I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Meta (Menlo Park, CA) in Dec 2012
Interview
I was contacted by a FB recruiter via LinkedIn and had two rounds of interviews. The first round was with two PMs and the second with three more.
Each interview focused on one particular subject, such as:
- Logic. Estimate something, such as how many email messages are sent in a day worldwide via mobile devices. Identify the most important factors when determining whether product X is successful or not. They want to see that you can think quantitatively and have a clear thought process.
- Vision. Imagine an industry 10 years out (transportation, local commerce, fashion, etc.) and describe it. This was the interview I most enjoyed, as it's really about brainstorming and thinking BIG. The key is to identify trends and have a framework for evaluating what could be.
- Design. Typical PM stuff -- design a new feature or product. What's the framework for identifying needs and segments. Identify solutions and priorities. Draw rough wireframes.
- Cultural Fit. Are you a good person? Will you fit with other FBers? They ask you typical interview questions here like: why do you want to work at FB, what would you most want to work on, etc.
Overall the PMs are exceptionally nice and really tried to make our meetings more like conversations rather than interviews. Honestly I wasn't sure about joining FB before I interviewed but was convinced during the course of the interviews by the really smart and nice guys I met during the process.
The process was relatively quick -- from the time of first contact to the offer was about a month. Overall, one of the best interview processes I've been through, and props to the Facebook PM management for actively training their PMs on how to interview!
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Let's say you wanted to build the world's most popular mobile messaging product, and you needed to estimate how much network bandwidth would be used in a year. How would you go about doing this?
The process began with an initial recruiter phone screen focused on my background, product experience, and interest in Meta. This was followed by a series of virtual interviews covering product sense, analytical thinking, execution, and behavioral questions. Interviewers asked me to work through product design scenarios, discuss how I would prioritize competing opportunities, define success metrics, and describe examples of cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management.
The final round consisted of multiple back-to-back interviews with product managers and cross-functional partners. Overall, the process was structured, professional, and challenging. The interviewers were engaged and provided clear expectations for each interview.
Interview process was fairly straightforward. Recruiters are super helpful in getting you prepared for whats to come. Interviews got scheduled fairly fast, so having the momentum is great. Each interview only lasted about 30 minutes. from start to finish it took about 1 month
A multi-stage interview process that typically includes screening, technical and/or case assessments, and conversations with different stakeholders to evaluate both your skills and how well you’d work with the team and the role.