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asur
Dec 28, 2012

PokeJoe posted:

Again though, it's extra work that can't be applied to other interviews. Coming up with a story about a conflict will be useful to you everywhere but trying to relate that to "customer obsession" or some made up bullshit is asinine

You can't come up with an anecdote where you cared enough about your work to suggest improving it and that improvement helped the customer?

I'm with Achmed that some of you are going way overboard here. Amazon's principles are no different than any other behavioral interview. They just layout the questions ahead of time in the form of principles and for a large part align with standard behavioral questions.

If anything I'm confused by all the hate because a typical complaint of behavioral interviews is you don't know what will be asked, while Amazon essentially tells you ahead of time.

asur fucked around with this message at 18:53 on Jun 26, 2022

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CPColin
Sep 9, 2003

Big ol' smile.
I could tell you about a conflict I had at work, but then I'd have to kill you. Like I killed the guy I had the conflict with.

I've said too much.

champagne posting
Apr 5, 2006

YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

akadajet posted:

I don’t know what they want out of these.
“once we hired this guy who totally sucked so I kicked his rear end and put him in his place”

I imagine they want to hear you say "I can handle having a conflict in a professional manner without breaking down or getting in a fight"

edit: Why doesn't the Lead Engineer, the biggest of the engineers, simply eat the smaller more junior engineers?

Asymmetric POSTer
Aug 17, 2005

champagne posting posted:

I imagine they want to hear you say "I can handle having a conflict in a professional manner without breaking down or getting in a fight"

edit: Why doesn't the Lead Engineer, the biggest of the engineers, simply eat the smaller more junior engineers?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eSqexFg74F8

Sapozhnik
Jan 2, 2005

Nap Ghost
Generic behavioral questions are whatever, they're a test to see if you can follow a social script, which is something that every functional adult needs to be capable of.

I'm talking specifically about Amazon's thing where you have to tongue Jeef's poo poo-crusted rear end in a top hat and reciting his messianic drivel. Before they're even paying you. That can gently caress right off.

Achmed Jones
Oct 16, 2004



yes correct, that's the kind of hilarious overreaction to twenty minutes of effort im talking about

bob dobbs is dead
Oct 8, 2017

I love peeps
Nap Ghost
its a reaction to a demand for submission. about power, not time. and the part that makes aws dev turnover comparable to mcdonalds line cooks is that both orgs basically have remarkably similar attitude wrt power to those two sets of employees, despite the wildly different pay and cushiness

Qtotonibudinibudet
Nov 7, 2011



Omich poluyobok, skazhi ty narkoman? ya prosto tozhe gde to tam zhivu, mogli by vmeste uyobyvat' narkotiki

Sapozhnik posted:

if amazon asked you to walk around the conference room on all fours and bark like a dog would you do it?



outhole surfer
Mar 18, 2003

Achmed Jones posted:

yes correct, that's the kind of hilarious overreaction to twenty minutes of effort im talking about

twenty minutes of effort used to gauge how long they can get away with bending you over

Achmed Jones
Oct 16, 2004



lol ok

Captain Foo
May 11, 2004

we vibin'
we slidin'
we breathin'
we dyin'

welcome to capitalism, op

outhole surfer
Mar 18, 2003

there are plenty of gigs that don't require demonstrating you're willing to spend personal time learning non-transferrable corporate lore in exchange for being considered for the role

hobbesmaster
Jan 28, 2008

Sapozhnik posted:

Generic behavioral questions are whatever, they're a test to see if you can follow a social script, which is something that every functional adult needs to be capable of.

