The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
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Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#2I disagree with "In most cases, the “best and the brightest” already have jobs, so you’re really just on the lookout for the best available.". Just because one is employed does not mean one is taken. If you want the best you have to work at it. Appeal to their desires and they'll come to you. Looking for the "best available" is no better than settling. In my opinion you'll end up doing a disservice to both your company and the new hire.
Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#3I disagree with "In most cases, the “best and the brightest” already have jobs, so you’re really just on the lookout for the best available.". Just because one is employed does not mean one is taken. If you want the best you have to work at it. Appeal to their desires and they'll come to you. Looking for the "best available" is no better than settling. In my opinion you'll end up doing a disservice to both your compa…
Lets be honest Amazon is an online shop the best and brightest are either going to be working at tier 1 RnD or on wall street or the city.
Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#4"No matter how many times they say it, most still make decisions based on gut feel, basic credentials, GPAs, ivy league educations, flashy company names - even SAT scores. Roseman objects."
What's a Roseman object? Is it some psychological classification of the means by which we just things? Of course, I mis-read it. Shame, that could have been an interesting topic.
Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#5I disagree with "In most cases, the “best and the brightest” already have jobs, so you’re really just on the lookout for the best available.". Just because one is employed does not mean one is taken. If you want the best you have to work at it. Appeal to their desires and they'll come to you. Looking for the "best available" is no better than settling. In my opinion you'll end up doing a disservice to both your compa…
Lets be honest Amazon is an online shop the best and brightest are either going to be working at tier 1 RnD or on wall street or the city.
Let's be honest, Amazon has a massive infrastructure supporting a very large number of very diverse customers, tonnes of products and projects, and lots of active development on them.
Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#6The one element no one ever accounts for is the interviewers. You're never going to have a perfect technical interview because you're an imperfect human. You're incapable of judging whether someone is a perfect cultural fit, and someone who doesn't fit the culture might help the company more than someone who does.
That isn't even getting into the the conflict between whats good for the company and whats good for you.
Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#7I disagree with "In most cases, the “best and the brightest” already have jobs, so you’re really just on the lookout for the best available.". Just because one is employed does not mean one is taken. If you want the best you have to work at it. Appeal to their desires and they'll come to you. Looking for the "best available" is no better than settling. In my opinion you'll end up doing a disservice to both your compa…
Lets be honest Amazon is an online shop the best and brightest are either going to be working at tier 1 RnD or on wall street or the city.
Re Wall Street: It's unfortunate that some of our brightest are tempted into playing multi-million dollar poker, rather than focusing their energy on producing any significant long-term value.
I believe software engineering wages will continue to rise over time, and will eventually reflect the true value the industry produces.
Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#8"No matter how many times they say it, most still make decisions based on gut feel, basic credentials, GPAs, ivy league educations, flashy company names - even SAT scores. Roseman objects." What's a Roseman object? Is it some psychological classification of the means by which we just things? Of course, I mis-read it. Shame, that could have been an interesting topic.
If it's confusing to parse, let me expand it: Neil Roseman strenuously objects to that assertion.
Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#9I'm always amazed by how confidently people can propose a hiring "rule" or even guideline.
The article pays lip service to the fact "There's no way to A/B test hiring decisions" but then goes on to describe a handful of rules to "build an effective organization, regardless of size or resources." The thing is, there's no evidence that these are effective and definitely none to suggest they're generalizable to organizations of every size. There's an appeal to the author's authority as an Amazon VP (admittedly a hell of a credential), but that's not evidence of effectiveness.
The fact is, hiring is tough to learn. It's made especially difficult because your feedback comes at least 6 months after you make the decision. I've had the good fortune to be in an organization which grew from ~10 employees this time last year to ~80 now, so I've gotten to see how a few dozen hires panned out in a short period of time. I learned a lot through that. Even so, as a professional data geek, I couldn't say with a straight face that I "know" anything about hiring. I do my best day in and day out, but saying you've got hiring all figured out is the professional equivalent of knowing "What (wo)men want." It's a sign of confidence, but not necessarily knowledge.
Don't get me wrong, in the absence of quality data, I'll take the wise words of someone who has been there and done that. But I'd much rather some empirical proof or at least some "YMMV" humility from those who purport to know.
Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP
#10I disagree with "In most cases, the “best and the brightest” already have jobs, so you’re really just on the lookout for the best available.". Just because one is employed does not mean one is taken. If you want the best you have to work at it. Appeal to their desires and they'll come to you. Looking for the "best available" is no better than settling. In my opinion you'll end up doing a disservice to both your compa…
If you have a situation, which I believe we do now, where the number of engineers who fit the "best and brightest" category as defined by the companies looking is less than the number required by these companies, somebody is going to have to either "settle" or work with a hole. It will also make some of these engineers overpaid. I don't see how this benefits your company. Yes, in this system some companies will be "winners" in the sense that they get an awesome team for a good price, but most will lose. I would not be surprised if the high rate of failure in the startup community is related to this.
For the record, I do not see hiring the "best available" as settling unless they do not meet some minimum requirements of the business. The purpose of hiring people is to help execute a product, service, or whatever else your business is trying to make money off of. Anyone who can increase your chances of succeeding or increase your level of success is a good hire. Yes, that includes looking at intangibles like team and culture fit, work ethic, etc. But this person does not need to be the "best" to provide this boost to your business. In fact, it is effectively impossible to hire the best, because there will always be someone better.