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Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

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Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#191

Post by flukus »

manacit wrote: post #151
djsumdog wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is a terrible process. I've never been asked that by anyone. The most I've had are some remote interviews where they use something like codepen (on-line group REPL)and they ask you a question and watch you write/run it. In one of them, my interviewer was a little late and found me trying to open .. and /. I could get a file list of a root file system. There was a file in / titled something like HACKING.txt and e…

They are a big company that operates with a fairly proprietary set of programming language and tools (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUMPS ), and they hire a good number of people right out of undergraduate degrees. I remember there being a large proportion of non-CS students from across the country there interviewing for engineering positions. What they're looking for, I think, is not necessarily your ability to…

> and they hire a good number of people right out of undergraduate degrees

If they're using mumps they have to get them early before they know any better.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#192

Post by relics443 »

electic wrote: post #180
dgritsko wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's worth noting that these are Proctorio's ( https://proctorio.com/ ) restrictions; they're just a third-party company that Amazon is using to administer the test. I've used a couple of similar systems (e.g. ProctorU - https://www.proctoru.com/ , where a human will actually watch you via webcam(!), or ProctorTrack - http://www.proctortrack.com/ ), and "monitoring" of this sort is pretty much par for the course (no…

It just sends the wrong message. As a company, you are advocating tech that spies on people or in this case the test taker. Overall, it leaves a nasty taste in your mouth that a company would use technology such as this. What else would they be okay with doing once you start working there? Why not do an onsite if you want to make sure of the validity?

Is it spying if they let you know what they will be doing?

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#195

Post by rdtsc »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #143
rdtsc wrote: post #96

Just a few days ago I did a fun and completely ridiculous exercise and compared Amazon to a country, and then wanted to see how it would look like. I ended up with Stalinism. (I'll just paste it here and add some more to it): * Personality cult: Bezos = Stalin * You sing praises to the great leader: the 14 leadership principles. * Officially they have a zero-tolerance policy for harshness. But I bet if anyone complai…

I wouldn't paint Amazon with that kind of brush, but you could make a good case that old-school IBM worked that way. They even had a corporate anthem.

I think IBM would be more like GDR or the Brejnev era of Soviet Union.

Stalin was ruthless and the system also had this strong cult of personality. Also loved slogans which have to be repeated and paid respect in public. But also under him there was heavy industrialization so that is you know the revenue generated if you wish.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#196

Post by flukus »

perryh2 wrote: post #168
iamleppert wrote: post #140

Why would anyone want to ever work for Amazon? Their culture is terrible and they are not innovative despite their claims to the contrary. They are simply a technical sweat shop that tries a lot of random things. There's more to life than working for a big tech company. Big tech companies are the worst. If you value your life and you're a creative person and good at what you do, find yourself a (good) medium size com…

Some people don't have the privilege of working anywhere other than big companies. They're completely fine at big companies and can overlook seemingly terrible culture because they can get immigration visas and green cards. Most startups and medium-sized software companies don't even consider applicants that aren't American. I don't have an American last name and the first question many recruiters ask me is about my…

> I don't have an American last name and the first question many recruiters ask me is about my citizenship.

That's because for every job advertised they'll get a flood of applications from around the world.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#197

Post by rdtsc »

tossaway1 wrote: post #117
rdtsc wrote: post #96

Just a few days ago I did a fun and completely ridiculous exercise and compared Amazon to a country, and then wanted to see how it would look like. I ended up with Stalinism. (I'll just paste it here and add some more to it): * Personality cult: Bezos = Stalin * You sing praises to the great leader: the 14 leadership principles. * Officially they have a zero-tolerance policy for harshness. But I bet if anyone complai…

Why Stalin? Might as well just go straight to Godwin's law if you want to attack Amazon...

> Godwin's law if you want to attack Amazon...

Oh poor Amazon. I think it will survive a satirical comment on the internet here there.

But sounds like you do have some inside info if you're talking Godwin's law...

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#198

Post by flukus »

Cyph0n wrote: post #75
morganvachon wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In a practical sense, it's not much different from a math instructor having you clear the memory on your graphing calculator before an exam; it's an anti-cheating measure and given that this is an online assessment, it almost makes sense. However, from a philosophical point of view, it's Draconian and unnerving. What assurance does the interviewee have that Amazon isn't storing and using all this telemetry? Amazon is…

> However, from a philosophical point of view, it's Draconian and unnerving. What assurance does the interviewee have that Amazon isn't storing and using all this telemetry? How is that different from being recorded by multiple cameras during an on-site interview? I honestly don't see why the information they're collecting is a big deal. They are remotely interviewing you for a position, and would like to minimize ch…

> How is that different from being recorded by multiple cameras during an on-site interview?

I'd refuse this too. But the difference is that the on site one isn't a massive security threat.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#199

Post by [deleted] »

dgritsko wrote: post #107
kafkaesq wrote: post #18

The following information will be collected during the duration of the exam: Your microphone Your webcam Your physical location Your head movements Your eye movements Your mouth movements Creepy as all get-out. By all means, lets have more leaks like this.

It's worth noting that these are Proctorio's ( https://proctorio.com/ ) restrictions; they're just a third-party company that Amazon is using to administer the test. I've used a couple of similar systems (e.g. ProctorU - https://www.proctoru.com/ , where a human will actually watch you via webcam(!), or ProctorTrack - http://www.proctortrack.com/ ), and "monitoring" of this sort is pretty much par for the course (no…

[deleted]

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#200

Post by chipperyman573 »

dgritsko wrote: post #107
kafkaesq wrote: post #18

The following information will be collected during the duration of the exam: Your microphone Your webcam Your physical location Your head movements Your eye movements Your mouth movements Creepy as all get-out. By all means, lets have more leaks like this.

It's worth noting that these are Proctorio's ( https://proctorio.com/ ) restrictions; they're just a third-party company that Amazon is using to administer the test. I've used a couple of similar systems (e.g. ProctorU - https://www.proctoru.com/ , where a human will actually watch you via webcam(!), or ProctorTrack - http://www.proctortrack.com/ ), and "monitoring" of this sort is pretty much par for the course (no…

I took a test with ProctorU a few months ago for my university class. It didn't seem creepy at all. They installed LogMeIn and watched my webcam, but as soon as the exam was over they disabled both. It's just a way of making sure there isn't any cheating.
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