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Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

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Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#391

Post by nommm-nommm »

Godel_unicode wrote: post #339
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it worth any applicant's time to participate in a silly dehumanizing screening process that boils you down to a number before ever speaking to someone?

> dehumanizing screening process that boils you down to a number That's a very long-winded way to describe a prescreening questionnaire. Are you saying that you think no one should ever take a job if there's a prescreening process?

Especially since a resume and cover letter are also part of the prescreening process. And are also kinda semi dehumanizing and silly.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#392

Post by algaexe »

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…

I think it's unfair to characterize a company with over 200,000 employees as a technical sweatshop. The organizational structure is flat to limit the reach of poor management and lacklustre engineering.

I loved my job as an intern there. My manager was great. My team was great. Everyone worked between 8 and 10 hours per hours, with those on the latter end of the spectrum being intense, CS-in-your-veins types.

I can respect your perspective if you've worked there and your experience left much to be desired, but it is still a bit silly to make sweeping generalizations for a company as large and expansive as Amazon.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#393

Post by nommm-nommm »

jfoutz wrote: post #285
uw_rob wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Googling the question exactly and copy and pasting the answer would qualify as cheating. (Disclaimer: I completed an internship at Amazon and accepted a second internship)

I dunno man. I'd much rather see a well understood vetted email validation(or whatever )copied from stack overflow than some thrown together hack in production code.

being able to look things up is a different skill than being able to understand and properly apply what you looked up. Or being able to understand what you are looking up and why.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#395

Post by palunon »

literallycancer wrote: post #381
palunon wrote: post #356

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends. If they warn you long before turning on the camera, you decide the exact moment when the camera is turned on, and how it is positioned, and you only have to turn it on once while taking a test, would it be so bad ? Just put your laptop facing a wall, and the personal information you give is your face (which your prospective employer would see at some point anyway) and the color of your walls (big deal !). It…

Yes, it would be bad. Privacy is not a slider. You either have it, or you don't.

Then you don't have privacy anyway since a long time, and since it is not a slider, this doesn't change anything...

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#396

Post by brianwawok »

58028641 wrote: post #44
brianwawok wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or you know, having another computer? I literally have 12 computers or phones in my house. Could I not use another one if I needed to cheat that badly?

You would have to disable the camera so they did not see you reading off of another screen.

My desktop does not have a webcam.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#397

Post by kuschku »

misingnoglic wrote: post #295
kuschku wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, what if I run the browser in a VM, and cheat in a second VM? With a secondary input device to switch between which VM is displayed on my screen? Or even an overlay? They’d be completely fooled. It’s completely useless, and so needlessly invasive.

If it looks like you're typing, and you're not entering any text into the test, they can infer what's going on.

I have a solution for that, too, and verified it kinda works (just needs some improvements).

If you stick a magnet to your tongue, and move it around, a modern phone can recognize that even from below the desk.

So if you had a tongue piercing, and magnetic jewelry for that, you could use that as a crude input device that’s invisible.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#398

Post by overcast »

gravypod wrote: post #375
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…

> ProctorU - https://www.proctoru.com/ , where a human will actually watch you via webcam I'd just take it naked. I'm a fat hairy guy. I'm sure it'll be fun for all of us.

Intentional username? :)

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#399

Post by Cyph0n »

literallycancer wrote: post #378
Cyph0n wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

>while clearly telling you upfront what kind data will be collected It doesn't even satisfy the legal requirements for informing people their personal data is going to be collected (in my country at least). They don't tell you what happens to the data, who has access to it, they don't provide a way to let them know you want it deleted, and so on.

I agree, but it's an OK start.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#400

Post by nommm-nommm »

flukus wrote: post #307
manacit wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fortunately, I still have the e-mail that they originally sent me. They list the requirements as: In order to take the assessments from your home, you will need: * a webcam (either internal or external is fine) * a microphone * a computer that meets the technical requirements and equipment test (most Macs and PCs meet these requirements – Linux and Unix are not compatible) * a basic calculator (please do not plan to…

So straight off the bat their eliminating linux users, who you'd think would be a large part of their target market. >a basic calculator (please do not plan to use your phone, computer, or graphing calculator) Who even has a basic calculator anymore?

You can get them from the dollar store.
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