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Hm. I spoke with Amazon (AWS) recently (haven't interviewed yet), and they made the express point that if I were to accept an interview that I should brush up o
by 52-6F-62 7y ago
Hm. I spoke with Amazon (AWS) recently (haven't interviewed yet), and they made the express point that if I were to accept an interview that I should brush up on my algos and HackerRank questions because they loved HackerRank and would surely use a series of those-style problems throughout the interview process.
My last in-depth interview was a take-home/collaborative project (paid) for a smaller company here in Canada. It was a great experience. So good on you.
- diminoten 7y agoIt's probably per-team, someone on here mentioned that's how Google works at least. Someone I know did an AWS interview round during business school, and they do this thing called "bar raising" (IIRC) that involves one of the interviewers literally doing something unpleasant to see how you react (e.g. picking their teeth in the camera, cutting you off when you speak). Very odd.
- umanwizard 7y agoI have worked at Amazon, and can categorically say that this description of their interview process is false.
- diminoten 7y agoLike false as in I made it up or false as in it's not your experience?
- umanwizard 7y agoFalse as in not true. Amazon does not have a policy of interviewers intentionally making candidates uncomfortable.
- diminoten 7y agoAh, well then what was I being told? I got these independent reports form literally every single person I spoke to who interviewed with Amazon. I also just spoke with my wife and she re-confirmed it. So I guess I'm wondering what these people who I respect are experiencing...
- BryantD 7y agoThat is not what bar raising is intended to be. There's always a bar raiser in an Amazon interview loop who is not affiliated with the hiring team. They ask the same kinds of questions as the rest of the interviewers in the same way, but they're not influenced by how much the team needs to make the hire, which in theory prevents the team from lowering the bar just to get a warm body in. I'm not saying your friend didn't get a bad interviewer. It's just an interesting demonstration of how risky it is to generalize from anecdotes.
- diminoten 7y agoIt was a generally accepted practice based on talking to the folks who interviewed with Amazon during my wife's time at Kellogg that one interview would be conducted by someone (an interviewer who had done 100+ interviews) who would be unpleasant in some way. I'm guessing the way Amazon interview for business roles is somehow different than how they interview for specific team positions. As I understand it, MBA hires aren't filling specific gaps on teams, since the hiring process is so long and involves an internship. There wouldn't be a "team" to lower the bar for, in other words.
- rrishi 7y agoThat is not what "bar-raising" round is. It's a difficult question (often algorithmic) that 50% of the employees wouldn't be able to solve. Its designed to raise the bar of employees.
- diminoten 7y agoWhy would Amazon ask an algorithmic question for a non-engineering role?
- scarface74 7y agoI think you are talking about something different. The parent poster was referring to a Devops position. Were you looking at a software engineer position?
- 52-6F-62 7y agoI wasn't really actively looking for anything—they contacted me about a range of positions that centred around special projects that ranged in subject matter/disciplines.