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On the topic of failure, I’ve failed to pass facebook’s Data Science interviews 4 times in 5 years. I’ve been rejected at every level now (phone screen to the “more signal” round).

At what point do I give up? Each time I interview, it ends up with me dedicating roughly a week to prepare, and a week recovering from the rejection.




Honest question, what's the appeal of working at a place like Facebook these days? It seems like a pretty well known fact that they're a horrible company in terms of their "product" (advertising and data mining). Is it money and experience? Being in my 40's with 2 young kids I don't think I could ever bring myself to contribute to a company like that.


I've thought about this a lot vis a vis "What kind of company do I want to work for."

Despite not being proud of the product, I think I would still be excited to work with/learn from other programmers that are at the top of their field.

For a few years at least :)


Working at a company that makes software for hacking and spying on people that sells to oppressive governments sounds pretty exciting and challenging too. Where do you draw the line?


I will be honest, I like money. Money is pretty much the biggest motivator I have now to get better at my job. The desire to be rich is what keeps the SV boom alive.

Facebook pays well.


I'm still reeling from being rejected by Google years ago. Inspiring to see you keep trying. Keep it up!


If it makes you feel any better my googler friends complain that really great candidates they liked or even tried to bring in got rejected while people who get the thumbs down seem to get in.

It seems that internally Google's hiring process is universally described as "random".


Thanks :}


Don't worry, you don't need to keep that painnof rejection alive in your heart for years. A week or two; at most a month. You can always try again. Be strong..


I'm a little confused? 1 why aren't you adding more prep time after each failure? 2 why do you keep interviewing with them at all? a job at x fang company isn't a goal in itself? is it because the opportunity keeps coming up about you take advantage of it? if the latter then why be upset? it's like walking by a carnie game and getting a free play and being upset you lost.




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