7 ms·

>We are taught in an internal interviewing class (which is not mandatory unfortunately) that making sure the candidate has a great experience is just as importa

by rublev 10y ago

>We are taught in an internal interviewing class (which is not mandatory unfortunately) that making sure the candidate has a great experience is just as important as getting good data on the candidate. That's funny. I don't know a single person who enjoyed interviewing at Amazon, and the one guy that did who got in quit a few weeks later and still won't stop talking about how bad it was until he's blue in the face. It was such a bad experience it seems to have partially fused with his identity! Seems like every once in awhile there's some article taking a crap on Amazon, and then these types of green comments coming to the rescue.

camtarn 10y ago
Ex-Amazonian here. Amazon is big enough that there are actually a lot of people in the org who enjoy their jobs, think the company's generally doing the right thing (albeit possibly with caveats), and don't mind defending it. The reason for the throwaway accounts is that the social media policy asks employees not to wade into discussions of Amazon, but rather to forward them to the PR team. Addressing your experience directly - I really enjoyed my Amazon interview in Edinburgh eight years ago. Lots of interesting free-form problem solving, with the whiteboard there to jot down notes rather than to produce working code. I'm guessing there are teams or entire orgs which just don't take interviewing as seriously, though - again, with Amazon's scale, it's not surprising.
- enraged_camel 10y ago
  >>>The reason for the throwaway accounts is that the social media policy asks employees not to wade into discussions of Amazon, but rather to forward them to the PR team. Presumably so that said PR team can create throw-away accounts and defend Amazon.
  - camtarn 10y ago
    Well, possibly. I can't prove that that's not the case :) All I can say is that I've always taken them in good faith, because they match up with the temperament of some of the people I know and like inside the company. That's really the problem with the social media policy. On the one hand, it protects the company from the worst possible outcomes of letting untrained employees loose on social media - and given the size of the company and the diverse views held by its employees, I could imagine those outcomes being pretty dire! But on the other hand there's a chilling effect on positive impressions of the company.
  - matt4077 10y ago
    I'd think they should have a few non-green accounts lying (no pun intended[0]) around by now at Amazon HR PR. [0] that was a lye[1] [1] removing the stain on my reputation
- notJim 10y ago
  I don't doubt what you say is true, but Amazon is the only big-3-ish company that I regularly hear some story like this about. I think every company has a mix of horribleness and goodness, and based on the data I have, it seems like the mix at Amazon is more skewed towards horrible than other major companies.
  - andrewguenther 10y ago
    (disclaimer: Amazon employee) I've made the same observation as you, but I think there are other factors at play. It seems that Amazon has become the new "cool" company to hate, just like Microsoft was a few years ago. I've personally heard a mix of positive and negative stories from all the big 3, but Amazon seems to be the only one that makes headlines. I'm not trying to say that Amazon is perfect, or even better than Microsoft or Google, I'm just saying that maybe it is better to trust the opinions you hear from people you know rather than what makes the front page of HN, wherever that happens to take you. During my Microsoft internship, I watched a male coworker verbally harass a female coworker to tears while she was giving a presentation and no one batted an eye. A friend told me to come check out Amazon, and I've never looked back. I would never go back to Microsoft, but I don't fault people for going there because I know that it is a huge company and that my experience isn't representative of the whole.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    - mavelikara 10y ago
      Which other big company have you heard of using interview technique described in the OP? The fact that Amazon thought up the process as described here says something about the as a company which you can't explain away as the "new cool company to hate".
      - amzn-throw 10y ago
        Many are doing it - see the rest of this thread. Anyways the difference here is HR/recruitment was too "ambitious". The SDEs have found out and we have put a stop to it.
- bmm6o 10y ago
  > The reason for the throwaway accounts is that the social media policy asks employees not to wade into discussions of Amazon, but rather to forward them to the PR team. So, they are wading into discussions of Amazon, just in a way that's not directly linked with an existing nym? Following neither the letter nor the spirit of the rule?
dawnerd 10y ago
I've only heard bad things as well. I respect them as a company but it's clear they don't care about employee wellbeing. Everyone I know thats worked there said the hours and deadlines were unreal.
zippergz 10y ago
Hi. Not a green comment, though admittedly I'm not using my real name here. I worked at Amazon for many years and enjoyed it. Nice to meet you. It's a huge company with a wide variety of teams and experiences. It's not for everyone. But I am still friends with lots of my former co-workers. Lots of them liked it and, believe it or not, many of them are still there. Some for over 10 years.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dmoy 10y ago
I interviewed at Amazon and it was fine. The questions were interesting (albeit maybe a few too many graph questions). One of the interviewers showed up in a bathrobe or something I think, due to a bad oncall the previous night or something. Given that Amazon interviews by team, I think it depends on what team you end up interviewing with... I didn't take the offer because it was like $20k or more less than another offer, but the process was fine. There's also going to be selection bias, in that most people who have reasonable interview process aren't going to write blog posts about it...

