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Final interview at Amazon for embedded position: all previous interviews were great. They threw out a niche optimization problem for web development which I cou

Final interview at Amazon for embedded position: all previous interviews were great. They threw out a niche optimization problem for web development which I couldn’t do in 30min. I fumbled big time. The interviewer had such a thick accent I found it impossible to communicate. Moral: 1) don’t expect only questions relevant to the position. 2) practice communicating with people that have very thick Indian or Chinese accents. It will also help in general day to day life

lambrospetrou 3y ago
>2) practice communicating with people that have very thick Indian or Chinese accents. It will also help in general day to day life Absolutely :) I have that item explicitly in my article, since it happened to me as well being on both sides of the interview process. It's very unfortunate when communication is problematic accent-wise. And it makes judging difficult as well since you are not focusing on the technical merits alone anymore. >1) don’t expect only questions relevant to the position. For this, you might have been unlucky with an inexperienced interviewer...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
im_down_w_otp 3y ago
Well, it’s a good thing Amazon’s hiring process managed to filter out someone who could do the job they were hiring for, but not the job they weren’t hiring for. That’s some top notch hiring practices right there.
- sverhagen 3y ago
  I'm ESL myself, and I sympathize because I also don't find it easy always to communicate with ESL people from yet other native languages. But as for the niche optimization problem, don't you think that the Amazon folks would say: this candidate was not able to think on their feet and think outside of the box, when given a non-standard problem? I think hiring teams over-estimate how far they can push the envelope on that in an interview, but I find it a bit one-sided to assume that the question was outside of the job they were hiring for or that it was a malicious question.
  - matt3210 3y ago
    I’m not ESL but I still can’t communicate with people that have very very thick accents.
  - im_down_w_otp 3y ago
    I’m sure they have a lot of rationalizations and just default inertia around various practices. Could the interviewer successfully answer a niche question proposed by the interviewee? If they can’t, should they forfeit their job to the person they’re interviewing?
jppittma 3y ago
The actual moral of the story is that FAANG interviews have a lot to do with luck. A lot of interviewers grill you on stuff that they know a lot about, because how do you interview somebody on stuff you don't know anything about? So, what winds up happening is that you have to keep interviewing until you wind up with a set of interviewers that has a lot of knowledge overlap with yours.
- lambrospetrou 3y ago
  I would say that luck in FAANG interviews is much lower than the average tech company. At least in my experience. Don't get me wrong, there is luck involved, and it's a big part of the interview process. But, at least, you have standardised pools of coding questions, standardised pools of system design questions, and a standardised feedback form. The interviewer varies a lot though... And makes all the difference when you have an inexperienced one, or someone that doesn't care.
  - jppittma 3y ago
    We have a question bank, but you don't have to ask a question from the bank. Apple interviews are pure chaos, and up to the individual team.
  - anuraaga 3y ago
    > The interviewer varies a lot though... And makes all the difference when you have an inexperienced one, or someone that doesn't care. I believe this is likely the main point being made about luck - be unlucky enough to hit up an inexperienced interviewer and all the time spent preparing as in the linked OP is up in smoke. Not sure if it counts as an average tech company, but in terms of non-FAANG I think startups and smaller companies can end up relying less on luck. There is more time and motivation to truly flesh out candidates, maybe giving non-interview coding tasks and such to balance out interviews. At a FAANG if there was an issue because of an inexperienced interviewer, again you need luck for a recruiter or committee to attempt a save among all the other applicants.
aliwejrlia 3y ago
"Embedded" is such a vast, vast field now, it's risky to assume anything isn't included
- matt3210 3y ago
  Explain? Embedded in my intention is working on the hardware directly.
emodendroket 3y ago
After working in big tech for a while I'm so used to hearing Indian and Chinese accents that it doesn't faze me. Practice seems like a good idea though maybe easier said than done.

lambrospetrou 3y ago

>2) practice communicating with people that have very thick Indian or Chinese accents. It will also help in general day to day life Absolutely :) I have that item explicitly in my article, since it happened to me as well being on both sides of the interview process. It's very unfortunate when communication is problematic accent-wise. And it makes judging difficult as well since you are not focusing on the technical merits alone anymore. >1) don’t expect only questions relevant to the position. For this, you might have been unlucky with an inexperienced interviewer...

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

im_down_w_otp 3y ago

Well, it’s a good thing Amazon’s hiring process managed to filter out someone who could do the job they were hiring for, but not the job they weren’t hiring for. That’s some top notch hiring practices right there.

sverhagen 3y ago
I'm ESL myself, and I sympathize because I also don't find it easy always to communicate with ESL people from yet other native languages. But as for the niche optimization problem, don't you think that the Amazon folks would say: this candidate was not able to think on their feet and think outside of the box, when given a non-standard problem? I think hiring teams over-estimate how far they can push the envelope on that in an interview, but I find it a bit one-sided to assume that the question was outside of the job they were hiring for or that it was a malicious question.
- matt3210 3y ago
  I’m not ESL but I still can’t communicate with people that have very very thick accents.
- im_down_w_otp 3y ago
  I’m sure they have a lot of rationalizations and just default inertia around various practices. Could the interviewer successfully answer a niche question proposed by the interviewee? If they can’t, should they forfeit their job to the person they’re interviewing?

jppittma 3y ago

The actual moral of the story is that FAANG interviews have a lot to do with luck. A lot of interviewers grill you on stuff that they know a lot about, because how do you interview somebody on stuff you don't know anything about? So, what winds up happening is that you have to keep interviewing until you wind up with a set of interviewers that has a lot of knowledge overlap with yours.

lambrospetrou 3y ago
I would say that luck in FAANG interviews is much lower than the average tech company. At least in my experience. Don't get me wrong, there is luck involved, and it's a big part of the interview process. But, at least, you have standardised pools of coding questions, standardised pools of system design questions, and a standardised feedback form. The interviewer varies a lot though... And makes all the difference when you have an inexperienced one, or someone that doesn't care.
- jppittma 3y ago
  We have a question bank, but you don't have to ask a question from the bank. Apple interviews are pure chaos, and up to the individual team.
- anuraaga 3y ago
  > The interviewer varies a lot though... And makes all the difference when you have an inexperienced one, or someone that doesn't care. I believe this is likely the main point being made about luck - be unlucky enough to hit up an inexperienced interviewer and all the time spent preparing as in the linked OP is up in smoke. Not sure if it counts as an average tech company, but in terms of non-FAANG I think startups and smaller companies can end up relying less on luck. There is more time and motivation to truly flesh out candidates, maybe giving non-interview coding tasks and such to balance out interviews. At a FAANG if there was an issue because of an inexperienced interviewer, again you need luck for a recruiter or committee to attempt a save among all the other applicants.

aliwejrlia 3y ago

"Embedded" is such a vast, vast field now, it's risky to assume anything isn't included

matt3210 3y ago
Explain? Embedded in my intention is working on the hardware directly.

emodendroket 3y ago

After working in big tech for a while I'm so used to hearing Indian and Chinese accents that it doesn't faze me. Practice seems like a good idea though maybe easier said than done.