I was initially approached by a Facebook recruiter for a Data Science Manager position. I work in machine learning and software engineering. Due to my engineering background, they thought I would be a good fit for data engineering.

I declined, but the recruiter (misinformed, or perhaps in a typical sales fashion) said it was heavily AI-based. So, I decided to have an initial screen with the hiring manager in the USA over videoconference. The person was really nice, humble, and overall gave me a great impression. We agreed that I am more into machine learning and software engineering than data engineering.

The hiring manager was very impressive in his questioning and in his effort to get the best information out of me. He was looking for talent rather than faults.

I then had an unofficial chat with an old colleague of mine, who now works as a Data Science Manager at Facebook. They spoke highly of Facebook and working there.

The recruiter also kept pitching to me how I would be able to move onto more software engineering and machine learning roles. With all this information, and given the manager seemed such a great guy, I thought I would progress it. Managers do make careers, and he was the main reason I progressed.

My second interview was with a Data Engineering Manager in London over video conference. They didn't want to video conference, stating they would just be taking notes. The interview felt very mechanical rather than a fluent conversation. The questions asked were about leadership, technical skills, and SQL.

The technical questions weren't hard, but I did have a brain freeze on one. It was my fault; I should have prepped rather than turning up for a technical interview without preparation. However, I did get all the coding exercises right, although in one of them, the interviewer had to prompt me to come up with a simpler solution.

The recruiter had told me that the technical interview would be 15 minutes and the leadership interview would be 45 minutes.

Long story short, I was told that I didn't pass their leadership test. I feel the same as the review left by someone on "23 Mar 2018". My hunch is that this particular interviewer wants to hear particular answers to general questions on leadership.

When I asked about career progression, they gave an answer that started with, "I really believe Facebook is changing the world." This suggests they want to hear specific answers rather than acknowledging that there might be many correct responses.

Having said this, I wouldn't change what or how I answered things. It's good not to go to a place where you might not fit, especially when your career is heading in a different direction.

What do you enjoy about your role?

What soft skills did it take for you to get to where you are?

What do you think it takes to build a great Data Engineering team/platform?

What's the most difficult thing you've had to do?

Write a Python program to remove duplicates, keeping the first occurrence.

Write a Python program to count words.