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Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

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Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#251

Post by flukus »

eatonphil wrote: post #222
flukus wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Personally, I always thought MUMPS was pretty cool. Database support as built-in to the language as you can get.

More than the language itself (I use some ugly ones quite regularly) I'd be worried about not gaining transferable skills. Moving on to the next job would be an uphill battle with recruiters and you might have to go back to entry level jobs.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#252

Post by mightybyte »

I can somewhat understand this kind of crazy monitoring if the stakes are high and the score on the test is the only or finally-deciding factor. But online tests for interviewing candidates are never that. So in this case I don't think this level of invasiveness is justifiable in the slightest. It's just a screen. Cheaters will get filtered out at the next stage in the hiring process.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#253

Post by mabbo »

peterwwillis wrote: post #225
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…

Years ago I was flown out to Amazon to interview for them. I had like five interviews that day, all from different teams who were all asking questions that had nothing to do with the job I was applying for, never asking about my relevant experience. They were asking me CS questions and I had never gone to college. They asked about computer design - like, draw a diagram of a computer (I had never made a diagram before…

The reason for the very generic interview is that you won't be on the same team in two years. People move around a lot. If they hire you because you know Angular but fuck all otherwise, they're screwing over the team you're going to be on in two years who need someone that can learn C socket programming ASAP.

It's about finding someone who can see things more generally, but then implement solutions with the tools on hand. It's really hard to do, but it means I get to work with incredible people.

(Also, I did a webcam interview this week. It's not a great format.)

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#254

Post by mzw_mzw »

Alex3917 wrote: post #239
mzw_mzw wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This immediately brings to mind the history of scientific racism, specifically with craniometry being used to 'prove' that certain races are inferior. I can't imagine why...? That would be like seeing a freeway and instantly thinking of the Nazis.

US corporations have a multi-hundred year history of using thinly veiled proxies for race as part of their hiring practices. This continues to this day, including in the tech industry. It's not exactly that far fetched to think that someone might someday think it's a good idea to start applying some of those new AI APIs to the candidate interview videos just to see what happens. In fact given enough time and enough d…

> US corporations have a multi-hundred year history of using thinly veiled proxies for race as part of their hiring practices. This continues to this day, including in the tech industry.

That's a pretty serious accusation, one that could spark a lot of successful lawsuits against those companies -- especially in the current political climate in the states they tend to be located in. Do you have any specific evidence to back it up?

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#256

Post by goflyapig »

fattire wrote: post #216
relics443 wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Depending on which definition of "spying" you want to apply, it is spying. Moreover, it is invasive and unsettling. Perhaps most critically, it is a more subtle test for the prospective employee-- are you the kind of person who would comply with a ridiculous request that violates your privacy in the hopes that it will land you a job? I dunno. If I were an employer and an applicant actually installed this without ques…

> Depending on which definition of "spying" you want to apply, it is spying.

Without the secrecy aspect, I don't think you can say it's spying by the definition people typically use. If you went to an examination hall and took a real proctored exam [1], would you consider that the proctor was "spying" on you?

> Moreover, it is invasive and unsettling.

This, I can't argue with. It's hard to pin a definition on what makes things creepy or unsettling. Some people find clowns creepy. Why? I have no idea. But there's no sense in arguing about it.

Personally, I think it's a clever use of technology to streamline and scale a traditional process (exam proctoring) that avoids making you travel to an exam hall or interview.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exam_invigilator

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#257

Post by Alex3917 »

mzw_mzw wrote: post #254
Alex3917 wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US corporations have a multi-hundred year history of using thinly veiled proxies for race as part of their hiring practices. This continues to this day, including in the tech industry. It's not exactly that far fetched to think that someone might someday think it's a good idea to start applying some of those new AI APIs to the candidate interview videos just to see what happens. In fact given enough time and enough d…

> US corporations have a multi-hundred year history of using thinly veiled proxies for race as part of their hiring practices. This continues to this day, including in the tech industry. That's a pretty serious accusation, one that could spark a lot of successful lawsuits against those companies -- especially in the current political climate in the states they tend to be located in. Do you have any specific evidence…

Google won't you apply to work there without giving your college GPA, despite the fact that all the academic research, and also their own internal research, shows that GPA doesn't correlate at all with job performance.

C.f. what Malcom Gladwell has to say about this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLQC3EzDGr4

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#258

Post by EdwardDiego »

imsofuture wrote: post #35
zeppelin101 wrote: post #4

Wait, I see nothing wrong with any of this. Obviously Amazon is trying to curb cheating on remote coding/compatibility tests. They don't actually care to collect any info about you beyond what you do during the test. They don't care which websites you visit before or after the test. Or how you use your clipboard - after the test. But during the test, it's not so unreasonable. People do cheat, especially if they can g…

The premise that cheating is a major risk or issue in job interviews is .... nutty.

We used to give people with no real experience or portfolio small homework assignments to do - one of them forwarded it to his friend, asking him to complete it for him - but accidentally CCed my boss...

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#260

Post by nxc182 »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #202
wutbrodo wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The latter part of the interviews do exactly that with a work simulation. Very cool.
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