10 ms·

A couple of years ago, I went to an Amazon tech social gathering and rubbed elbows with some of their people. I wasn't looking for a job, the gathering was 5 m

A couple of years ago, I went to an Amazon tech social gathering and rubbed elbows with some of their people. I wasn't looking for a job, the gathering was 5 minutes from where I work and I knew there would be free food. They were looking for people to relocate to other parts of the country. A lot of H1B people showed up at this event. Since they didn't have any ties to this area, they were a lot more receptive to the idea of moving to the West coast. I went, ate their food, drank their beer and won the door prize. They asked me if I'd be interested in interviewing, I graciously declined and the more I hear about working there, the happier I am that I declined their interview.

rdtsc 11y ago
I was actually interviewing with them. Had a laughably bad experience talking to one of AWS teams ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10065631 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10065631 ). I kept making excuses for them "Oh it is a big company", "Scheduling conflicts happen", "It is ok if they forgot about me during lunch". But now I feel like a dodged a bullet.
- odonnellryan 11y ago
  I was asked a really crazy question from their AWS SRE team! Basically, PHD-level question. They knew I was a junior, but they asked me a very high level math problem.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - rockinghigh 11y ago
    What's a PhD-level question?
    - codeonfire 11y ago
      The only thing I would consider a PhD level question would be something that one would see on a qualifier exam. Usually they require specific and deep knowledge that goes beyond what one could get out of textbooks in the field.
    - odonnellryan 11y ago
      Well, there was a PHD thesis written on it that concisely answered the problem.
  - lqdc13 11y ago
    To play a devil's advocate, it's not like you get better at math while working as a SWE.
  - nostrebored 11y ago
    What constitutes a hard problem varies wildly between schools. Especially considering the wildly varying math standards in CS at different universities. By my junior year, I and everyone I knew doing my track had been taking senior/grad school level math courses, especially re: numerical methods.
  - rifung 11y ago
    Do you remember what the question was?
moron4hire 11y ago
I got cold-called through LinkedIn by one of their recruiters. Out of curiosity, I went through with the interview process. I had a number in mind that, if they could match or exceed, would have been worth giving up on all of my current plans and changing coasts. I passed and got an offer, but it wasn't going to be enough to warrant my wife leaving her job and us moving out of the DC suburbs into Seattle. Plus, the benefits package was super confusing, and I generally believe that confusion in paperwork is deliberate obfuscation. So that was a red flag. There was also a lot of stock, which seemed like a really chincy form of "compensation" considering how old the company is now. There was zero interest on their part to consider taking me as a contractor, taking me as 100% remote, or even taking me in their office in Herndon, VA, which is accessible by train for me (oh yeah, after my car finally broke down after 380k miles, I elected to not replace it, so my wife is the only one with a car right now). I've been leading completely disconnected teams on rather successful projects for years now. I see a lack of willingness to do remote work as a sign that the institution knows they suck at project management. Who wants to work for a company that can't manage projects correctly? I'm sticking to consulting while using my ample sparetime to build and market product offerings. You will pay a premium for the illusion of stability that working for a megacorp provides. It doesn't cost anywhere near a marginal $100k a year to give me office space and manage benefits. I mean, at that premium, I could hire myself a fulltime secretary and have him or her do a ton of other things for me. Don't get lured into thinking that Amazon or IBM or whomever won't lay you off the second it works better for their shareholders. At least as a consultant I have a contract.
- presty 11y ago
  > There was also a lot of stock, which seemed like a really chincy form of "compensation" considering how old the company is now. er.. how is it a really chincy form of compensation, considering how well amazon's stock has performed?
  - ethbro 11y ago
    Because the risk profile of having your primary income and your retirement savings linked to a single company is pretty dangerous?

rdtsc 11y ago

I was actually interviewing with them. Had a laughably bad experience talking to one of AWS teams ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10065631 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10065631 ). I kept making excuses for them "Oh it is a big company", "Scheduling conflicts happen", "It is ok if they forgot about me during lunch". But now I feel like a dodged a bullet.

odonnellryan 11y ago
I was asked a really crazy question from their AWS SRE team! Basically, PHD-level question. They knew I was a junior, but they asked me a very high level math problem.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- rockinghigh 11y ago
  What's a PhD-level question?
  - codeonfire 11y ago
    The only thing I would consider a PhD level question would be something that one would see on a qualifier exam. Usually they require specific and deep knowledge that goes beyond what one could get out of textbooks in the field.
  - odonnellryan 11y ago
    Well, there was a PHD thesis written on it that concisely answered the problem.
- lqdc13 11y ago
  To play a devil's advocate, it's not like you get better at math while working as a SWE.
- nostrebored 11y ago
  What constitutes a hard problem varies wildly between schools. Especially considering the wildly varying math standards in CS at different universities. By my junior year, I and everyone I knew doing my track had been taking senior/grad school level math courses, especially re: numerical methods.
- rifung 11y ago
  Do you remember what the question was?

moron4hire 11y ago

I got cold-called through LinkedIn by one of their recruiters. Out of curiosity, I went through with the interview process. I had a number in mind that, if they could match or exceed, would have been worth giving up on all of my current plans and changing coasts. I passed and got an offer, but it wasn't going to be enough to warrant my wife leaving her job and us moving out of the DC suburbs into Seattle. Plus, the benefits package was super confusing, and I generally believe that confusion in paperwork is deliberate obfuscation. So that was a red flag. There was also a lot of stock, which seemed like a really chincy form of "compensation" considering how old the company is now. There was zero interest on their part to consider taking me as a contractor, taking me as 100% remote, or even taking me in their office in Herndon, VA, which is accessible by train for me (oh yeah, after my car finally broke down after 380k miles, I elected to not replace it, so my wife is the only one with a car right now). I've been leading completely disconnected teams on rather successful projects for years now. I see a lack of willingness to do remote work as a sign that the institution knows they suck at project management. Who wants to work for a company that can't manage projects correctly? I'm sticking to consulting while using my ample sparetime to build and market product offerings. You will pay a premium for the illusion of stability that working for a megacorp provides. It doesn't cost anywhere near a marginal $100k a year to give me office space and manage benefits. I mean, at that premium, I could hire myself a fulltime secretary and have him or her do a ton of other things for me. Don't get lured into thinking that Amazon or IBM or whomever won't lay you off the second it works better for their shareholders. At least as a consultant I have a contract.

presty 11y ago
> There was also a lot of stock, which seemed like a really chincy form of "compensation" considering how old the company is now. er.. how is it a really chincy form of compensation, considering how well amazon's stock has performed?
- ethbro 11y ago
  Because the risk profile of having your primary income and your retirement savings linked to a single company is pretty dangerous?