8 ms·

For those not familiar, the two new ones are below. I never worked at amazon, but throughout the (grueling) interview process you have to memorize these and eve

by soared 5y ago

For those not familiar, the two new ones are below. I never worked at amazon, but throughout the (grueling) interview process you have to memorize these and every question you answer needs to intertwine some of these principles. They tell you to have 2-3 “stories” of how you exemplify each principle. IMO with how many they have it doesn’t make sense since you are bound to forget nearly all of them day-to-day. And honestly you can just think of anything you’ve done and slightly twist it to make it align with a principle. Meh. Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer Leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment. They lead with empathy, have fun at work, and make it easy for others to have fun. Leaders ask themselves: Are my fellow employees growing? Are they empowered? Are they ready for what’s next? Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees’ personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere. Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility We started in a garage, but we’re not there anymore. We are big, we impact the world, and we are far from perfect. We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions. Our local communities, planet, and future generations need us to be better every day. We must begin each day with a determination to make better, do better, and be better for our customers, our employees, our partners, and the world at large. And we must end every day knowing we can do even more tomorrow. Leaders create more than they consume and always leave things better than how they found them.

ikiris 5y ago
From what I've heard from their former employees (engineer / corporate, not warehouse), the best employer bit is laughable
- metalliqaz 5y ago
  I can recall horror stories from their engineers when I was in grad school (around 2004 or so). So I think it is well entrenched.
- ethbr0 5y ago
  To give intent the broadest benefit of the doubt, maybe that's why they wanted to encode the goal in a principle. Changing Amazon's corporate culture at this point has to be like relocating the Alps.
  - spoonjim 5y ago
    Ballmer -> Nadella shows that it is possible.
    - ethbr0 5y ago
      Curious on folks who have been at both places. My impression is that Microsoft runs a more centralized culture than Amazon?
      - Exmoor 5y ago
        Well, the biggest difference is probably scale. Amazon has roughly 10x the number of direct employees as Microsoft spread throughout a much wider range of job types. Some of this is inherent due to what Amazon's business is, but a big chunk of it is that Microsoft outsources essentially every job that's not at the absolute core of their business. Anything outside of that is outsourced to vendors. Microsoft's management of these vendors is basically "make us happy as cheaply as possible or you're fired" and the results for the employees of those companies is about what you'd expect.
  - slumdev 5y ago
    The culture will slowly rot as the company gets larger and as the real visionaries (good or bad) become increasingly disconnected from the boots on the ground. We're already seeing things like people getting hired and then PIPed within months so that their managers can avoid firing the reports they like...
  - haswell 5y ago
    Yeah, in 2021, employees increasingly expect this from their employers. Of course this could just be for optics and to claim "see, we care", but I think interpretation misses the broader context. In light of "The Great Resignation", and increasing awareness and activism around work/life balance, socially conscious employers, etc. this kind of move is required. At worst, it's a survival mechanism. A more charitable take is that leadership actually wants to change things. In either case, if they actually implement this, it's good for employees even if leadership was forced to do this by the current climate.
- cwilkes 5y ago
  Well it does say “strive”. Like I’m striving to get on the olympics pole vaulting team by watching it on TV.
  - scrooched_moose 5y ago
    It really reminds me of this exchange from Better Off Ted: Veronica: There is no program to green the building. Ted: Yeah there is. They made a commercial about it. Veronica: I didn't say there wasn't a commercial about greening the building. I said there is no program to green the building. Ted: So it's all a lie? Veronica: They prefer to look at it as a dream. Ted: But one they're not working towards? Veronica: Are you working toward all your dreams, Ted? Then stop pointing fingers.
- kube-system 5y ago
  Maybe that's why they added it?
- koboll 5y ago
  Probably why it's a leadership principle now. When I started there, the first thing I noticed, reading the LPs, was a conspicuous lack of anything employee-centric, which most other big companies have somewhere in their mission statement.
- gameman144 5y ago
  In all fairness, maybe that's why they're adding this: the workplace culture and irresponsibility of Amazon are the main things I hear criticized a lot, so this could be them trying to actually address that. I know Amazon, more than most companies, actually rates engineers along these axes. Then again, this could just be PR mumbo jumbo.
  - tablespoon 5y ago
    > Then again, this could just be PR mumbo jumbo. It's just PR mumbo jumbo until they consistently display these principles (and let their stock price take a hit because of them, if that's what it takes). Even if "leadership principles" are currently super important in Amazon's culture, there's going to be massive inertia around behaviors and attitudes that satisfied the older set but violate the new ones. For instance, are they going to immediately scrap their automated system that evaluates and terminates workers without human intervention (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-bot-amazon-turns-to-machine-managers-and-workers-are-losing-out https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-...), because it clearly violates these new principles?