by rublev 10y ago

camtarn 10y ago

Ex-Amazonian here. Amazon is big enough that there are actually a lot of people in the org who enjoy their jobs, think the company's generally doing the right thing (albeit possibly with caveats), and don't mind defending it. The reason for the throwaway accounts is that the social media policy asks employees not to wade into discussions of Amazon, but rather to forward them to the PR team. Addressing your experience directly - I really enjoyed my Amazon interview in Edinburgh eight years ago. Lots of interesting free-form problem solving, with the whiteboard there to jot down notes rather than to produce working code. I'm guessing there are teams or entire orgs which just don't take interviewing as seriously, though - again, with Amazon's scale, it's not surprising.

enraged_camel 10y ago
>>>The reason for the throwaway accounts is that the social media policy asks employees not to wade into discussions of Amazon, but rather to forward them to the PR team. Presumably so that said PR team can create throw-away accounts and defend Amazon.
- camtarn 10y ago
  Well, possibly. I can't prove that that's not the case :) All I can say is that I've always taken them in good faith, because they match up with the temperament of some of the people I know and like inside the company. That's really the problem with the social media policy. On the one hand, it protects the company from the worst possible outcomes of letting untrained employees loose on social media - and given the size of the company and the diverse views held by its employees, I could imagine those outcomes being pretty dire! But on the other hand there's a chilling effect on positive impressions of the company.
- matt4077 10y ago
  I'd think they should have a few non-green accounts lying (no pun intended[0]) around by now at Amazon HR PR. [0] that was a lye[1] [1] removing the stain on my reputation
notJim 10y ago
I don't doubt what you say is true, but Amazon is the only big-3-ish company that I regularly hear some story like this about. I think every company has a mix of horribleness and goodness, and based on the data I have, it seems like the mix at Amazon is more skewed towards horrible than other major companies.
- andrewguenther 10y ago
  (disclaimer: Amazon employee) I've made the same observation as you, but I think there are other factors at play. It seems that Amazon has become the new "cool" company to hate, just like Microsoft was a few years ago. I've personally heard a mix of positive and negative stories from all the big 3, but Amazon seems to be the only one that makes headlines. I'm not trying to say that Amazon is perfect, or even better than Microsoft or Google, I'm just saying that maybe it is better to trust the opinions you hear from people you know rather than what makes the front page of HN, wherever that happens to take you. During my Microsoft internship, I watched a male coworker verbally harass a female coworker to tears while she was giving a presentation and no one batted an eye. A friend told me to come check out Amazon, and I've never looked back. I would never go back to Microsoft, but I don't fault people for going there because I know that it is a huge company and that my experience isn't representative of the whole.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - mavelikara 10y ago
    Which other big company have you heard of using interview technique described in the OP? The fact that Amazon thought up the process as described here says something about the as a company which you can't explain away as the "new cool company to hate".
    - amzn-throw 10y ago
      Many are doing it - see the rest of this thread. Anyways the difference here is HR/recruitment was too "ambitious". The SDEs have found out and we have put a stop to it.
bmm6o 10y ago
> The reason for the throwaway accounts is that the social media policy asks employees not to wade into discussions of Amazon, but rather to forward them to the PR team. So, they are wading into discussions of Amazon, just in a way that's not directly linked with an existing nym? Following neither the letter nor the spirit of the rule?

dawnerd 10y ago

I've only heard bad things as well. I respect them as a company but it's clear they don't care about employee wellbeing. Everyone I know thats worked there said the hours and deadlines were unreal.

zippergz 10y ago

Hi. Not a green comment, though admittedly I'm not using my real name here. I worked at Amazon for many years and enjoyed it. Nice to meet you. It's a huge company with a wide variety of teams and experiences. It's not for everyone. But I am still friends with lots of my former co-workers. Lots of them liked it and, believe it or not, many of them are still there. Some for over 10 years.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dmoy 10y ago

I interviewed at Amazon and it was fine. The questions were interesting (albeit maybe a few too many graph questions). One of the interviewers showed up in a bathrobe or something I think, due to a bad oncall the previous night or something. Given that Amazon interviews by team, I think it depends on what team you end up interviewing with... I didn't take the offer because it was like $20k or more less than another offer, but the process was fine. There's also going to be selection bias, in that most people who have reasonable interview process aren't going to write blog posts about it...