This might be due to a potential looming recession from the pandemic.
Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?
11–16 of 16 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?
#12This might be due to a potential looming recession from the pandemic.
Ugh I hate to agree but it does seem like they're stuffing their pipeline just to have extra cattle at the gate in case the gates open up...
Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?
#13It could be a multitude of reasons. Try not to think of it as a robotic pipeline even though it appears that way. The interviewer could have been sincere but there are a lot of hard decisions / politics / etc. behind the scenes:
• The hiring manager for the team(s) could have been mandated to put in a hiring freeze
• You may have provided an optimal solution but the interviewer couldn’t see himself working with you everyday — at the end of the day this is what it’s all about you want to hire someone you are able to work well with everyday. Not likely the case here though something to consider
• Budget could have gone down
• Headcount reductions
• They night have found a better fit candidate
• Things might be chaotic as even if you do hired your can’t come into HQ until the virus passes
• [Insert any other reason here]
Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?
#14"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
“The recruitment team will get in touch..”
Everybody says that all the time.
Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?
#15Yes, 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?
To avoid an emotional confrontation with the candidate. 95% don't meet the bar, but they would be offended if they were told how they really perform. Some may even sue back if they happen to be in some minority group. Companies like FB don't have a shortage of very qualified candidates, so you not applying again is just irrelevant to them. The sign of a perfect interview is when the interviewer realizes that you know more than him.
Re: Ask HN: Is this normal practice from Facebook?
#16I'm guessing here but it many cases the interviewers(not only recruiters) are taught to act positively. Also if they are choosing between you and someone else they don't what to discourage you from applying.
Someone said that the company doesn't care about you in particular, but they do care about more people applying. It's just larger pool to choose from.