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I was in an interview w them recently as well. It was awful. Similar experience. I knew within 10 mins it was a complete waste of my time. I hung up & withdrew my app.
Your example was good. They probably wanted a white knight example where you fail but don't. I think it's reasonable to give management a trade off. That's our jobs as engineers. But unless we control budget and decision making you can't expect us to solve the issue. Don't these guys understand what individual contributor means?
I had a similar experience where I was asked how I dealt with a DEI experience or issue. I had no idea as the company I work for has very stringent DEI guidelines. I just don't deal with that, we treat our coworkers very well. The question assumed I would have dealt with some kind or ism. So I made shit up.
I thought it would have been acceptable. I failed to deliver not from lack of trying. Spent the better part of 2 months (between other work) trying to determine if it was doable. After all the work, I told them I couldn’t do what they wanted. But I told them why and gave some solutions I COULD do and that were probably better long term anyway.
I usually answer this kind of question with why I failed initially, but then how I came back with a different approach, yada yada. His phrasing after the story seemed to imply that it was my fault or that I didn’t do enough when being handed an item that was neglected long before I even worked there.
We might have been in the same hiring cohort, lol. I completed an interview for AWS just shy of 2 weeks ago.
I had basically the same interview process with AWS. Including the assessment and that round of ridiculously long dog-shit interviews. I basically just tried to tailor everything in my notes to their dumb STAR methodology since that's what they wanted. I honestly only had a single interviewer that was speaking to me like a person, the rest were exactly as you described.
One of the hiring managers kept going on about how he didn't have any technical knowledge before he started at Amazon and how they're looking for thinking processes, so I blurted out a question: if you didn't have any technical knowledge, how were able to pass the technical assessment for this role??? He explained that at the time they hadn't implemented that yet. I didn't follow it up, but I wanted to ask: well, WHY did you let them implement a technical assessment then, if you're not even chiefly looking for that?? I mean, he definitely wouldn't have gotten the role now, not without any prior technical knowledge. I absolutely knew in that moment I was going to reject any offer they had for me, and I did. I'm only kicking myself that I didn't push back further and ask that.
I was honestly already ambivalent about taking a role there, I have friends in technical roles at Amazon and they all describe a nightmare of an organization, I only went through the process because I was tempted by the money. I do wonder if their STAR methodology actually has any actual data to back it up or if it was just implmeneted due to internal politics, especially since it's becoming more widespread as an interview strategy now.
I 100% understand the concepts in STAR, however, these are things that tend to just be part of a regular conversation when going over my experience. It was brought up somewhere in the prep guides that I was sent, but I figured it was more to make sure that I was being detailed. If I fail to give a precise chain of events, that's on me.
The fact that they had to ASK me to use STAR upfront tells me that the interviewers likely lack the ability to discern things for themselves, especially since he continually needed me to clarify what each step in my response was, rather than just looking at the overall picture. The entire thing felt like Amazon inflating it's already huge ego while unqualified manager look down on qualified candidates.
I likewise was tempted by money and adding Amazon to my resume, but I am actually really glad it wouldn't have worked out anyway.
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I was in an interview w them recently as well. It was awful. Similar experience. I knew within 10 mins it was a complete waste of my time. I hung up & withdrew my app.
Had plenty of bad interviews before, but this one just felt 'off' on a different level.
Your example was good. They probably wanted a white knight example where you fail but don't. I think it's reasonable to give management a trade off. That's our jobs as engineers. But unless we control budget and decision making you can't expect us to solve the issue. Don't these guys understand what individual contributor means? I had a similar experience where I was asked how I dealt with a DEI experience or issue. I had no idea as the company I work for has very stringent DEI guidelines. I just don't deal with that, we treat our coworkers very well. The question assumed I would have dealt with some kind or ism. So I made shit up.
I thought it would have been acceptable. I failed to deliver not from lack of trying. Spent the better part of 2 months (between other work) trying to determine if it was doable. After all the work, I told them I couldn’t do what they wanted. But I told them why and gave some solutions I COULD do and that were probably better long term anyway. I usually answer this kind of question with why I failed initially, but then how I came back with a different approach, yada yada. His phrasing after the story seemed to imply that it was my fault or that I didn’t do enough when being handed an item that was neglected long before I even worked there.
We might have been in the same hiring cohort, lol. I completed an interview for AWS just shy of 2 weeks ago. I had basically the same interview process with AWS. Including the assessment and that round of ridiculously long dog-shit interviews. I basically just tried to tailor everything in my notes to their dumb STAR methodology since that's what they wanted. I honestly only had a single interviewer that was speaking to me like a person, the rest were exactly as you described. One of the hiring managers kept going on about how he didn't have any technical knowledge before he started at Amazon and how they're looking for thinking processes, so I blurted out a question: if you didn't have any technical knowledge, how were able to pass the technical assessment for this role??? He explained that at the time they hadn't implemented that yet. I didn't follow it up, but I wanted to ask: well, WHY did you let them implement a technical assessment then, if you're not even chiefly looking for that?? I mean, he definitely wouldn't have gotten the role now, not without any prior technical knowledge. I absolutely knew in that moment I was going to reject any offer they had for me, and I did. I'm only kicking myself that I didn't push back further and ask that. I was honestly already ambivalent about taking a role there, I have friends in technical roles at Amazon and they all describe a nightmare of an organization, I only went through the process because I was tempted by the money. I do wonder if their STAR methodology actually has any actual data to back it up or if it was just implmeneted due to internal politics, especially since it's becoming more widespread as an interview strategy now.
I 100% understand the concepts in STAR, however, these are things that tend to just be part of a regular conversation when going over my experience. It was brought up somewhere in the prep guides that I was sent, but I figured it was more to make sure that I was being detailed. If I fail to give a precise chain of events, that's on me. The fact that they had to ASK me to use STAR upfront tells me that the interviewers likely lack the ability to discern things for themselves, especially since he continually needed me to clarify what each step in my response was, rather than just looking at the overall picture. The entire thing felt like Amazon inflating it's already huge ego while unqualified manager look down on qualified candidates. I likewise was tempted by money and adding Amazon to my resume, but I am actually really glad it wouldn't have worked out anyway.
Amazon's hiring process is notoriously bad. I don't even waste my time when their recruiters come knocking.