I'm talking specifically about Amazon's thing where you have to tongue Jeef's poo poo-crusted rear end in a top hat and reciting his messianic drivel. Before they're even paying you. That can gently caress right off.

that’s not the criteria though?

raminasi
Jan 25, 2005

a last drink with no ice
isn't the line between corporate bullshit meant to degrade you and corporate norms required for effective functioning within the organization an eye-of-the-beholder thing? everyone's gonna have their own local comfort optimum

PokeJoe
Aug 24, 2004

hail cgatan


nudgenudgetilt posted:

there are plenty of gigs that don't require demonstrating you're willing to spend personal time learning non-transferrable corporate lore in exchange for being considered for the role

it's really that simple. it's not about the 20 minutes it's about making me jump through stupid hoops that don't help me anywhere else before you even pay me

PokeJoe
Aug 24, 2004

hail cgatan


it's fine you have a higher tolerance for stuff like that but I absolutely do not and theres plenty of jobs to suit me

outhole surfer
Mar 18, 2003

raminasi posted:

isn't the line between corporate bullshit meant to degrade you and corporate norms required for effective functioning within the organization an eye-of-the-beholder thing? everyone's gonna have their own local comfort optimum

the line is transferability of the requested skill/knowledge for me. if the interview rewards the sort of prep work that isn't useful to anyone outside of that one interview, it is either intentionally or unintentionally filtering with a selection for people willing to tolerate bullshit and jump through extra hoops.

if you're tolerant of bullshit, good for you. you can probably learn to perform the mating rituals sufficiently within an interview cycle or two, then you can expect a career of more of the same

if you aren't tolerant of bullshit, i maintain there are plenty of other options.

The Fool
Oct 16, 2003


PokeJoe posted:

it's really that simple. it's not about the 20 minutes it's about making me jump through stupid hoops that don't help me anywhere else before you even pay me

but that's like all interviews though

The Fool
Oct 16, 2003


all this nonsense aside, the interview process is two sided. it's as much about you picking a good employer as it is about them picking an employee

thankfully amazon is much more up front about it than a lot of employers

Quackles
Aug 11, 2018

Pixels of Light.


bob dobbs is dead posted:

its a reaction to a demand for submission. about power, not time. and the part that makes aws dev turnover comparable to mcdonalds line cooks is that both orgs basically have remarkably similar attitude wrt power to those two sets of employees, despite the wildly different pay and cushiness

This. Thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis. So much this.

I'm happy to do engaging work for a fair wage, and I'm very chill, but I am also very proud and asking me to perform submission like that will lead to me looking for something else to do.

Fortunately, my current boss is chill and BS-free.

bob dobbs is dead
Oct 8, 2017

I love peeps
Nap Ghost
zaibatsus keiretsus and chaebols actually get the substantive bit of this submission routinely. by offering life employment w mediocre pay, lol

american megacorps used to be able to get this submission too, also by offering life employment. you have life employment, you get submission. no life employment, no submission, lol

KirbyKhan
Mar 20, 2009



Soiled Meat

bob dobbs is dead posted:

zaibatsus keiretsus and chaebols actually get the substantive bit of this submission routinely. by offering life employment w mediocre pay, lol

american megacorps used to be able to get this submission too, also by offering life employment. you have life employment, you get submission. no life employment, no submission, lol

Gazpacho
Jun 18, 2004

by Fluffdaddy
Slippery Tilde
if Amazon has enough candidate interest and a broad enough funnel to reject 90-odd% of interviewees and still fill its seats, it would be surprising if they did not develop a kind of egomania about that

that would just be Amazon's issue, except for management thought leaders who get the cause and effect reversed, and believe that a company can become big like Amazon if it hires only candidates who can persuade it that working at that company is the reason they exist and the telos of their whole career

Achmed Jones
Oct 16, 2004



it's important to pass amazon interviews so you can wave their offer at the place you actually want to work to ratchet up your figgies

Gazpacho
Jun 18, 2004

by Fluffdaddy
Slippery Tilde
Over a year ago a recruiter contacted me about a non-management position at education tech company in Boston. I didn't know the name then and don't remember it now. I'm in California but COVID made that less significant. First call with the recruiter, she says "The client wants only committed people, so are you willing to move to Boston and stay with the company for years?" I said "Why would I commit to that for a company I just heard about five minutes ago?" and that was the end of it.

