This one began well. A recruiter contacted me first, and she was friendly, professional and really helpful. In this market it is hard to even get a recruiter to notice you, so that alone felt like a big deal.
They were flexible about scheduling, and I booked my screening for the EM1 role about two weeks out. To get ready I used an online interview prep course. I worked through all of the top system design problems there, and I also wrote up a lot of behavioral stories, so I felt ready.
The screening was on Zoom, and the people management part was rough. The Meta EM interviewer was sharp and grilled me hard. I held my ground, but one question, which happened to be the very first one, was something I had not prepared for at all. He dug deep into it, and somehow I answered it well. The system design part felt easy next to that. I had already practiced a LeetCode-style online contest with a leaderboard, so I nailed it.
I passed, and then I started preparing for the full loop, which was heavy. I took another three weeks for it. I also set up a call with a second EM who would act as a guide. I had another conversation with the recruiter too, and she walked me through every interview in the loop and pointed me in the right direction. Honestly it was the best interview process I have ever been through, though a long one. The whole thing was organized and carefully planned. A week before the interviews I met the guide, and he did not add much beyond the AI-enabled coding round and the project perspective round, both of which I had already figured out. He did say I should still brush up on the harder data structures and algorithms. For the AI-enabled coding I practiced on the same prep course and on Meta's career site.
Then, in the week of my interview, an email came saying the interview was cancelled because of business and organization changes. It lined up with the Meta layoff news in the Bay Area. That was a real letdown, since my mock interviews were giving me "hire" ratings and telling me an offer was coming. I guess it was just bad luck.
Still, I feel confident I can land a good job at a similar top company.
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