Interviewing Q&A and Videos

I completed my final rounds at Meta. I heard back from the recruiter on the same day pretty quickly that they would like to set up a call and asked for Meta references. Is this a good sign? How important are the references?

Hi Everyone,

I recently received a call from Meta for an interview for the Enterprise Systems Engineer (E4) role. So far, I’ve been focusing solely on the Software Engineer - Infrastructure position at Meta.

I had a few questions:

1. How does the Enterprise Systems Engineer role differ from Software Engineer - Infrastructure?
2. What is the typical career trajectory for an Enterprise Systems Engineer at Meta, or in the industry overall?
3. If I plan to transition to a Software Engineer or Machine Learning Engineer role at Meta after a few years, is that possible internally?
4. Is the Enterprise Systems Engineer role less hands-on with coding compared to the Software Engineer - Infrastructure role?

Thanks in advance for your insights!

Hi there, I'm a senior engineer and I'm looking to apply to startups. I feel like this is a different ballgame compared to working with recruiters at big tech as there is no resume. For example one of my top choices has a job posting that simply asks me to submit my linkedin, github, or website link. How can I stand out?

Many of their engineers are on linkedin, so I can try to start the conversation that way.

Their backend is golang, so I've been working on building backend golang projects and putting them on github, as well as making youtube videos about my process. When I feel like I have enough of a portfolio, I could apply with my github link.

I do use their product, so maybe there is something I can do with that. Maybe I could make a simple website where I introduce myself and link to everything - github, linkedin, live demos of my projects, etc.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

I’m in the interview process with a robotics company that asked me to prep a 9min self introduction that can include anything. I’m in the process of drafting my self intro. My intro consists of lightly touching upon 10 robotics/SWE experiences, then wrapping up with why I want to join the company and how my skillsets align with the company’s trajectory.

I realized that summarizing 10 experiences makes each experience a little superficial. On the other hand they each contribute a little to my story of how I’ve been involved in robotics over the years, so what’s the best way to go about this?

Does anyone have experience of using this LinkedIn feature? Does it help in any way in the current job market?

Thank you!!

In a recent behavioral mock interview, I was asked the question "Tell me about a time you worked on a team."

From my understanding, the question's focus appears to be on teamwork and collaboration (i.e. do you work well in a team setting?).

A story I had was when I was working on a call history feature. The call was managed by the call center team, and I needed to integrate their API into our backend code to pull this data in real time. When I was trying to test the integration, I noticed the data that was being returned was incomplete, leading to difficulties with integration process.

• I first analyzed the structure of the data returned as the API response. This analysis revealed that the API was lacking key fields such as agent name and call duration necessary for our dashboard.
• I recognized solving this issue would require action from the call center team, so I scheduled a meeting with the lead engineer from the call center team and worked together with him to extend the API design to return the missing fields in real time.
• After the meeting, I maintained close communication with the call center engineer to make sure the changes worked as expected. I also scheduled joint testing sessions where we verified over zoom calls that the changes worked seamlessly and did not disrupt existing systems.
• In the end, I successfully integrated the API, enabling the call history feature to function smoothly in real time. My collaboration also improved the call center API, making it more robust and easier to implement for other developers on our team in future projects. The project taught me the importance of proactive communication when it comes to working across teams.

Do you think this answer is on the right track? I would gladly appreciate any thoughts or feedback on this answer.

Big thanks for reading through all of this - I know it is a very long post and I really appreciate your time!

Context
I have a potential offer from Google. The job description mentions the following

"The US base salary range for this full-time position is $221,000-$314,000 + bonus + equity + benefits"

I was under the impression that this will be an L5/L6 role. The recruiter didn't really give that information away in the phone-screen. However, just before the team-match call (happens after the onsite), the recruiter told me that the HM had hinted them that this will most likely be an L4 role. During the team-match call, I made sure I demonstrated L5 signals when they asked me about my current job and past experience. The HM even told me that they really see me succeeding on the role and I should hear back from the recruiter shortly on the next steps.

My Question
I am preparing for negotiating with the recruiter. Is this a common low-balling tactic by Google recruiters? Otherwise why is there a mismatch between what is mentioned in the job posting and what they are saying?

I am a university student who will graduate this year, and on this Tuesday (tomorrow) I will be having an offer conversation with the startup that I interned at this summer. I have watched the negotiation course and it certainly has provided invaluable information, but there are just some details I want to get opinions from the community so I can maximize my compensation.

First, some facts:

• From what I gathered from the Internet and people working there, the base and bonus part of the package will be slightly lower than FAANG, despite the company considering itself to have a higher hiring bar. I don't see this company going public any time soon, so I will consider the equity as paper money.
• I'm in the process with two other top-tier companies (TC > 220k even w/o negotiation) but both are still in the early stages. I should be able to finish both interviews before the offer deadline.
• My feedback from the internship has been extremely positive (basically my feedback was "keep doing what you are doing").

Based on what I've learned from the course, I think my strategy for negotiation is as follows:

• Disclose as little info as possible on the call as possible. Do not express that I want a boost in TC on the call. Try to defer everything to email with something like "I need to collect all the data I have before making this huge decision". But at the mean time I should at least ask some questions about the offer to show my interest.
• In terms of the components in the package, I should prioritize base, bonus, and sign-on instead of equity.

And after the call, I'll have two options:

• Ask for an increase in TC before finishing the interview with the two other companies, because if I get rejected and I will lose the leverage.
• Do this after the interviews finish. This presents a higher risk, but also a higher reward.

So my main question is which option is better, because I don't know how much stronger an actual competing offer is than an ongoing interview, and I cannot tell how likely I'll pass the other interviews yet.

Two other questions

• Should I explicitly say how much more I want? If so, what is the right amount to request? Match FAANG in cash? Exceed FAANG in cash because equity is too uncertain and according to the company itself, the hiring bar is higher?
• Should I split my request into multiple small increments or just tell them "give me this amount"?