When Opportunity Knocks: Managing Unpreparedness in FAANG Interviews
Learn how Christina navigating the pressure of an unexpected interview opportunity.
This week, after one year, I chatted with my college friend, Christina. One of the recruiters from FAANG reached out to her for hiring Christina for Front-End engineering position. Just before the recruiter reached out to her, Christina started preparing for the interviews. It was not that long ago. So, she responded to the recruiter that she was open to switching employers this time, but what she meant was that she could do interviews after 1-2 months.
The recruiter took that response as "yes" and put her into the interview process, no blame on the recruiter. Due to that, she received an online assessment link. Since Christina had just started the interview process, she wasn't ready to take the assessment, so she asked me what to prepare and how to approach this situation.
Based on the information I got about her situation, I told her that she could always ask the recruiter to push the interview timeline to months. I heard from my mentor that manytimes he pushed interviews to 1 or 2 months, just to prepare for the interview. After hearing the option, she got excited and asked the recruiter for it. But, recruiter told her, "Many candidates are looking for this job, so I cannot give more than a 3-week extension".
The Pressure of Unpreparedness
I don't know why, but this surprised me that recruiter didn’t pushed timeline. Since my friend has an end-of-November timeline to complete the online assessment and she just started interview preparation, she got anxious and disturbed for a scheduled interview. I know many of you relate to this situation but many of you think why get anxious about interview? I've been there, but I can empathize with her and share some common things:
- The interview is for the dream company (FAANG) for CS students
- Recent layoffs and fewer job opportunities in the market
- Many folks are just getting ghosted after applying.
- Candidates are applying for more than 100 applications to get 1 interview.
- Straight rejection for many applications (especially for work visa folks in the US).
So I got her to explain why she feels anxious about the scheduled OA and I gave her couple of ideas that I could think of regarding this situation:
1. Give your 200% effort in the next few weeks and take the OA.
Best case: She'll move on to the next round of interviews. Yay!
Worst Case: Since she gave her best efforts and online assessment, it might give her confidence and be better than what she's currently Today.
In the above approach, the main concern in the worst-case scenario is that she will not be able to interview again for the next 6 or 12 months for the same employer due to the cool-down period. Another concern is she could feel burnout because of giving all her energy in one interview, perhaps disappointment in herself.
2. Give your 100% effort in the next few weeks. If she doesn't feel confident, just don't take the OA.
Best Case: Perhaps recruiter extend her timeline and she gets more time for interview preparation. Even if not, she will be more prepared for future interviews with different employers.
Worst Case: The recruiter cannot extend the timeline.
In above scenario, the cooldown period does not apply, so she can apply for a different position after 1-2 months for same employer. Also, this gives more confidence in for any future interviews. Also, there's a chance that the recruiter didn’t closed the same role and ask her to interview for it.
Since option 2 is less risky for her. She's gonna choose that and continue to prepare until the end of November. Also, she felt a little more calm about it, mainly because she got a clear idea of what to do.
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
By Voltaire
Now let me tell you what I told her, she asked for interview preparation materials and tips. I know there are an abundant number of materials and tips out there, so I'm not going to focus on all of that here. But I'll focus on 1 tip to prepare for an interview.
Mock Interviews: Best Way to Build Confidence
It's a well-known tip but very powerful. Compared to reading or watching videos, practicing gives more confidence, IMO. So I told her to do at least one mock interview per week.
Reading gives you 1x learning, but practice gives you 10x learnings.
I went online to find a mock interview platform for tech interviews. I was surprised to find that there are not enough options available, and existing platforms are very expensive. They charge a 1-hour interview at the rate of $200 at least. If the interviewer is more experienced, the rate goes up. Here are a few options (comment in the post if I missed any):
- https://interviewing.io/
- https://www.tryexponent.com/home
- https://prepfully.com/coaches
Disclaimer: not a sponsored post or affiliated with any link mentioned in this post.
Bonus: Many people are not aware, but there exists a peer-to-peer interview platform called https://www.pramp.com/#/. You can meet with other folks who are in similar boats looking to switch employers. So, you can get started with peer-to-peer interviews. Once you get comfortable, you can use paid options for practicing interviews. I usually pair up with my friends to do practice interviews whenever needed.
If you're struggling to find any interviewer practice, post a message in our community chat, and you will be paired up with your next interviewer.
