Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#1

Post by lemure » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 11:49 AM UTC

I've been contacted from fb for a position in London with the excuse that they're hiring 1k+ people [1].

Everything seemed legit from internal recruiter contact details and procedure: I've got a lot of reading material from them, set online meetings, etc...

I did the first coding interview and the interviewer has been overly positive throughout the 40 minutes we talked. One day later the former recruiter told me I didn't pass and now he's refusing to give me a more detailed feedback claiming that "due to compliance policy we are not able to provide you with the detailed feedback on your interview"

So...it's this for real or this is some sort of very refined scam (no idea what may be the end goal tho)?

[1] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-europe-business-idUSKBN1ZK0G4

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#2

Post by lonbigtech » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 12:18 PM UTC

Yes, it’s normal to interview people and it’s normal for some subset of those people to fail. It’s standard practice not to provide specific feedback.

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#3

Post by gonchalibro » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 12:30 PM UTC

What was the coding question?

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#4

Post by lemure » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 1:01 PM UTC

lonbigtech wrote: post #2

Yes, it’s normal to interview people and it’s normal for some subset of those people to fail. It’s standard practice not to provide specific feedback.

(I'm not being sarcastic, just want to understand) what's the point in saying "OK perfect interview" and then discarding without giving feedback? why would I risk applying again if I do not know where I failed?

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#5

Post by Orlean » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 1:21 PM UTC

Legal concerns and limited time are among the top reasons you might not get feedback if rejected for a job. They are concerned it can be used or misconstrued by the applicant to demonstrate discrimination in the hiring process. Many employers follow this advice and consider it safest to avoid providing any feedback

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#6

Post by brudgers » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 2:02 PM UTC

lemure wrote: post #4

lonbigtech wrote: post #2

Yes, it’s normal to interview people and it’s normal for some subset of those people to fail. It’s standard practice not to provide specific feedback.

(I'm not being sarcastic, just want to understand) what's the point in saying "OK perfect interview" and then discarding without giving feedback? why would I risk applying again if I do not know where I failed?

What is a perfect interview from Facebook's perspective? Probably a large part of it is determining whether or not to move forward. For a person who wants to work at Facebook, a perfect interview is mostly one that's passed.

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#7

Post by lemure » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 2:31 PM UTC

Orlean wrote: post #5

Legal concerns and limited time are among the top reasons you might not get feedback if rejected for a job. They are concerned it can be used or misconstrued by the applicant to demonstrate discrimination in the hiring process. Many employers follow this advice and consider it safest to avoid providing any feedback

I see, that would make sense, thanks for replying

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#8

Post by n_t » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 3:38 PM UTC

"overly positive throughout" means thats how you felt but not necessarily how interviewer felt. Usually, FB's phone screen expectation is to do 2 coding questions (yes in 35-40 mins!), written as close to compiler ready as possible.

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#9

Post by lemure » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 4:15 PM UTC

n_t wrote: post #8

"overly positive throughout" means thats how you felt but not necessarily how interviewer felt. Usually, FB's phone screen expectation is to do 2 coding questions (yes in 35-40 mins!), written as close to compiler ready as possible.

by "positive" I meant that the interviewer was actually saying "good job", "optimal solution", "you're doing great", "the recruitment team will get in touch with you about next steps"

indeed there were two questions that they asked me to code, even though they didn't want to actually compile/run the code

Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?

#10

Post by Bucephalus355 » Sat, Mar 21, 2020, 4:30 PM UTC

The nicer they are in the interview the more that tends to indicate you will not receive an offer.

I used to wonder why this was, but kept seeing these types of anecdotes pop up again and again.

The best conclusion I have come to, which makes some sense, is that when you do well in an interview yet also some factor means you won't be moving on...the interviewer out of guilt feels compelled to be extra nice to you.