This week has been extremely busy. On top of a busy week at work and keeping up with my school work, I had my “on-site” interviews at Meta on Tuesday and Wednesday. They were a grind! It was such a relief to be finished with them. Now, the stress of waiting ensues though.
These were actually my very first technical interviews. I began the interview process back at the end of February. After a recruiter reached out to me, I was asked to set up a screening phone interview for a Front End Engineer position. It was a simple 30 minute phone call mostly about core Javascript concepts. Think closures, DOM, Javascript API methods, prototype and inheritance, this, etc. I was immediately informed at the end of the call that I would be moving onto the next steps.
The technical screen…. This was the first technical interview I have ever done. The anticipation and nervousness leading up to it was extreme. It’s hard to know what to expect, and I was scared of not knowing. I hold myself to very high standards, and it was intimidating to be judged so openly while coding. However, it wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. And by that, I don’t mean the interview was a breeze and I knew the most optimal solution right away. I mean that walking through my code and problem solving in front of a stranger is not nearly as scary as I thought it’d be. My interview was actually fairly collaborative, and when I got stumped, the interviewer would help point me back on track. I came out of the technical screen not feeling super confident in my answer, but I did feel confident that I articulated my thoughts and how I problem solved well. I learned a few hours later that I was moved onto the “on-site” interviews.
The “on-site” interviews… These interviews are comprised of three separate interviews. Two technicals and a behavioral, both at 45 minutes. The behavioral was a lot of scenario-based questions (i.e Tell me about a time when…). Although I didn’t spend as much time preparing for the behavioral as the technical, I still spent a significant amount of time preparing. The behavioral is just as important as the technical! I felt most confident after this interview. The two technicals were definitely more challenging than the screening. I struggled through the problems, finished some and not others, but ultimately, I feel they definitely could have gone worse. I think it’s important to remember that the interviewers are there to help you and that they want you to succeed. They don’t expect perfection, and they understand you’re nervous. I kept reminding this to myself when my nerves tried to get the better of me. (And worse case, you probably won’t ever see this person again so who cares if you didn’t correctly code the fastest way to sort a list).
I’m not sure if I’ll get an offer or not, but I am very thankful to have completed this experience. Interview is all about practice and building confidence. This was definitely a learning experience, and I feel more confident already. When it comes time to interview again, I’ll definitely lean on this experience as a foundation.
