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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

#21

Post by evanjacobs »

In my 10 years at Amazon, I interviewed lots of engineers and I think Amazon's interview process is fatally flawed. Of course Amazon is still able to hire good candidates but I believe it is in spite of this process and not because of it.

Here were the most frustrating aspects of interviewing for me:

1. Bar raisers don't ask questions that they themselves don't know the answer to. I believe this is what Roseman is referring to (as a desirable?!? attribute) when he says "One of the things that really pisses me off is people asking questions that they don’t even have a good handle on themselves". What happens in practice is that you miss hiring people who may not be able to answer a question to which every interviewer already knows the answer but whom might be uniquely qualified in some other area.

2. Interviewers still ask candidates to code answers to theoretical questions on the whiteboard. There is no room in the Amazon interview process to "try out" a candidate for a week or two in a real world setting to see how they perform.

3. Amazon considers all SDEs to be fungible but internal politics determines which group gets to interview a new candidate. Have an advanced degree and strong interest in machine learning? Too bad, US Retail needs someone to work on front-end development and they'll ask you lots of questions about javascript.

4. This isn't really part of the Amazon interview process but Amazon's job descriptions are (for the most part) written so generically and absent of personality that I think they miss out on lots of great candidates for whom startups simply seem more fun & interesting.

Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

#23

Post by saraid216 »

afandian wrote: post #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.

I didn't know "just" was a verb. Is that when we do something but only barely competently?

Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

#24

Post by jpalioto »

I appreciate the notion of having the whole team prepared for the interview process. I think this is a best practice. But, when I interview, I am looking for completely different things than the author.

I really don't care about what you did at your last company or if you raised this by 50% or that by 30%. Rather, I want three things in a candidate: smart, talented and hungry. If I get someone who is smart, talented and hungry and I drop them into a situation where there is unlimited upside, my job then becomes to guide them to greatness.

I also strongly disagree with the notion of not asking questions you do not know the answer to. Anyone can read an obscure section of the C++ language spec or a chapter on some data structure 5 minutes before an interview and make themselves feel superior to the candidate. What does this prove? Nothing. I often ask questions I don't know the answer to in order to determine whether or not the candidate can teach me something. I love having people on my team that have the ability to teach others.

The author's point is very well taken -- interviewing is an important process and it should be conducted in a way that results in the best possible outcome. But, he's looking at the situation far too rigidly for my taste.

Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

#25

Post by saraid216 »

walshemj wrote: post #17
vonmoltke wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 "w…

"over paid" what is this concept that you speak off - there is no big guy with a big white beard sitting on a cloud who's going to reach down and say "you yes you with a third in media studies from Luton university should be paid X and those cheeky blue collar train drivers or miners who have scarce skills should be paid less than you". The PHB might think they are over paid but like it or not this is Laissez-faire c…

Paid more than one standard deviation higher than average for that level of competency, scarcity, and bargaining power.

Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

#26

Post by VikingCoder »

afandian wrote: post #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.

I think there should be something in science called the 'reindeer effect.' I don't know what it would be, but I think it'd be good to hear someone say, 'Gentlemen, what we have here is a terrifying example of the reindeer effect.' - Jack Handey

Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

#27

Post by WalterBright »

evanjacobs wrote: post #21

In my 10 years at Amazon, I interviewed lots of engineers and I think Amazon's interview process is fatally flawed. Of course Amazon is still able to hire good candidates but I believe it is in spite of this process and not because of it. Here were the most frustrating aspects of interviewing for me: 1. Bar raisers don't ask questions that they themselves don't know the answer to. I believe this is what Roseman is re…

> I think Amazon's interview process is fatally flawed.

The topic of interviewing comes up often here, and this sentiment is overwhelmingly the top sentiment for every single company's interview process. Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, etc., have all been pilloried here about the interview process.

I suspect the real problem is the implication that this is even a solvable problem.

Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

#28

Post by pdovy »

There seems to be a lot of criticism of the suggestions here, but I think they are good ones. It seems to pretty much boil down to:

(1) Spend a lot of time discussing accomplishments at their current / previous employers. If you drill down on particular projects they should be able to explain, in great detail, exactly what their contribution was and how they worked with the rest of the team to get that done.

(2) Pick a technical question that has a lot of depth so that you avoid false positives because people have just looked up the answer on the internet. I would also add that in my view the best questions have no tricks and require no "aha!" moments. It should be something the candidate can be reasoned through step by step so you can see their thought process. When they come up with an initial solution, then you can dive deeper by expanding the problem or adding additional constraints.

Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

#29

Post by dylangs1030 »

kenster07 wrote: post #7
walshemj wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I have no shame in admitting that I would rather use high-level mathematics and programming to play "multi-million dollar poker" on Wall Street than join half of the startups and big tech companies and have a boring job churning out insignificant apps at a desk.

In fact, the way you phrased it, being a quant sounds really fun :) you don't want to play multi-million dollar poker?

I mean, sure, meaning and existentialism and all that, but I bet it's at least somewhat exciting.

Re: The anatomy of the perfect technical interview from a former Amazon VP

#30

Post by dylangs1030 »

WalterBright wrote: post #27
evanjacobs wrote: post #21

In my 10 years at Amazon, I interviewed lots of engineers and I think Amazon's interview process is fatally flawed. Of course Amazon is still able to hire good candidates but I believe it is in spite of this process and not because of it. Here were the most frustrating aspects of interviewing for me: 1. Bar raisers don't ask questions that they themselves don't know the answer to. I believe this is what Roseman is re…

> I think Amazon's interview process is fatally flawed. The topic of interviewing comes up often here, and this sentiment is overwhelmingly the top sentiment for every single company's interview process. Amazon, Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, etc., have all been pilloried here about the interview process. I suspect the real problem is the implication that this is even a solvable problem.

I agree. I don't think it's a solvable problem. It's like people who champion the removal of SAT/ACT from college admissions.

Okay, so statistics demonstrate the SAT only correlates with the first year of college...great, what do you have to replace it with?

We work with what we have, and take the benefits it gives us.

Systems can always be gamed, and that's an unfortunate (fortunate for some, I guess) reality.

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