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - gameman144 5y ago
      I dunno. Everything takes time, and I think it's more fair to evaluate them on incremental progress. If I said "I want to be more Earth-friendly" and decide to add reusable grocery bags to my regimen, I'd hope that people wouldn't lambaste me for not yet going vegan, selling my car, and doing away with my AC unit. If there were no additional changes beyond my shopping bags, then sure, say that I was spouting nonsense. There's a lot to be said for consistent incremental progress toward a goal, though. (The automated system is a great example, though, of a system ostensibly working against that goal. Much like me wanting to be Earth-friendly, then buying a new Hummer)
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
- eCa 5y ago
  First thought here as well. On the other hand, that’s a new principle and would require massive changes[1] in the near future if the leaders at the top really mean it. [1] I say that as someone who has no first hand knowledge of the inner workings of Amazon.
- steelframe 5y ago
  I've got a personal email from a manager at AWS still sitting in my inbox, and I don't want to reply to it because I have heard so many horror stories from former Amazon employees. When your reputation in the industry is so bad that potential hires don't even want to start a conversation with you, then you definitely have a problem as an employer. With this new principle, perhaps Amazon is recognizing this as a real problem with respect to recruitment and retention of people with experience.
  - jedmeyers 5y ago
    “perhaps Amazon is recognizing this as a real problem” The real choices here seems to be: - amazon is “stupid” and does not recognize it as a problem - amazon is well aware, but does not care, since it benefits them in some way
    - MattGaiser 5y ago
      It could simply be that it is not a problem yet, but is becoming one. https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-turnover-worker-shortage-2021-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-turnover-wo...
      - scotuswroteus 5y ago
        You should have linked to the bill that just came out of the Judiciary Committee
    - rualca 5y ago
      > amazon is well aware, but does not care, since it benefits them in some way Given Amazon's egregious attrition rate and their yearly decimation policy, it's not very likely that they are not aware of what they are doing
  - adamredwoods 5y ago
    I've interviewed with them 2 times, and had poor experiences each time. I'm sure I had my own imperfections surface during the interviews, but I've experienced hundreds of interviews at other companies, and I can safely say these were poor. Maybe I was mostly unlucky, but it left a poor experience on me, and I have no desire to work at Amazon. On the other hand, I had really good experiences at Microsoft. shrugs
- cwkoss 5y ago
  Should savvy readers interpret all of their principles as Orwellian doublespeak? Seems like selecting leaders who are gullible enough to believe these are all already true about Amazon would be a useful technique for screening out critical thinkers who would argue against immoral business decisions.
  - HWR_14 5y ago
    You don't bother to list new principles if you're already living up to them. Charitably, they are an attempt to refocus the company so these are lived up to in the future. Cynically, they are an attempt to use words to avoid needing to change anything in how Amazon operates. With a new CEO, the more charitable version seems not impossible.
    - mosdave 5y ago
      > You don't bother to list new principles if you're already living up to them. ah, ok, now Don't Be Evil makes more sense
      - HWR_14 5y ago
        Don't Be Evil was always on the cynical, "words over actions" side.
        romwell 5y ago
        It wasn't always that way. It's had a pretty good run. Fun fact: they scrapped that motto without fanfare just around the time the company went full speed towards where it's going now. Google hasn't listed Don't Be Evil as a principle in many years now.
      - romwell 5y ago
        Don't Be Evil wasn't a new principle. It was a foundational one, on which the company grew. That's why it was scrapped, and the following new principles were listed: * Respect the opportunity (wtf?) * Respect the user (lol) * Respect each other (ahahaha) Hope it makes sense now :)
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- onion2k 5y ago
  I wonder if "best employer" is even possible for a company at the scale of Amazon. The wants and needs of different members of staff will conflict with one another at scale. What's a great employer for one person is an overly bureaucratic micromanagement nightmare for another. Unless the company is capable of managing every person who works there on an entirely individual basis the goal of "best employer" is ultimately a futile one. "Not the worst employer" is much more realistic.
ignoramous 5y ago
Tim O'Reilly's blog post (before this announcement, which likely comes on back of Bezos' final annual letter to shareholders [0]) contrasting Ingram's and Amazon's approach towards the marketplaces they operate in sheds light on why the inclusion of these principles is substantial [1]. Leadership principles, though in tension with each other (and so, some argue they really shouldn't be classified as "principles" but rather "values" [2]), permeates the culture of performance and team building at Amazon; and that makes me think this is not only a welcome but potentially a company-defining change. [0] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to-shareholders https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to... [1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tale-two-platforms-tim-o-reilly/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tale-two-platforms-tim-o-reil... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMGAtxUlAc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMGAtxUlAc
gpt5 5y ago
These principles are intended to help in decision making. The “Strive to be the world best employer is aimed at managers, but also clearly at HR policy makers” The sarcastic view is that this is just a facade. However, Amazon has historically took its principles very seriously. They believe that the principles made them who they are. Adding something there that they don’t intend to pursue could risk the integrity of this system as a whole
- noir_lord 5y ago
  > Amazon has historically took its principles very seriously. > Strive to be the world best employer > The sarcastic view is that this is just a facade. Given the horror stories from the people who work in the fulfilment centres and deliver for them, I'm going to take the sarcastic view.
  - jeffrallen 5y ago
    I'm going to take the cynical view that the sarcastic view is nearly always right when applied to Amazon.
    - mint2 5y ago
      But is it really cynical when Amazon has thoroughly demonstrated over the past decade they believe humans” worked should be more like robots and cattle, and that legitimate brands should stop complaining about the rampant brand hijacking and fake reviews? Out of context those sound like extreme accusations but Amazon’s policies forcing leaders to hire to fire and completely faceless and automated warehouse worker firing and scheduling and regular brand hijakcing like the Klein bottle one on the front page here a couple days ago show that it’s not cynical to distrust Amazon. It’s more like fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
sharkweek 5y ago
My first interview out of college (circa early 2000s) was at Amazon. The advice the recruiter gave me was “be ready to talk about our core principles!” Okay, simple enough! To this day it is BY FAR the worst experience I’ve ever had in a loop. Everyone was extremely toxic, at least half of the people interviewing me that day were clearly trying to make me feel like shit, and it seemed like the entire goal was to keep me disoriented. About halfway through the day (it was at least 6-7 hours of interviews straight), I should have just left as it was clear I wasn’t going to get an offer. In full disclosure, I was under qualified for the job given that it would have been my first job out of college, but I assume that should have been caught well before a full day loop where some of the folks were just using me as a punching bag.
- speeder 5y ago
  Amazon is asking me, again, to submit my resume there. My wife wants me to send the resume, because I do need a job, but I already sent several resumes to Amazon (at their own request even!), got interviewed only twice, and both interviews were TERRIBLE. First interview at Amazon, the interviewer actually didn't show up, so they setup another random guy to interview me, and he had no idea what was going on, so it was just a awkward phone talk for 1 hour. Second time Amazon had flown people from all over the world to their Brazillian HQ and asked me and a few other candidates to go there get interviewed. It not only matched your experience, but they managed to out-do themselves in some ways: 1. Some interviewers arrived on the room late, and this caused issues. 2. All of them asked the exact same question, that it was pointless to ask (they wanted me to show my leadership principles in solving conflicts in a past large team, when I told them multiple times I didn't had a past large team in first place). 3. They litearlly forgot me in a room, everyone left the floor, the work day was ending, people left the building, and I was forgotten there for 3 hours, literally, no idea how to even try to leave on my own, until one HR guy showed up, said sorry, gave a bullshit excuse and guided me to the exit of the building.
  - devoutsalsa 5y ago
    It’s OK to swallow your pride, take a job at Amazon, and then keep looking for another job.
hyperpape 5y ago
> throughout the (grueling) interview process you have to memorize these and every question you answer needs to intertwine some of these principles. Is this true of individual contributors, or people looking to go into management? I don't think it's good either way, but it crosses into absurdity if it's the former.
- slumdev 5y ago
  It is true of ICs, but a good recruiter will tell you that you don't need to have stories for all 14. There are really only about 8 or 10 that they expect SDEs to demonstrate.
nindalf 5y ago
As someone who got an offer from Amazon (and declined it) recently, this is how you do it. It's impossible to think of these anecdotes on the fly. Take your time and rack your brains for them. Once you have 14 anecdotes, you're good to go. You'll use a couple in the screening interview and then several during the final 5 interviews. It's preferable not to reuse anecdotes.
slumdev 5y ago
> IMO with how many they have it doesn’t make sense since you are bound to forget nearly all of them day-to-day. You won't forget them if you end up working there. They're used as rhetorical jabs when people want to win arguments. Someone more creative than I am could probably do a great comedy sketch in the vein of Darmok using nothing but the leadership principles as dialogue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
blibble 5y ago
> I never worked at amazon, but throughout the (grueling) interview process you have to memorize these and every question you answer needs to intertwine some of these principles. They tell you to have 2-3 “stories” of how you exemplify each principle. this would explain why everyone I know that was about to start working there suddenly started parroting this bullshit nearly endlessly whenever anyone mentioned Amazon
- soared 5y ago
  Sounds about right - I spent ~50 hours building and memorizing these stories so surely they leak out elsewhere.
amzsdmtemp 5y ago
>Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees’ personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere. Last few words mean identify low performers and let them to find opportunity elsewhere.

