Last week, Business Insider published a pretty interesting article about getting a technical job at Facebook. Apparently, if you’re not dreaming about being Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, you’re dreaming about serving him. Sure, working at Facebook will score you extra points in the dating department, but if you’re looking for excitement and waiting for Facebook to call, there are plenty of ambitious startups seeking ambitious developers. Startups like us!
Without the clout of Facebook or the allure of Silicon Valley, we at Casengo have put together our own tips: “Casengo Reveals How to Get a Job at the Newest Social Customer Support Tool in Town”. The first round telephone interview at Facebook allegedly goes like this: “Interviewers will ask candidates about their resume, skills, motivation etc. But the bulk of the time is spent on coding exercises.” *Here at Casengo, we adore exercises too. We’ll jump straight to the coding, before taking you through a series of aerobic and yoga exercises. (In case we have to flee creditors, you see. We want to see how agile you are. ;-)
Facebook then conducts a series of back-to-back interviews, during which “the candidate will likely be asked to write code on a whiteboard.” We’re too small to have back-to-back interviews, so let’s just stand back to back, my back against yours. You can write our entire 5-year product release plan on the whiteboard and we promise not to look until you’re done. Ta dah! If there’s five minutes left we can even play a little hangman on the whiteboard.* Then it's time for the personality profiling.
How things go chez Zuckerberg: “Facebook wants people who know how to make a large impact, individuals who can move quickly, make bold choices, and be transparent about what they are doing.” Yes, at Casengo we really want that too. But we’re looking for people who can realize something might not work before they’ve annoyed millions of users, a la Facebook timeline. If you haven’t blown your Facebook interview yet, you’ll be assessed on your ability to “work multiple roles, quickly and easily.” It's great that you have a computer science degree and you’re coding like crazy, but the big question is: what are your coffee brewing skills like? Casengo requires multi-taskers too. So that's one vente soy decaf macchiato coming right up! The high level picture is important to Facebook. “They want to see how well candidates can visualize the entire problem and solution space”. Hopefully, in your Casengo interview, you covered that off in the 5-year product plan you put together on our whiteboard. If not, just hand over your credit card and solve that age-old startup dilemma of getting the first paying customer. If you’re still in the game at Facebook, you’ll go 360 degrees and back to more complex coding. *At Casengo, it’s not all work and no fun. Show us your foosball skills and you may just be the next hire.
No but, seriously: Casengo is looking for first-rate developers, and the interview process won’t be anything like described above. Heck, we'll even make you coffee. If you’re in the Netherlands, want an exciting challenge, and have the passion to build something from the ground up, get in touch.