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Ask HN: Does Amazon Hire Without BS?

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Ask HN: Does Amazon Hire Without BS?

#1
I'm starting to look at established companies (i.e. exit the startup world). Microsoft recently began adding "or equivalent experience" to the end of BS in Computer Science, or completely removing the mention of a CS degree altogether in their job postings.

But all the jobs I've read so far on amazon.jobs seem to imply that a BS degree is required. Does anyone know if that is still the case? Is there any point in applying at Amazon if you don't have a BS degree? Any tips or tricks? (Besides signing up for the quickest online college degree program...)

Thanks.

Re: Ask HN: Does Amazon Hire Without BS?

#4
Imagine you are talking about an Amazon SDE (software development engineer) or similar role, and not just the warehouse workers, the latter of which I would seriously hope could care less about your advanced education.

My experience with Amazon's SDE hiring process has been pretty disappointing. It's a lot like Google's, where they bring in a bunch of devs and managers to tech-screen you, with nothing more than a "raising the bar" afternoon course in interviewing experience under their belt.

If they can see themselves in you, maybe a younger version, then it's a pretty good bet you'll get an offer. If not, they're perfectly happy to waste your afternoon, and maybe get back to you with a no. Ask yourself: "How you could tell if someone, who's a more experienced developer than you are, is more qualified than you are?" If you don't have a good answer, that's ok, but realize the ones making that decision are in exactly the same boat.

The problem with Amazon's "bar raiser" approach is that it ignores that your average rank-and-file employee does not know how to value a candidate. When you hire only the best, and you have no idea what that actually means (the best are who work here already?), then it becomes a self-fulfilling tautology. Lots of false negatives, and probably some false positives as well. If you follow history, Sears was probably like this at some point in time.

TLDR: No.

Re: Ask HN: Does Amazon Hire Without BS?

#5
I have an associates and did a stint with Amazon. That comes with a caveat. I interviewed for a senior software engineer, and got placed as a system engineer. With an understanding that I'd move to software within six months. That never came to pass, and I found it was due to my lack of education. I had been in the field for ~7 years at this point and was a team lead / architect for the past ~2 years.

So yes it can be done just be careful on your expectations. If you're in the Seattle area. There is a crack the coding interview meetup. Probably in other cities. Tailor the resume to their needs. Then knock the algorithm and big o questions out. I spent about a year studying to land the role.

Re: Ask HN: Does Amazon Hire Without BS?

#7
any and all stories are welcome. google for me was horrific in terms of the time (calendar and amount), and the constant bait and switch.

I just got contacted by an AWS hiring manager. I had to fight to get a face to face with my proposed hiring manager at Google, and he was frankly quite offended I thought it necessary. So I thought that was at least mildly positive, any other anecdotes for someone considering entering the pipeline would be really helpful.

Re: Ask HN: Does Amazon Hire Without BS?

#8

I have an associates and did a stint with Amazon. That comes with a caveat. I interviewed for a senior software engineer, and got placed as a system engineer. With an understanding that I'd move to software within six months. That never came to pass, and I found it was due to my lack of education. I had been in the field for ~7 years at this point and was a team lead / architect for the past ~2 years. So yes it can b…

That's kind of disheartening. I want to be a software engineer. I love writing code.

Re: Ask HN: Does Amazon Hire Without BS?

#10
post #4

Imagine you are talking about an Amazon SDE (software development engineer) or similar role, and not just the warehouse workers, the latter of which I would seriously hope could care less about your advanced education. My experience with Amazon's SDE hiring process has been pretty disappointing. It's a lot like Google's, where they bring in a bunch of devs and managers to tech-screen you, with nothing more than a "ra…

Thank you for the response. That's good to know. I don't understand why interviewing isn't just, "Did you work yesterday? Great. Open up your laptop and show me the code you wrote yesterday."
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