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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

#91

Post by mturmon »

pdovy wrote: post #28

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…

I'm also disappointed that so many comments above do not engage with the information in the article. I, too, found this to be a thoughtful and helpful piece. Along the parts I liked --

Using "calibrated" questions that you have used before and know how far people get with.

Focusing on a specific accomplishment or area of strength of the candidate to probe. (As opposed to choosing something from the resume that, say, the interviewer was most comfortable with, or that the interviewer found interesting.)

Paying attention to preparing the interviewers, so they know why the candidate is being considered, they know why they are on the interview list, and they are experienced enough with interviewing to give a useful opinion.

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

#92

Post by jpalioto »

Terretta wrote: post #57
jpalioto wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Less about needing money and more about being ambitious. Hungry for success I should say.

Whether hungry for money or hungry for success, you're then missing hiring candidates who aren't "hungry" because they have a proven track record at having done very well financially from a series of successes. At this point, they don't need money or validation, they just figure they can help you solve things and are talking to you because they enjoy solving new things. Hungry is overrated when what you need is focus…

Point taken. Sometimes I walk out of an interview and say to myself that the candidate did well, but just did not convince me that he/she really wanted the job. It may just be my personal perspective, but candidates that really stick the landing with me are ones that have that "let me at 'em coach!" attitude.

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

#93

Post by crucifiction »

bane wrote: post #68
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 remember my own interview process with Amazon. I wasn't interviewing for an SDE position but a TPM role. I made it through the gauntlet and it all fell down due to Amazon's grossly unrealistic understanding of what the going rates for experienced PMs are. I mostly had fun with it, but I was also frustrated. The phone screens were the hardest in a purely technical sense, lots of algorithm questions that really didn'…

The pay gap is probably because you did not pass the bar at the same "level" you were at in your old company, meaning Amazon was bringing you in at a demotion essentially.

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

#94

Post by crucifiction »

AsymetricCom wrote: post #87
bane wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember my own interview process with Amazon. I wasn't interviewing for an SDE position but a TPM role. I made it through the gauntlet and it all fell down due to Amazon's grossly unrealistic understanding of what the going rates for experienced PMs are. I mostly had fun with it, but I was also frustrated. The phone screens were the hardest in a purely technical sense, lots of algorithm questions that really didn'…

My understanding is when they fly you out, you're pretty much a shoe-in and now they're letting their devs have a shot at trying to interview, while getting a feel how you work with others. i.e. are you sane or will you eat on of our disposable dev's face?

Its generally the opposite, the phone interviews are the sanity check.

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

#95

Post by rhizome »

eropple wrote: post #88
rhizome wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google doesn't interview you on your experience, but whether you can can solve network/graph algorithms taken from Knuth exercises. I believe this is a backdoor method to requiring a college degree for positions that do not require one within labor law.

This doesn't make sense to me on first read. I'm unaware of a labor law that requires you to interview people without college degrees. Care to elaborate?

I may have worded it wrong. A large swath of programming jobs do not require a college degree, and in those cases it's illegal to require one. This is why job ads will say, "Desired: College degree or equivalent experience." They don't describe it as a requirement for a reason.

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

#96

Post by eropple »

rhizome wrote: post #95
eropple wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make sense to me on first read. I'm unaware of a labor law that requires you to interview people without college degrees. Care to elaborate?

I may have worded it wrong. A large swath of programming jobs do not require a college degree, and in those cases it's illegal to require one. This is why job ads will say, "Desired: College degree or equivalent experience ." They don't describe it as a requirement for a reason.

It's illegal to require one? Citation?

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

#97

Post by serge2k »

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…

Regarding point 3, I've seen that given out as an option before in talks about interviews. I only see it as a solution that works if the person is actually hired.

If not they waste 2 weeks of their time and probably other SDE time. It leaves no room for people who apply while still working at another job. I had to miss 2 days of work for my interview, and that was about the biggest risk I could afford. Even if you say you will pay me for the 2 weeks, I still wouldn't have a job to come back to. It's probably still a poor job, I was just starting to get into my first task towards the end of 2 weeks. I spend most of the time just getting everything setup (granted we ran into issues that had to be resolved with another team, but still).

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

#98

Post by [deleted] »

rhizome wrote: post #95
eropple wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This doesn't make sense to me on first read. I'm unaware of a labor law that requires you to interview people without college degrees. Care to elaborate?

I may have worded it wrong. A large swath of programming jobs do not require a college degree, and in those cases it's illegal to require one. This is why job ads will say, "Desired: College degree or equivalent experience ." They don't describe it as a requirement for a reason.

[deleted]

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

#99

Post by gavinpc »

bane wrote: post #68
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 remember my own interview process with Amazon. I wasn't interviewing for an SDE position but a TPM role. I made it through the gauntlet and it all fell down due to Amazon's grossly unrealistic understanding of what the going rates for experienced PMs are. I mostly had fun with it, but I was also frustrated. The phone screens were the hardest in a purely technical sense, lots of algorithm questions that really didn'…

> couldn't have made small talk if he had a gun to his head

To be fair, I think this describes most people.

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

#100

Post by kb19 »

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 was just hired at Amazon as an SDE and found the interview process to be fairly challenging and technical (but what do I know).

I appreciated the fact that a lot of the interview focused on core data structures / algorithms and not languages / frameworks of the moment kind of thing. It caused me to go back through my university books and study a lot of the core concepts that I enjoyed learning and have gotten away from by doing more menial programming tasks (not to say that I won't be don't those sorts of things at the job).

Also, if they said that they wanted to try me out for a couple weeks I would have refused the offer. I already had a job that I was happy (and well paid) at, so why should I leave or take vacation to move across the country and be tried out at another company?

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