by soared 5y ago

ikiris 5y ago

From what I've heard from their former employees (engineer / corporate, not warehouse), the best employer bit is laughable

metalliqaz 5y ago
I can recall horror stories from their engineers when I was in grad school (around 2004 or so). So I think it is well entrenched.
ethbr0 5y ago
To give intent the broadest benefit of the doubt, maybe that's why they wanted to encode the goal in a principle. Changing Amazon's corporate culture at this point has to be like relocating the Alps.
- spoonjim 5y ago
  Ballmer -> Nadella shows that it is possible.
  - ethbr0 5y ago
    Curious on folks who have been at both places. My impression is that Microsoft runs a more centralized culture than Amazon?
    - Exmoor 5y ago
      Well, the biggest difference is probably scale. Amazon has roughly 10x the number of direct employees as Microsoft spread throughout a much wider range of job types. Some of this is inherent due to what Amazon's business is, but a big chunk of it is that Microsoft outsources essentially every job that's not at the absolute core of their business. Anything outside of that is outsourced to vendors. Microsoft's management of these vendors is basically "make us happy as cheaply as possible or you're fired" and the results for the employees of those companies is about what you'd expect.
- slumdev 5y ago
  The culture will slowly rot as the company gets larger and as the real visionaries (good or bad) become increasingly disconnected from the boots on the ground. We're already seeing things like people getting hired and then PIPed within months so that their managers can avoid firing the reports they like...
- haswell 5y ago
  Yeah, in 2021, employees increasingly expect this from their employers. Of course this could just be for optics and to claim "see, we care", but I think interpretation misses the broader context. In light of "The Great Resignation", and increasing awareness and activism around work/life balance, socially conscious employers, etc. this kind of move is required. At worst, it's a survival mechanism. A more charitable take is that leadership actually wants to change things. In either case, if they actually implement this, it's good for employees even if leadership was forced to do this by the current climate.
cwilkes 5y ago
Well it does say “strive”. Like I’m striving to get on the olympics pole vaulting team by watching it on TV.
- scrooched_moose 5y ago
  It really reminds me of this exchange from Better Off Ted: Veronica: There is no program to green the building. Ted: Yeah there is. They made a commercial about it. Veronica: I didn't say there wasn't a commercial about greening the building. I said there is no program to green the building. Ted: So it's all a lie? Veronica: They prefer to look at it as a dream. Ted: But one they're not working towards? Veronica: Are you working toward all your dreams, Ted? Then stop pointing fingers.
kube-system 5y ago
Maybe that's why they added it?
koboll 5y ago
Probably why it's a leadership principle now. When I started there, the first thing I noticed, reading the LPs, was a conspicuous lack of anything employee-centric, which most other big companies have somewhere in their mission statement.
gameman144 5y ago
In all fairness, maybe that's why they're adding this: the workplace culture and irresponsibility of Amazon are the main things I hear criticized a lot, so this could be them trying to actually address that. I know Amazon, more than most companies, actually rates engineers along these axes. Then again, this could just be PR mumbo jumbo.
- tablespoon 5y ago
  > Then again, this could just be PR mumbo jumbo. It's just PR mumbo jumbo until they consistently display these principles (and let their stock price take a hit because of them, if that's what it takes). Even if "leadership principles" are currently super important in Amazon's culture, there's going to be massive inertia around behaviors and attitudes that satisfied the older set but violate the new ones. For instance, are they going to immediately scrap their automated system that evaluates and terminates workers without human intervention (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-bot-amazon-turns-to-machine-managers-and-workers-are-losing-out https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-...), because it clearly violates these new principles?
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - gameman144 5y ago
