reasonably good job at getting pretty good people in the door.
    - decafninja 6y ago
      I think passion comes into play here. You've got to have at least some amount of drive beyond "clock in at 9 and leave at 5 sharp to collect a paycheck" to get into these top tech companies. Even if at the end of the day, it's still a job, I don't think you can get into these companies unless you dedicate a way-above-average amount of time and effort to do so. Ignore all of the above if you are a natural leetcode wizard; yes I know there are some people like that.
      - buttscicles 6y ago
        > You've got to have at least some amount of drive beyond "clock in at 9 and leave at 5 sharp to collect a paycheck" to get into these top tech companies. I can't say how true this is or not, but I know there are plenty that _want_ to get in exactly so they can clock in & out without doing much

kthielen 6y ago

lol this is not how interviewing works at Facebook, at least not as a general practice. I’ve seen fewer unthinking superficial snap judgements elsewhere than at Facebook.

objclxt 6y ago

> at Facebook the general hiring process is in two steps. There’s a centralized hire/no hire that most people are aware of and then a second phase where team selection happens This is not quite how it works. I was a hiring manager at Facebook for several years. It is made very clear to EMs that team selection is not a second interview or extension of the hiring process. We do not consider team selection part of hiring. Now, obviously there is a degree of self selection. And if you have multiple engineers coming from boot camp you can, of course, choose an engineer you feel would be more successful. That’s OK. But I couldn’t turn an engineer down because I felt they wouldn’t be a good ‘fit’ on my team: they’d already been through the hiring process. Conversely, it absolutely can and does happen that people go through the specialist interview loops and end up in a completely different role. For example, you could have spent your entire career writing iOS client code and join a backend server team, no problem. That’s the theory, in practice of course for some people it does turn into a second phase of hiring, which is very much not the intention.

zerr 6y ago
Btw, I've heard fb is moving away from leetcode BS stuff for interviews. Can you confirm that?
- EvilEy3 6y ago
  What are they replacing it with? Back to prestigious university?
  - DenverCode 6y ago
    Well, guess I'm a no.
  - zerr 6y ago
    With the stuff related to the actual day job. I've heard this about their London office.
    - decafninja 6y ago