Ever wondered what it would be like to be interviewed by Facebook?  Bradley Sutherland, a recent graduate from SFU’s Interactive Arts and Technology and a specialist in interactive design, was selected to be interviewed by the social media giant.  Bradley shared his 3 part interview experience with the OLC.

Bradley Sutherland recently graduated from SFU with a degree in Interactive Arts and Technology (IAT), and he specializes in interactive design.  He was an active co-op student and continued to maintain his connections with his co-op coordinators after graduation. Because of this relationship established through co-op, his co-ordinators knew of his experiences and skillset and thought he would be a good fit when they heard of a job opening at Facebook.  It's key to stay in contact with your co-op coordinators, even when you have graduated.  This is because they are often privy to information about who is looking for a job, as they actively seek out opportunities for their students.  When Bradley got the email about applying to Facebook, it was a no brainer for him to submit his resume and portfolio.   He was thrilled to get a call back from a recruiter, and quickly went on to do several interviews.
 

His first interview with Facebook was with a recruiter over the phone.  Recruiters play an important role in screening out the top candidates to be further interviewed later on, and like any interview, it was important to prepare.  To prepare for this interview Bradley made sure he knew his portfolio in and out, and anticipated some of the questions that he would be asked, with a focus on more general questions.  “I was called over the phone (not Skype) to talk about my school program, my current ongoing projects, my interests and goals, my ideal workplace, and a brief summary of one of my portfolio pieces. There were no technical questions and the interview was very casual.”  

The 30-minute interview had both pros and cons.  He found he could relate to the recruiter and thought the conversation was very pleasant; especially considering it was an interview.  As pleasant as the interview was, there were a couple of challenges.  Firstly, he had to go through his highly visual portfolio pieces without the aid of visuals, as it was on the phone.  Secondly, he was never told explicitly what his job would actually entail or what the role would be, making it challenging to anticipate what his interviewers would be looking for.  Because Bradley had applied to Facebook in a ‘pool’ kind of scenario, he made sure to ask what kind of position the recruiter had in mind.  This way, he was able to research similar job descriptions online, which gave him a better understanding of what his interviewers were looking for.

Regardless of these challenges, Bradley was successful and managed to impress the recruiter.  He was told that he would be passed on to the next interview stage and the recruiter also shared some helpful tips.  “My recruiter explained what would happen in the next stages as well as the things they would be looking for out of my responses. This is the first time I had ever had an interviewer reveal the process of how they would be interviewing me and it was definitely refreshing because it allowed me to prepare in an informed manner.”  

Be sure to find out what happened to Bradley in his second interview!