    I dunno. Everything takes time, and I think it's more fair to evaluate them on incremental progress. If I said "I want to be more Earth-friendly" and decide to add reusable grocery bags to my regimen, I'd hope that people wouldn't lambaste me for not yet going vegan, selling my car, and doing away with my AC unit. If there were no additional changes beyond my shopping bags, then sure, say that I was spouting nonsense. There's a lot to be said for consistent incremental progress toward a goal, though. (The automated system is a great example, though, of a system ostensibly working against that goal. Much like me wanting to be Earth-friendly, then buying a new Hummer)
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
eCa 5y ago
First thought here as well. On the other hand, that’s a new principle and would require massive changes[1] in the near future if the leaders at the top really mean it. [1] I say that as someone who has no first hand knowledge of the inner workings of Amazon.
steelframe 5y ago
I've got a personal email from a manager at AWS still sitting in my inbox, and I don't want to reply to it because I have heard so many horror stories from former Amazon employees. When your reputation in the industry is so bad that potential hires don't even want to start a conversation with you, then you definitely have a problem as an employer. With this new principle, perhaps Amazon is recognizing this as a real problem with respect to recruitment and retention of people with experience.
- jedmeyers 5y ago
  “perhaps Amazon is recognizing this as a real problem” The real choices here seems to be: - amazon is “stupid” and does not recognize it as a problem - amazon is well aware, but does not care, since it benefits them in some way
  - MattGaiser 5y ago
    It could simply be that it is not a problem yet, but is becoming one. https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-turnover-worker-shortage-2021-6 https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-warehouse-turnover-wo...
    - scotuswroteus 5y ago
      You should have linked to the bill that just came out of the Judiciary Committee
  - rualca 5y ago
    > amazon is well aware, but does not care, since it benefits them in some way Given Amazon's egregious attrition rate and their yearly decimation policy, it's not very likely that they are not aware of what they are doing
- adamredwoods 5y ago
  I've interviewed with them 2 times, and had poor experiences each time. I'm sure I had my own imperfections surface during the interviews, but I've experienced hundreds of interviews at other companies, and I can safely say these were poor. Maybe I was mostly unlucky, but it left a poor experience on me, and I have no desire to work at Amazon. On the other hand, I had really good experiences at Microsoft. shrugs
cwkoss 5y ago
Should savvy readers interpret all of their principles as Orwellian doublespeak? Seems like selecting leaders who are gullible enough to believe these are all already true about Amazon would be a useful technique for screening out critical thinkers who would argue against immoral business decisions.
- HWR_14 5y ago
  You don't bother to list new principles if you're already living up to them. Charitably, they are an attempt to refocus the company so these are lived up to in the future. Cynically, they are an attempt to use words to avoid needing to change anything in how Amazon operates. With a new CEO, the more charitable version seems not impossible.
  - mosdave 5y ago
    > You don't bother to list new principles if you're already living up to them. ah, ok, now Don't Be Evil makes more sense
    - HWR_14 5y ago
      Don't Be Evil was always on the cynical, "words over actions" side.
      - romwell 5y ago
        It wasn't always that way. It's had a pretty good run. Fun fact: they scrapped that motto without fanfare just around the time the company went full speed towards where it's going now. Google hasn't listed Don't Be Evil as a principle in many years now.
    - romwell 5y ago
      Don't Be Evil wasn't a new principle. It was a foundational one, on which the company grew. That's why it was scrapped, and the following new principles were listed: * Respect the opportunity (wtf?) * Respect the user (lol) * Respect each other (ahahaha) Hope it makes sense now :)
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
onion2k 5y ago
I wonder if "best employer" is even possible for a company at the scale of Amazon. The wants and needs of different members of staff will conflict with one another at scale. What's a great employer for one person is an overly bureaucratic micromanagement nightmare for another. Unless the company is capable of managing every person who works there on an entirely individual basis the goal of "best employer" is ultimately a futile one. "Not the worst employer" is much more realistic.

