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Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

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Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#201

Post by dgritsko »

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?

>Why not do an onsite if you want to make sure of the validity?

Convenience and logistics. Is it worth yours (or Amazon's) time to pay for travel expenses, when applicants could literally be located anywhere? Evidently not, at least not in the early stages of the process.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#202

Post by sillysaurus3 »

wutbrodo wrote: post #182
coldcode wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What the heck is cheating in programming? Do people watch you on a webcam at work to see if you are reading stackoverflow?

Presumably you're aware that job interviews and the actual job are different things? At a real job no one cares if you use Stack Overflow because there's ample other data to assess your productivity (like...your actual productivity over the months and years that you're employed). The challenge with interviewing is trying to extrapolate performance from a much, MUCH shorter time horizon[1]. You're not testing the exac…

Presumably you're aware that job interviews and the actual job are different things?

This is the core problem with tech hiring circa 2016. The sooner this idea dies, the better. It's surprising that more companies haven't noticed the most effective interviews are ones that resemble the company's day-to-day work as closely as possible.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#203

Post by nxc18 »

mabbo wrote: post #78

As a developer at Amazon who does interviews, what the fuck? I imagine part of this is a response to the very, very large amount of time we spend interviewing interns every winter (I know I typically do 2 or 3 sessions of 3 1-hour interviews in a row). There's just too many interviews to do. Someone wants to innovate and find ways to sort the good from the bad without SDE time spent, I would guess. I hope this isn't…

Coming from the candidates perspective, I loved it. The whole process was efficient and flexible. The coding questions were realistic. The workday simulation was really cool.

I get that the author cares about privacy, but without doing what they do there should be no way to make the process as smooth as it is without getting tons of cheating. (It sounds crazy, but being in uni, I've seen crazy amounts of people cheat, often on the order of >50% of the graduate cs program.)

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#204

Post by flukus »

Spooky23 wrote: post #42

Have you ever done lots of remote interviews in a big company? The scamming is unbelievable. I've personally seen outright fraud... the guy in the video was a redhead with freckles, his name was an ethnic Vietnamese. Somehow they brought him in for an in-person interview, a Vietnamese dude shows up. - Clueless. Guy was literally reading a manual. - One guy offered me a bribe. - one guy asked if his status as an illeg…

So maybe we have to accept that remote interviews aren't feasible.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#205

Post by abc_lisper »

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…

> Most startups and medium-sized software companies don't even consider applicants that aren't American.

Not true! atleast not in bay area. I have worked for many years on H-1 here, along with others on the same visa.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#206

Post by dgritsko »

chipperyman573 wrote: post #200
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…

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.

Yep, and a pretty convenient one at that. When using these services, the effortlessness of taking a test in the comfort of my own home (at a time that worked for my schedule) outweighed privacy concerns, although I certainly empathize with those that don't feel the same way.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#207

Post by manacit »

onetwotree wrote: post #166
manacit wrote: post #94

By all means, this is not unique to Amazon - not that it makes it any better. I did a post-grad interview for Epic (epic.com - healthcare software) in a similar fashion, that was at least as draconian. After passing a 15 minute phone screen, they sent me a link to a service that: * Installed their proprietary software on my Mac * Connected me to a real person who verified my DL against who they were expecting * Had m…

I think you made the right choice. I live in Madison and have some friends and coworkers who work or have worked for Epic. The burnout is epic (pun definitely intended). I think the only ones who really like their jobs are a barista and a cook.

Yeah, that lines up with what I heard from other people that had worked there, or knew people that work there.

For all of the flaws though, they had a fantastic and cheap cafeteria. It's surrounded by cow farms, though, so they have to have some sort of meal accommodation.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#208

Post by epmatsw »

onetwotree wrote: post #166
manacit wrote: post #94

By all means, this is not unique to Amazon - not that it makes it any better. I did a post-grad interview for Epic (epic.com - healthcare software) in a similar fashion, that was at least as draconian. After passing a 15 minute phone screen, they sent me a link to a service that: * Installed their proprietary software on my Mac * Connected me to a real person who verified my DL against who they were expecting * Had m…

I think you made the right choice. I live in Madison and have some friends and coworkers who work or have worked for Epic. The burnout is epic (pun definitely intended). I think the only ones who really like their jobs are a barista and a cook.

I really enjoyed my time there actually. There's a decent burnout rate for some teams and roles (especially for ones that travel a lot), but there are some groups there that do interesting work. I was one of their Security team leads for a year or so right before I left and had a lot of fun with it.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#209

Post by abc_lisper »

rtjs wrote: post #127
joncp wrote: post #48

This is Amazon, which is known to be one of the least ethical dev shops around. I'm terribly unsurprised by this.

Can you please give me some sources that explain how it is unethical? (I am aware of the NYTimes article which explains how badly they treat their employees, but that doesn't necessarily translate to unethical development .) I ask because I am about to join them, so forewarned is forearmed.

> I am about to join them, so forewarned is forearmed.

I didn't go there, but here's some i found on the net. https://sites.google.com/site/thefaceofamazon/home

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#210

Post by flukus »

andrewguenther wrote: post #54
pavlov wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If an employer is so disorganized that this doesn't become obvious during the first month of working there, they probably have much greater problems than cheating on their idiotic cargo cult coding tests, and fixing the cheating would do absolutely nothing to save the company.

"this doesn't become obvious during the first month of working there" This is a gross oversimplification of the problem. Do you know how difficult it is to fire a person? Do you know how much it costs to hire someone? You've given this person a relocation bonus, possibly put in the work to set up a visa, given the first chunk of a signing bonus....

Isn't lying on during the job interview, especially to this extent, a fireable offense just about everywhere?
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