Rell Lauren
Banned
Damn!
Has anyone interviewed with Amazon before?
- Thread starter King
- Start date
Damn!
Rick Fox at UNC
All Star
Why would anyone in their right mind work at such a place?
Why the New York Times’s Amazon story is so controversial, explained
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Difference between corporate and non-corporate roles. The work culture can be difficult but there are two sides to everything.
Look, the scale Amazon is operating at is insane. On the tech side they, for the most part, do not use off-the-shelf products. For example, the infrastructure side uses customized server hardware, routers, load balancers, and encapsulation devices. They use their own software, or highly customized version of open source software for their compute and storage solutions. The reason? Amazon has long since outgrown what commercial vendors offer.
Think about that for a second. The scale of Amazon and AWS was causing vendor devices to break and vendor algorithms to perform unexpectedly (and break). These vendors, who previously set the standard, are unable to keep pace, so Amazon developed their own cutting-edge versions and deployed them all over the enterprise.
Again, think about that for a second, seriously. AWS has basically changed the infrastructure industry. Go back 10-15 years and none of this SaaS, PaaS, or IaC stuff is there. None of the infrastructure designs are there. These companies have basically forced vendors to compete with them (vendors are losing). This is overly simplified. One can write a Phd thesis on innovation at high-level tech companies.
I would say most people don't really know shyt about tech (the way Roger says "most people don't know shyt about boxing"). Most people out here have issues managing 1000 servers. Amazon manages 1 million+ and does it with far more consistency than most shops managing less than 100. Not only that, the environment requires 24/7 uptime which is not a requirement in industries such as finance, law, government, medicine, and so on.
So yea. Most people don't have a clue and just talk shyt all day, what else is new?
Rick Fox at UNC
All Star
^^^ tl;dr. The culture varies from team to team.
The scale and level of technical sophistication is rarely matched, even by other high-level tech companies. Maybe Google and Microsoft.
Besides that, you're working around true experts. At least on the corporate side.
The scale and level of technical sophistication is rarely matched, even by other high-level tech companies. Maybe Google and Microsoft.
Besides that, you're working around true experts. At least on the corporate side.
I've rarely seen anyone on various tech or job forums post anything positive about the work environment at Amazon. I suppose if your a Phd working on cutting edge technology at Amazon your mileage may vary. But for the average IT worker who just wants to make a decent salary with some semblance of work life balance. Then a place like Amazon is very low on your list of potential employers. I don't even respond to inquiries from Amazon Recruiters because I heard it has a such a toxic work environment. And I could care less about working on cutting edge technology at this point in my career.
King
The black man is always targeted.
Made it through 
Really focused on STAR, but I kinda rambled at parts because I was trying to be to perfect. One other thing is that I only focused on one company I was involved in, didn't even talk about my other experiences so I know that one is off the table for future interviews.
My mind was totally zapped after the grilling, didn't even ask the questions I wanted to after the call. Kinda asked a one off thoughts/feedback question I usually hold in my back pocket when I get stuck and was hit with the "I can't answer that"
Only real con of the situation. Otherwise it wasn't that bad, I think I was over-prepared and too technical in my explanations for the phone screen. He got a lot of good notes tho.
Really focused on STAR, but I kinda rambled at parts because I was trying to be to perfect. One other thing is that I only focused on one company I was involved in, didn't even talk about my other experiences so I know that one is off the table for future interviews.
My mind was totally zapped after the grilling, didn't even ask the questions I wanted to after the call. Kinda asked a one off thoughts/feedback question I usually hold in my back pocket when I get stuck and was hit with the "I can't answer that"
Only real con of the situation. Otherwise it wasn't that bad, I think I was over-prepared and too technical in my explanations for the phone screen. He got a lot of good notes tho.
Batsute
The Lion Choker
Oh wow they already sent me the rejection email
Dem Amazon interviews hit different breh
Sometimes it’s just a honor to get the call
Rev Leon Lonnie Love
damned mine eyes, DAMNED mine eyes!!
I did around this time last year. It was what I expected. Went though a phone screen round and then got an email saying i was invited for the onsite interview which was conducted via video call. It was 5 rounds (or was it 6?) where I got asked coding and leadership principles. Funny enough, I missed the last round because I failed to double-check the time and thought I had an hour break before it started but it turned out it was only 30min. So I logged in to the call 15min later when the manager had gave up on waiting for me. Sent an email apologizing and juelzing and they were happy to reschedule that last round for the following day. So the next day I went and had that last round interview with the manager + another manager who was shadowing. Got grilled with leadership principle questions for 45min straight (
) trying to 
my way out of each one.
2 days later the recruiter tried to call me and I missed the call. Tried to email them back but they didnt respond. a week went by and she finally responded telling me they couldn't make me an offer because I bombed the system design round and then proceeded to link some resources I could use to improve on system design. I was like "oh well, at least yall gave some feedback and didnt completely ghost me"
.
) trying to my way out of each one.2 days later the recruiter tried to call me and I missed the call. Tried to email them back but they didnt respond. a week went by and she finally responded telling me they couldn't make me an offer because I bombed the system design round and then proceeded to link some resources I could use to improve on system design. I was like "oh well, at least yall gave some feedback and didnt completely ghost me"
.
Rell Lauren
Banned
AWS has become the tech version of their physical warehouses. Take from that what you will.
Was this the phone screen or loop?Oh wow they already sent me the rejection email
I’ll post the question bank if y’all want and the guidelines for each LP. Basically follow that and don’t repeat stories. Also research the panel and find the bar raiser. Save all your questions for that person. You almost want to stall that person, they aren’t going to ask you technical questions so it’s all LP based. If you can make them do most of the talking then that’s a win. They basically determine if you are inclined or not.
I’ve seen people be deemed “Not a functional fit” because they bombed the tech interview but the bar raiser said they were a “culture fit” and they still get hired. Usually at a lower level
That's the part that pisses me off the most. Most of their questions I could only answer from the same set of experiences.
Oh nah breh… make them shyts up. Most people can’t tell a story about “a time you made bad decision” and it not end up being a bad look. On top of that they want metrics/data to show the impact you made, and shyt like that.
And then for the follow up one of the challenge questions is “do you have any other examples that demonstrate this?”
Who the fukk has two of those stories? Nobody. So just make up a bunch of different scenarios that are vague enough that you can change details on the fly quickly to fit almost any LP
King
The black man is always targeted.
It was the call directly after the one I had with the recruiter. It was someone from the team I would be working with. Was supposed to have another call after that and then the 4 in succession.
Messed up bc I only really touched on one experience bc it was so relevant.