I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Meta (Seattle, WA) in July 2016
Interview
Heard about a position through someone who works at the company, recruiter contacted me the following week and was very helpful telling me about the opportunities on the various teams that are hiring. The recruiter then handed me off to another recruiter who handled the phone interviews.
This is where the interview process went south fast. It took the recruiter 3 weeks to get this setup and throughout the process did not update me on what was going on. I had to email the recruiter several times about an update after each week of radio silence.
Phone interviews went great, had video conference calls with 2 separate designers: one focused on app critique and the other on portfolio review. Had a positive experience with both of them, luckily the interview where back to back.
Once the interviews were over I did not hear back from the recruiter even though I followed up and asked about what to expect for the next steps. I had to wait another 3 weeks before I heard from the recruiter and said they wanted to continue onto the onsite interview. She then handed me off to the onsite recruiter.
The onsite recruiter was also problematic. After responding to their email right away each time, it took an entire week to nail down a date to chat about the onsite process. I waited for their call and they never called, I even followed up with them right away and didn't get a response until that night with an excuse of "my phone died" and they didn't even bother to apologize. After several back and forth, I got the onsite interview setup.
The onsite interview was by far the best experience. They arranged for an Uber to pick me up from and take me home. The onsite was a portfolio review, an group app critique, lunch interview, whiteboard exercise ("rethink the ATM") and a background interview with a hiring manager. The hiring manager asked if we could spend more time talking after I time was up and they gave me a tour of the building and talked up the benefits of working at Facebook. I left feeling positive and the hiring manager even gave me pointers when looking for a team within Facebook.
I followed up with the recruiter the same day and didn't hear back until over a week later. They ended up saying "No Hire" but wanted to keep my profile on file (unsure why).
Overall, my experience was terrible given that it took 3 months to do the entire process and the recruiters were the worst part. The actual teams were great and seemed like great people I'd want to work with. Hopefully they can sort out their recruiters.
We're sorry to hear about the delays in follow-up from your recruiter. Every candidate moment matters to us and we'll leverage this feedback to improve our experience.
Straightforward like any big tech interview, but long and intense. Formats are pretty standardized so it just takes practice. Questions appear like it's from a bank, so if you're prepared you should be fine.
I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Meta
Interview
I was reached out by a recruiter. Started with the recruiter call, then portfolio presentation, then full loop (Portfolio presentation - app critique - design challenge - background). They had very strong emphasis on design craft and visual excellence. Recruiter who helped me prep was very nice and helpful.
Typical interview process consisting of multiple rounds—Pre-screen, Portfolio Presentation, Full-Loop (Presentation, App Crit, Whiteboard Challenge and Behavioral) - Felt I did really well, and I got great feedback during the rounds but ultimately received no offer.