4 ms·

I worked at Amazon right out of college - I wouldn't do it again, but there's a reason why Amazon continues to hire a lot of people despite their growing (and a

I worked at Amazon right out of college - I wouldn't do it again, but there's a reason why Amazon continues to hire a lot of people despite their growing (and already rather notorious) reputation as a workplace. Amazon is considered one of the big AAA-tier companies, at the same venerated level as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, et al. Having Amazon on my resume opened so many doors like you won't believe. I think a lot of people join Amazon knowing the toxic workplace culture out of necessity - our industry doesn't have a fucking clue how to hire people and leans heavily on "signals" like working for specific famous companies. As long as we continue to not be able to interview people effectively, and instead rely on things like "having worked at Amazon" as a positive hiring signal, the Amazon hiring machine will continue to function.

gozo 11y ago
When a friend relocated to London for a well-paying job to "move data around" at Google, I couldn't help to think how similar it seemed to banking. When I read you post about "paying your dues to be in the club" I think the same thing.
- leoedin 11y ago
  Hey! Just a heads up - you seem to have been shadow banned. I'm not sure why - possibly posting a link to an article about the HN rules?
enraged_camel 11y ago
>>our industry doesn't have a fucking clue how to hire people The software industry isn't special in this regard. There are many industries where having a Harvard degree, for example, is a very strong "signal" that you're a top-tier individual.
- acjohnson55 11y ago
  I'm curious what you think about a piece I published a couple days ago on the topic: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alanjohnson/were-hiring-engineers-all-wrong_b_7973484.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alanjohnson/were-hiring-engine... I'm not a great expert or anything, but it's basically my thoughts on engineering a better interviewing system than we had before.
coldcode 11y ago
"I worked at Amazon right out of college " They count on finding people who want that on their resume and don't care about how awful it is for a couple of years. But once you get beyond that point you realize how terrible it is.
- ams6110 11y ago
  Most jobs "right out of college" are grunt work jobs. My first job out of college was for a big consulting services company. At this time their clients were still all mainframe shops; there was no internet at least not that the general public was aware of, and certainly no web dev jobs yet. So I worked 60 - 70 hours a week writing COBOL code. It was crap work but the salary was good and having that employer on my resume was worth it. I knew in less than a year that I wouldn't be there long-term, and their business model actually counted on it. Amazon is doing nothing new or unusual here.

gozo 11y ago

When a friend relocated to London for a well-paying job to "move data around" at Google, I couldn't help to think how similar it seemed to banking. When I read you post about "paying your dues to be in the club" I think the same thing.

leoedin 11y ago
Hey! Just a heads up - you seem to have been shadow banned. I'm not sure why - possibly posting a link to an article about the HN rules?

enraged_camel 11y ago

>>our industry doesn't have a fucking clue how to hire people The software industry isn't special in this regard. There are many industries where having a Harvard degree, for example, is a very strong "signal" that you're a top-tier individual.

acjohnson55 11y ago
I'm curious what you think about a piece I published a couple days ago on the topic: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alanjohnson/were-hiring-engineers-all-wrong_b_7973484.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alanjohnson/were-hiring-engine... I'm not a great expert or anything, but it's basically my thoughts on engineering a better interviewing system than we had before.

coldcode 11y ago

"I worked at Amazon right out of college " They count on finding people who want that on their resume and don't care about how awful it is for a couple of years. But once you get beyond that point you realize how terrible it is.

ams6110 11y ago
Most jobs "right out of college" are grunt work jobs. My first job out of college was for a big consulting services company. At this time their clients were still all mainframe shops; there was no internet at least not that the general public was aware of, and certainly no web dev jobs yet. So I worked 60 - 70 hours a week writing COBOL code. It was crap work but the salary was good and having that employer on my resume was worth it. I knew in less than a year that I wouldn't be there long-term, and their business model actually counted on it. Amazon is doing nothing new or unusual here.