Around the same time I went through the full interview process with a company that makes launcher apps for Android. The rejection said "We are a leader in our industry and, while your background is impressive, we believe you are not the ideal candidate." It's true that I'm not anyone's ideal Android developer, and I suppose launcher apps bring joy to a lot of people's lives. It wasn't the rejection that bothered me as much as the boasting from what seemed like a rather low horse.

hobbesmaster
Jan 28, 2008

Achmed Jones posted:

it's important to pass amazon interviews so you can wave their offer at the place you actually want to work to ratchet up your figgies

i might apply again just see if I can pass a loop now that my adhd is identified and treated properly

AnimeIsTrash
Jun 30, 2018

AnimeIsTrash posted:

I sent out my resume earlier this year and wasn't getting a lot of hits at least compared to when I last did this in the DC area many years ago. I decided to redo my resume, but it's been a while and I have a couple of questions about how to structure some of it. I don't know if there is a better thread for it, so i'll ask them here.

A lot of the work I have done in the past/currently am doing involves just maintaining software and very rarely working on actual new features. What's the best way to word this? Is it better to focus on a specific portion, or a specific feature?

How exactly should you word things you did that improved the general time it took to do a task but don't know specifics? Does it look bad if you don't have formal measurements for stuff like that? As an example in one my previous jobs I setup Jenkins to build and deploy our software. We never actually took formal measurements but informally it reduced a process that took a couple of hours to about 1-2 hours.

As far as general structure goes I've been using this template as my model. Does that look like a good starting point? I'd share what i have currently but my resume has too much PII and I don't want to doxx myself.

Thanks for any advice in advance.

Lol, I got promoted and got a very nice raise. Still going to keep looking though.

CPColin
Sep 9, 2003

Big ol' smile.
Nice work

4lokos basilisk
Jul 17, 2008


CPColin posted:

Nice work

nice work, here's some more work

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


FB recruiters are at it again.

Blinkz0rz
May 27, 2001

MY CONTEMPT FOR MY OWN EMPLOYEES IS ONLY MATCHED BY MY LOVE FOR TOM BRADY'S SWEATY MAGA BALLS
amazon too

they thirsty

Sapozhnik
Jan 2, 2005

Nap Ghost
uuh what happened to that global hiring freeze

bob dobbs is dead
Oct 8, 2017

I love peeps
Nap Ghost
tech majors are loose suzerainties bound together by accounting tables and the iron fist of a megalomaniac, not actual coherent entities

EIDE Van Hagar
Dec 8, 2000

Beep Boop

bob dobbs is dead posted:

nothing to do w latency and you know it

'high responsiveness'

'high reactivity' although that isn't quite it either

high qos

EIDE Van Hagar
Dec 8, 2000

Beep Boop

akadajet posted:

I don’t get paid enough to fist fight my coworkers

idk when we were forced to do hotdesking despite an internal survey saying 90% of us favored keeping our own cubes, and an hr person came over to tell a very, very useful dev they had to take down their festive led rope light because “claiming territory” in hotdesk cubicles was not allowed, I admit I did want to punch them a bit.

instead I just silently decided that if having a space I could call “my” workplace, even a zero privacy cubicle with like one lockable drawer,
was not valuable to my employer, then I simply would not show up to the office.

i did not go into the office to work for years after that and when they started to ask me why I was able to work from home when no one else was I got another job for more money, and you can too.

EIDE Van Hagar fucked around with this message at 06:49 on Jun 29, 2022

EIDE Van Hagar
Dec 8, 2000

Beep Boop
like, if you are hotdesking and claiming territory is not allowed, and they’re cutting desks out and packing more people in, I can just say I can’t find a desk and I am working from home. gently caress you.

champagne posting
Apr 5, 2006

YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

bob dobbs is dead posted:

tech majors are loose suzerainties bound together by accounting tables and the iron fist of a megalomaniac, not actual coherent entities

maybe this isn't the worst corporate structure to be subjected to. I mean sounds like some of the organization can make decisions, which is often the most difficult thing for corporations to do

distortion park
Apr 25, 2011


drat it always sucks getting rejections. You know there's no point thinking much about it but it's hard not to run over it all!

champagne posting
Apr 5, 2006

YOU ARE A BRAIN
IN A BUNKER

distortion park posted:

drat it always sucks getting rejections. You know there's no point thinking much about it but it's hard not to run over it all!

are they at least timely rejections?

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distortion park
Apr 25, 2011


Yeah it was, was somewhere that seemed like a good place to work. It's easier when I'm not so hyped about the company!

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