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Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

rajk.me

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Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#81

Post by kafkaesq »

andrewguenther wrote: post #63
kafkaesq wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it feels like Amazon is over-reacting, and unduly distrustful of the bright young people who would wager their careers and reputations to come work for them.

Cheating in interviews is real and shockingly common. I don't think this is as much of an overreaction as you think it is.

I'm not saying that there's no "benefit" to these restrictions. It's just that (1) they address problems that can be easily solved otherwise, and (2) they come with substantial negative side effects -- like turning away any candidates with a shred of self-respect and/or some notion of their true worth (even as a fresh engineering grad) on the open market.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#82

Post by hermitdev »

williamscales wrote: post #60
imsofuture wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

And yet...I have seen people cheat on technical interviews conducted over video chat. It's pretty obvious in that situation — oh, where did that come from? — but I can see it being an issue in a highly automated interview process with minimal human oversight. Of course, I think that the real answer for that is to use a human to interview everyone. It's crazy to treat potential future employees this way.

Had something similar while interviewing Chinese offshore developers from Accenture. We caught on that the translator was basically answering the questions, and not the candidate. As a result of that experience, I will not work with anyone that does not speak English (I don't care if it's not their first language - I can work with poor grammar & broken English and I can handle heavy accents over a phone), but I will not go through a translator (and I don't want to have to go through a translator for day-to-day work, anyway).

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#83

Post by andrewguenther »

rl3 wrote: post #56
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.

Not to mention: Any website you visit What a fantastic way of driving away virtually every candidate that's even remotely high-caliber.

Keep in mind, this is during the test. What are you going to do, take a break and load up some porn?

These conditions only apply for the 24 minutes in which you take the test. How is this different than if a person were watching you during an interview?

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#84

Post by Walf »

Barrin92 wrote: post #55
shorodei wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Within these restrictions, I don't think they expect your written code to compile. They just want to ensure the integrity of the test itself. Is it worth the invasion of privacy? Personally, I don't think so.

Well if you participate in an on-site test which the person was willing to do you are essentially tested under the same conditions, so I'd not really consider this to be a privacy invasion.

Not really; on-site is their machine, off-site is yours.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#86

Post by adnzzzzZ »

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.

I don't see how this is creepy at all. If you're building a product (especially in the entertainment field) and you want to get feedback from users a really good way of doing it is by having access to their facial expressions as they go through your product. This should be done with their consent (such as in this case), so I don't see the issue.

Re: Software Engineering Internship Amazon Interview Experience

#90

Post by scantronz »

It's official. We now need burner laptops, TOR routing, secure enclaves, faraday cages, and EM spectrum analyzers just to apply for jobs.

But serious question: Who's the fucked up creep that decided to sell this idea? And who are the fucked up creeps that went along with it?

Why is this okay?

Have people lost their minds?

Whatever happened to Scantrons and a #2HB pencil?

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