Well, it’s here. You asked for it! My journey to Facebook, part 1.
A year ago, summer 2020, I interned at Facebook as a Software Engineer. Wow, it’s been a year and saying that I interned at Facebook still sounds unreal.
Let’s start at the way beginning. How did I even get this opportunity?
Well, to be completely honest, I never thought a company like Facebook would notice me. I was a student with not the best GPA trying to survive computer science courses at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). I had already completed my 1st Software Engineering internship at Allstate but I still didn’t feel good enough to apply to a tech giant. In fact, I never did. Facebook reached out to me.
How did Facebook reach out to me? LinkedIn. Funny enough, at my first internship, they made all of us create a LinkedIn. I remember I didn’t want to have one because I had nothing to add to it. I was embarrassed. Yet, I kept the account and updated it as I volunteered at the CS department and became a teaching assistant.
One day, I received a message on LinkedIn.
I first opened this message thinking it was a scam. Why would Facebook be interested in me? Back then, I had no confidence in myself. I was still trying to convince myself I belonged in this field.
I figured, what’s the worst that could happen? So, I sent him an email along with my resume.
That “what’s the worst that could happen” thought changed my career.
He emailed me back and we both discovered that we’d be attending the same conference in Arizona. Which brings me to my next big point on how I got this internship, attending conferences. Conferences will not always be funded by your school, sometimes you will need to attend them on your own and at your own expense. That’s what I did. I drove to Arizona to attend the 2019 SHPE National Convention, the largest gathering of Hispanics in STEM.
My experience at that conference was brutal. I was rejected by every company I approached. I didn’t meet any of the GPA requirements and I felt incredibly unqualified. Although, during this conference I met my Facebook recruiter in person. He explained to me the interview process at Facebook and told me everything about their summer internship. I recall sitting there listening to him tell me about the internship opportunity at Facebook and thinking to myself, that would be great.
I didn’t interview for the internship at this conference but I did do a mock interview. I met with a Facebook Software Engineer and he gave me very useful technical interview tips. My recruiter and I then agreed that I would take some time to prepare for the interview, he gave me about two months. I didn’t get any interviews during SHPE but little did I know that attending that conference was a step towards an incredibly opportunity. I went back home ready to take on the challenge of going through the Facebook interview process.
During the two months that I was preparing for my Facebook interview, I applied to Microsoft. Within a few weeks, they flew me out to Seattle for an interview.
At Microsoft, I had four back-to-back technical interviews onsite and felt absolutely defeated.
Rejection. It’s part of the process. The only thing that matters when you get rejected is how you respond to it. Thankfully for me, my brother was there to help me up after every single rejection email. And boy was I rejected. But, I continued studying, interviewing at different companies and doing mock interviews. I really took advantage of the time my Facebook recruiter gave me to prepare, even if that meant failing while trying.
If you’re interested in more detail on how I prepared for technical interviews, check out this blog post.
By December 2019, I felt ready. I had my first interview right before the holidays. During this interview, I was asked 2 technical questions. The first one was the valid parenthesis problem, one of the most common leetcode questions. I linked it here if you’re interested in seeing it. (For the record, he did ask for time and space complexity!) Since I solved the first question fairly quickly, I was asked another one. This one was tougher. I don’t remember exactly what the question was but I do know it was a sliding window question. The interviewer had to guide me a bit in solving it and we ended up working it out together. I did solve the problem, but with his help.
To be honest, I didn’t think I would get a call back since he had to help me. But by the new year, my recruiter called me and told me I was moving forward to a second interview! I was beyond shocked. By this time, I had already accepted my second internship at Disney and was getting ready to leave to Orlando.
I had my second interview sometime in January 2020. This interview was definitely tougher than the first one. The interviewer read a word problem to me. It wasn’t a leetcode question at all. She described a real-life problem to me and asked me how I would solve it.
During technical interviews, I had a few steps I would follow. Here is how I approached a problem:
- Repeat the problem statement back to make sure you fully understand it
- Ask questions, make sure you have all the pieces to the puzzle (interviewers sometimes leave out information on purpose)
- What are my inputs?
- What are my outputs?
- Create a sample test case
Once I’ve followed all of those steps, I would begin solving the problem. These steps helped me pass my second interview. Otherwise, I would’ve felt extremely overwhelmed when she started reading out a word problem to me.
I received a call from my recruiter the very next day with an internship offer. I could not believe it. Me? The girl no one wanted to interview at SHPE got into Facebook?
I accepted the offer for summer 2020 in Menlo Park but due to COVID, I had to intern from home. My internship at Facebook was the most challenging and rewarding experience of my career so far. I’m writing a separate blog post about it.
Take aways:
- Create a LinkedIn, even if you don’t have anything to add to it. Recruiters look for minorities. They need people like us. The opportunities are endless, don’t let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.
- Attend conferences. Meet with companies and recruiters.
- Do mock interviews. As many as possible! Over and over again.
- Rejection should be your motivation. Rejection should not be a set back.
- Study. Practice. Prepare yourself. Hard work betrays none.
Coming up, Interning at Facebook.
XOXO,
Pao
