Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#351

Post by mlguy456 » Tue, Aug 06, 2019, 8:34 PM UTC

lern_too_spel wrote: post #93

Naac wrote: post #8

Amazon is not the only company to sue over this, Microsoft successfully sued as well[0]. In fact, several large companies have pushed to keep these non-competes in place in Washington State[1]. I don't think it's fair to focus only on Amazon. The reality is that in Washington State, this benefits many large corporations ( while being harmful to employees ) so it is the company's incentive to try and keep the non-comp…

It's a wage suppression device. If you live in Washington, you should complain to your state representative.

Do you want to talk to your representative or AG in this case? I also have a wild idea: software engineers can actually lobby this change. They form a non profit organization, make contributions (say 10k each) and go talk to the right politics. This what corps do, but thus is what people can do to.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#352

Post by dang » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 12:15 AM UTC

kevin_b_er wrote: post #101

abj wrote: post #39

> We need this to protect our business. > It’s never enforced. If these are true, why would a company with 232.9 billion in revenue be afraid of paying an employee's salary only when the non compete is enforced? If the non compete is almost never enforced this agreement would cost the company under 0.01% of total company wide employee spend. Surely if the knowledge was that important to the business the company would…

[flagged]

Please don't post ideological battle comments to HN. They lead to ideological flamewars, which are predictable, tedious, and off topic. This is in the site guidelines; would you mind reviewing them?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#353

Post by anon44 » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 5:23 AM UTC

krageon wrote: post #330

anon44 wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well I appreciate these interview loops because at least they are still far more objective than big company promo processes when whoever lies the most and forces others to do their dirty work gets promoted. I do wish the interview process was even more objective, just administer and extremely difficult IQ Test instead.

IQ tests are rarely objective and they most definitely don't measure the things most important for a large company.

Doesn't have to be a standard IQ test, I would be fine with the test being about algorithms and systems design type questions. Just please remove the biased human component from interviews and use a more standardized metric across a group of people instead of randomly chosen questions for each candidate with subjective evaluation. The current process is not great even for people with good tech skill due to the randomness and subjective evaluation factors.

Also you are wrong about standard IQ tests not being able to measure relevant skills for tech companies. They not perfect but I bet even those would do a better job than the current process. The psychometric research is clear that they are useful for predicting results across a wide variety of domains.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#354

Post by ragerino » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 5:31 AM UTC

oarabbus_ wrote: post #72

I interviewed with AWS for an analyst/business intelligence engineer role. When asked to write a query to get the total GDP by month per country, I wrote a query along the lines of: select date_trunc('month',datecolumn) as month, country, sum(GDP) over (partition by date_trunc('month', datecolumn), country) FROM the_table order by 1 The interviewer asked me if I was missing something. I said no. "Don't you need an ad…

I hired last time someone because he showed us something we did not know yet.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#355

Post by msiyer » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 6:27 AM UTC

xyzzyz wrote: post #347

msiyer wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a real problem. People think downvoting will make the problem disappear. Link 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison%E2%80%93industrial_comp... Link 2: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58e127cb1b10e31ed45b2...

Where exactly in these two links is anything about Amazon in particular?

Did you even read? The PDF has list of companies that form the prison-industrial complex and Amazon has a place there.

>> This report exposes over 3,100 corporations that profit from the devastating mass incarceration of our nation’s marginalized communities

What else do you expect me to do?

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#356

Post by krageon » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 8:57 AM UTC

anon44 wrote: post #353

krageon wrote: post #330

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IQ tests are rarely objective and they most definitely don't measure the things most important for a large company.

Doesn't have to be a standard IQ test, I would be fine with the test being about algorithms and systems design type questions. Just please remove the biased human component from interviews and use a more standardized metric across a group of people instead of randomly chosen questions for each candidate with subjective evaluation. The current process is not great even for people with good tech skill due to the random…

> standard IQ tests not being able to measure relevant skills for tech companies

I am basing this on what the HR department for the company that I work for tells me. They have been administering them for years and they have never been a reliable indicator of company performance. That doesn't mean they're not used - management loves them.

> The psychometric research is clear

Do you have some sourcing for me? Perhaps I can read up and improve my own professional experience with new colleagues.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#357

Post by soVeryTired » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 9:08 AM UTC

duggan wrote: post #337

soVeryTired wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a couple of months' gardening leave (as it's known in the industry). The most senior guys would typically get six months off work: three paid, three unpaid. It's just an industry-standard way of doing things. I didn't leave for a competitor but still got a paid vacation (though in principle I was "on call" while I was on the books). To be honest, it sort of felt like a courtesy they extended rather than a means…

> I got a couple of months' gardening leave (as it's known in the industry). The most senior guys would typically get six months off work: three paid, three unpaid. I don't understand - three months unpaid gardening leave is just unemployment.

Taken literally, the unpaid component isn't gardening leave, but informally people will refer to the whole period of down-time as gardening leave.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#358

Post by giglamesh » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 5:06 PM UTC

balls187 wrote: post #174

giglamesh wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At what year does this happen? I'm 57 and finding it harder than ever to land a position this time around, just when one would think otherwise...

I'm not sure I'm following--you're 57 and finding it harder to find a job?

Yes.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#359

Post by pnw_hazor » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 5:34 PM UTC

gigatexal wrote: post #170

pnw_hazor wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working at orgs like Amazon, FB, or Google, show poor character and/or low self-esteem.

Do you live your whole life by making blanket statements for everything?

Just my opinion man. But I have heard those companies pay well.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#360

Post by xyzzyz » Wed, Aug 07, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

msiyer wrote: post #355

xyzzyz wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where exactly in these two links is anything about Amazon in particular?

Did you even read? The PDF has list of companies that form the prison-industrial complex and Amazon has a place there. >> This report exposes over 3,100 corporations that profit from the devastating mass incarceration of our nation’s marginalized communities What else do you expect me to do?

I expect you to tell me where in that PDF is anything supporting your original statement that "Many of these workers are from the prison industrial complex. Pay is non-existent or abysmally low, AFAIK.". That PDF puts Amazon on one huge list of companies, without saying in what exact manner it has anything to do with "prison-industrial complex" at all. Can you quote anything in that PDF that says anything specific about any connection of Amazon with prison-industrial complex?