Hi Community, Need you advice and help about Amazon
Apologies for a long post but I thought I should share enough data points. Posting on my husband’s behalf as it’s easy to find out about him in Seattle market This week he completed his on-site for SDM L6 role with Amazon. All his rounds went good with an exception of system design. His interviewer, she was so lost in giving a problem statement (she took it from her own area of work) that every time my husband clarified reqs, she kept changing. Initially, they both agreed on the reqs (had it written on miro tool in screen sharing) then when my husband started the high level design, she completely derailed from the original problem statement. At that moment, my husband figured he is fucked but he kept going and kept on changing the design as the reqs kept updating. He also mentioned that with the numbers you have given, you don’t need a system in a distributed env but he will still design a solution for future scalability. At that moment, she turned a bit red. Then she asked to design the APIs and he clearly laid out the APIs with sample payload. In the end, he knew he didn’t have enough time left and he was trying to make sure the whole agenda of interview is covered so he rushed through the answers on trade offs question. She kept on interrupting him by asking random questions while he was designing (how would you this and that). Per agenda, she had to cover 2 LPs which she did and my husband answered in a very structured manner with all the data points but he rushed through it as the call had already run 3 mins over. Anyway, long story short, my husband is sure that she will reject him. At the same time, it will be naive of us to think that he will surely get through LPs rounds bc you don’t know what’s right or wrong in those. He thinks he has done good by strictly following STAR & staying up to the point, but again, as I mentioned, it’s all about luck there. Now with this whole situation, it seems he is going into depression thinking he is not good enough even though he cleared his Meta interviews for TPM role but that got rescinded; which is understandable given the freeze situation. Also, he was never inclined on joining that bc of his interest in SDM position. Meta didn’t consider him for EM role. Just so that you know, this was his 3rd attempt for Amazon. 1st time, he got the offer confirmation but the recruiter ghosted him. 2nd time, he couldn’t prepare bc of his bad wlb and personal stress at home and finally got rejected in on-site. Believe me or not, he is really good in system designing. Infact he has helped me so many times in my work that every time I have taken his reco, it turned out a perfect solution and my team appreciated me for coming up with an interesting solution (don’t quote me on this, we just try to help each other). Since this post is about him, I am giving data points in reference to him only. Furthermore, he is very good in managing people and is respected in his company.lastly, he likes to stay grounded with his team and ensures that his team feels relevant of him. My question to Amazon community; His debrief is scheduled next week. If he gets to know that he is rejected bc of tech interview, will Amazon be flexible enough to reevaluate him technically? If not, does he have any other option. My suggestion to him, just forget about Amazon now. He should be done with them now. Very important for me to rant in this post. I need to vent out about Amazon interviewers who have turned into SDMs from TPMs coming from some unknown roles in past exp. We all know that people grow and evolve but I strongly feel it now, TPMs turned SDMs in Amazon, they are ruining people’s life. They have no clue how systems work or how to implement but they judge others by presenting themselves smarter in the interviews. Esp Indian TPMs turned into SDMs. @Amazon Leaders - you should stop this stupid practice. Just because you want people to grow, let them grow in their own paths than cross paths. This is becoming a big problem for you and why engineers or real SDMs don’t want to join you. Take it or leave it my advice but this is true. Just collect Blinds data, that should be enough to tell you where this whole situation is headed. Again, apologies for this long post.
Amazon is not the only company in the world. The same goes for any companies. Interview is very luck dependent, move on
I am not an Amazon employee but I have friends there. He needs to know Amazon are not as cool as he thinks they are. Certainly not worth jeopardizing his mental health even further over. There are many incredible startups and other companies hiring at the same TC. It sounds to me like he has too much of his identity wrapped up in work status. Not uncommon but important to remind him that a job is a job is a job and there is no ‘perfect job’. Hope he can go easier on himself since it sounds like he’s really talented.
It's good venting out...not so good making generic and racial statements as all TPMs are bad and all SDMs know much better how systems work - maybe you are not in the right place now and we all can understand that.. From system design perspective, both TPMs and SDMs have to raise the same bar at Amazon ( at least in theory and your mileage may vary). If the verdict is not inclined to hire then most likely you will not receive the reason, unless the recruiter attempts to provide some hints like "Where do you think you did not do so well?" Also, with the not inclined verdict there is a recycle timeline which depends on the gaps identified during the debrief. It could be anywhere between 6 month and 2 years.
+1 TPM -> SDM at Amazon is a disgusting loophole
Your TC and level at Microsoft ? Refer him to Microsoft
Why are u waiting for the verdict? You can always talk to the recruiter and share your concern. They can reschedule that round maybe. In my past google has done it. And a piece of advise - while we understand you frustration generalizing it is insulting. On the contrary we on blind do not know if you husband misunderstood the question. There is scope for misinterpretation. So be respectful and ask the recruiter if they can redo the round by giving u the benefit of doubt.
Any update? Did the debrief happen yet?
You are a racist douchebag. Hope you get identified and shamed. Why would you go out of your way to profile all Indian TPMs turned SDMs..? That was completely unnecessasy! You're probably an Indian yourselves and look down upon everyone else trying to make the best of their lives. Life is not a cakewalk. Deal with it. There is an awful amount of luck involved in the job search process. It's your attitude that needs to accommodate for that fact instead of being hung up on a number/tag.
Something better is waiting for him.