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I had a similar experience at Amazon. About midway through the onsite at Amazon I kind of decided "I don't think I'd like working here and I already have other

I had a similar experience at Amazon. About midway through the onsite at Amazon I kind of decided "I don't think I'd like working here and I already have other offers, so my brain will be going into neutral now." and kind of checked out. Felt very much like the interviewers didn't want to be in the room with me and just wanted me to fuck up so they could click "No hire" in the HR app and get out. Walked out figuring I probably wouldn't get an offer, but given they apparently needed a ton of people maybe they'd down level me and offer (I figured I'd checked out to the point there was no way I'd get that SDE III level offer). Recruiter actually sent me a very nasty email accusing me of wasting her time, I must be a bad engineer who over sold my experience, blah blah blah. Made it sound like I was blacklist for life. Three weeks later a hiring manager emails me and is like "So I found your interview notes in our internal database, you look like an amazing candidate and I want to fast track your hire onto my team." I have no idea what is going on Amazon, I mean they built AWS so this must work on some level, but I just have such a bad taste in my mouth from my experience I don't want in on it. Maybe it's working as intended in that they want a process that skews toward hiring certain personality types so having other folks self select out is a win for them. Although I get pinged by them 2x a month and regularly offered fast track hirings based on those notes from that interview I did 14 months ago which is also weird. Which makes me think it's more likely their hiring a mess and they survive via throwing money at the problem and big old RSU offers at candidates. e: Actually not 14 months, it was pre COVID lockdown, so even further back.

TimPC 5y ago
If you bombed your interview amazing candidate could be code for they need someone to hire to fire.
nobleach 5y ago
It's that subtle view into what your life might become that makes it so much easier to decline to move on. I'll admit, it's probably easier when I already had a job that paid well and I didn't hate... A recruiter that couldn't keep it professional... that is EXACTLY how I felt! I get that when you work for FAANG, you're used to the stigma your company carries. And you're used to people salivating over the idea of working for you. But there are some of us out here who already make a decent wage, and have been in the business long enough that we don't see having FAANG on our resume as the most important thing. I'm at the phase of life now where I really am interviewing YOU as much as you're interviewing ME. If I don't like what I see, I can walk away.
soared 5y ago
Amazon has a hiring status that is basically “probably good to hire, but not a fit for my team”. Other team managers can go check that status and look for candidates that have been through the process already and basically do 1 short interview then hire the person. I think it’s called recycling?
res0nat0r 5y ago
HR and anyone in engineering have no idea who each other are, and never talk. It's not some top to bottom well oiled machine. It's all random and hit or miss.

TimPC 5y ago

If you bombed your interview amazing candidate could be code for they need someone to hire to fire.

nobleach 5y ago

It's that subtle view into what your life might become that makes it so much easier to decline to move on. I'll admit, it's probably easier when I already had a job that paid well and I didn't hate... A recruiter that couldn't keep it professional... that is EXACTLY how I felt! I get that when you work for FAANG, you're used to the stigma your company carries. And you're used to people salivating over the idea of working for you. But there are some of us out here who already make a decent wage, and have been in the business long enough that we don't see having FAANG on our resume as the most important thing. I'm at the phase of life now where I really am interviewing YOU as much as you're interviewing ME. If I don't like what I see, I can walk away.

soared 5y ago

Amazon has a hiring status that is basically “probably good to hire, but not a fit for my team”. Other team managers can go check that status and look for candidates that have been through the process already and basically do 1 short interview then hire the person. I think it’s called recycling?

res0nat0r 5y ago

HR and anyone in engineering have no idea who each other are, and never talk. It's not some top to bottom well oiled machine. It's all random and hit or miss.