ignoramous 5y ago

Tim O'Reilly's blog post (before this announcement, which likely comes on back of Bezos' final annual letter to shareholders [0]) contrasting Ingram's and Amazon's approach towards the marketplaces they operate in sheds light on why the inclusion of these principles is substantial [1]. Leadership principles, though in tension with each other (and so, some argue they really shouldn't be classified as "principles" but rather "values" [2]), permeates the culture of performance and team building at Amazon; and that makes me think this is not only a welcome but potentially a company-defining change. [0] https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to-shareholders https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/company-news/2020-letter-to... [1] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tale-two-platforms-tim-o-reilly/ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/tale-two-platforms-tim-o-reil... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMGAtxUlAc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QMGAtxUlAc

gpt5 5y ago

These principles are intended to help in decision making. The “Strive to be the world best employer is aimed at managers, but also clearly at HR policy makers” The sarcastic view is that this is just a facade. However, Amazon has historically took its principles very seriously. They believe that the principles made them who they are. Adding something there that they don’t intend to pursue could risk the integrity of this system as a whole

noir_lord 5y ago
> Amazon has historically took its principles very seriously. > Strive to be the world best employer > The sarcastic view is that this is just a facade. Given the horror stories from the people who work in the fulfilment centres and deliver for them, I'm going to take the sarcastic view.
- jeffrallen 5y ago
  I'm going to take the cynical view that the sarcastic view is nearly always right when applied to Amazon.
  - mint2 5y ago
    But is it really cynical when Amazon has thoroughly demonstrated over the past decade they believe humans” worked should be more like robots and cattle, and that legitimate brands should stop complaining about the rampant brand hijacking and fake reviews? Out of context those sound like extreme accusations but Amazon’s policies forcing leaders to hire to fire and completely faceless and automated warehouse worker firing and scheduling and regular brand hijakcing like the Klein bottle one on the front page here a couple days ago show that it’s not cynical to distrust Amazon. It’s more like fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

sharkweek 5y ago

My first interview out of college (circa early 2000s) was at Amazon. The advice the recruiter gave me was “be ready to talk about our core principles!” Okay, simple enough! To this day it is BY FAR the worst experience I’ve ever had in a loop. Everyone was extremely toxic, at least half of the people interviewing me that day were clearly trying to make me feel like shit, and it seemed like the entire goal was to keep me disoriented. About halfway through the day (it was at least 6-7 hours of interviews straight), I should have just left as it was clear I wasn’t going to get an offer. In full disclosure, I was under qualified for the job given that it would have been my first job out of college, but I assume that should have been caught well before a full day loop where some of the folks were just using me as a punching bag.

speeder 5y ago
Amazon is asking me, again, to submit my resume there. My wife wants me to send the resume, because I do need a job, but I already sent several resumes to Amazon (at their own request even!), got interviewed only twice, and both interviews were TERRIBLE. First interview at Amazon, the interviewer actually didn't show up, so they setup another random guy to interview me, and he had no idea what was going on, so it was just a awkward phone talk for 1 hour. Second time Amazon had flown people from all over the world to their Brazillian HQ and asked me and a few other candidates to go there get interviewed. It not only matched your experience, but they managed to out-do themselves in some ways: 1. Some interviewers arrived on the room late, and this caused issues. 2. All of them asked the exact same question, that it was pointless to ask (they wanted me to show my leadership principles in solving conflicts in a past large team, when I told them multiple times I didn't had a past large team in first place). 3. They litearlly forgot me in a room, everyone left the floor, the work day was ending, people left the building, and I was forgotten there for 3 hours, literally, no idea how to even try to leave on my own, until one HR guy showed up, said sorry, gave a bullshit excuse and guided me to the exit of the building.
- devoutsalsa 5y ago
  It’s OK to swallow your pride, take a job at Amazon, and then keep looking for another job.

hyperpape 5y ago

> throughout the (grueling) interview process you have to memorize these and every question you answer needs to intertwine some of these principles. Is this true of individual contributors, or people looking to go into management? I don't think it's good either way, but it crosses into absurdity if it's the former.

slumdev 5y ago
It is true of ICs, but a good recruiter will tell you that you don't need to have stories for all 14. There are really only about 8 or 10 that they expect SDEs to demonstrate.

nindalf 5y ago

As someone who got an offer from Amazon (and declined it) recently, this is how you do it. It's impossible to think of these anecdotes on the fly. Take your time and rack your brains for them. Once you have 14 anecdotes, you're good to go. You'll use a couple in the screening interview and then several during the final 5 interviews. It's preferable not to reuse anecdotes.

slumdev 5y ago

> IMO with how many they have it doesn’t make sense since you are bound to forget nearly all of them day-to-day. You won't forget them if you end up working there. They're used as rhetorical jabs when people want to win arguments. Someone more creative than I am could probably do a great comedy sketch in the vein of Darmok using nothing but the leadership principles as dialogue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmok

deleted 5y ago

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blibble 5y ago

> I never worked at amazon, but throughout the (grueling) interview process you have to memorize these and every question you answer needs to intertwine some of these principles. They tell you to have 2-3 “stories” of how you exemplify each principle. this would explain why everyone I know that was about to start working there suddenly started parroting this bullshit nearly endlessly whenever anyone mentioned Amazon

soared 5y ago
Sounds about right - I spent ~50 hours building and memorizing these stories so surely they leak out elsewhere.

amzsdmtemp 5y ago

>Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees’ personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere. Last few words mean identify low performers and let them to find opportunity elsewhere.