Scored an interview with Amazon AWS!

Mr. Meeseeks

Not exactly what I was planning for my near future but after visiting their career site and seeing tons of openings in Dallas and Seattle, I figured, why not? Fast forward 3 weeks and I get an email to setup a phone interview for Monday.

Does anyone have any experience working for AWS? Anyone interview with them and remember questions they ask in the interview? I can troubleshoot like a mother f*****...... when its hand-on. Seems like there is a lot my pressure when being interviewed though and I always forget stuff I should know. I want to be as prepared as possible.

I am also wondering if this is a step down going from Desktop support to this. Here is the job description:

Cloud Support Associate
We are seeking people with strong customer support and technical skills. Do you have experience troubleshooting problems spanning multiple systems? Do you have a background in networking or operating systems? Do you have experience providing world-class customer service? If you fit the description, you might be the person we are looking for! Every day will bring new and exciting challenges on the job while you:

• Learn and use groundbreaking technologies
• Apply advanced troubleshooting techniques to provide unique solutions to our customers' individual needs
• Interact with leading technologists around the world
• Work directly with Amazon Web Service architects to help reproduce and resolve customer issues
• Leverage your extensive customer support experience to provide feedback to internal AWS teams on how to improve our services
• Drive customer communication during critical events

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or at least two years of experience in a Technical Customer Service role

Preferred Qualifications

• Installation and/or Troubleshooting of:
• o OS Administration (Windows or Linux)
• o Network Essentials (TCP/IP)
• Knowledge of Internet Fundamentals
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Strong customer focus
• Excited about technology
• Knowledge of Cloud Computing concepts
• Experience with AWS
• Experience with scripting / programing
• Open to working shifts (morning, mid-afternoon, or evening; M-F, Su-Thu, Tu-Sat)

Attached is my resumeMr. Meeseeks Resume 2015.pdf

nathandrake

I interviewed with them about 4 weeks ago. I made it to the second round, but didn't get a job offer. However, I was more focused on an interview I had later on that day for a security analyst position, so that's why I feel I didn't do as good on my second interview. I got asked a lot of questions on Active Directory (like 7 or 8 questions were AD based), basic network troubleshooting, some Linux questions (troubleshooting commands), some subnetting questions, what a default route is, what a static route is, some OSPF questions, web page error codes, provide detailed steps on how DNS works, and a few more troubleshooting in windows type questions. Then a few questions like tell me about a time you and your manager had a disagreement.

Good luck.

EDIT:
A few more questions that came to mind: Common port numbers, OSI model question (data link layer question I believe), difference between TCP/UDP, what windows command would you use to troubleshoot a firewall issue (I used telnet and explained how I'd use it).

phantasm

I turned them down. They wanted to pawn me off as a developer even though my resume shows 7yrs of Network Engineering. Also if you get into AWS... please dear God do not loose your brain. Those people in AWS drive me freaking nuts!!

Mr. Meeseeks

phantasm wrote: »

Also if you get into AWS... please dear God do not loose your brain. Those people in AWS drive me freaking nuts!!

What do you mean by this?


@Nathandrake - Thanks for your input!

DoubleNNs

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0

eSenpai

DoubleNNs wrote: »

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?_r=0

I once wanted to work at Amazon but then I befriended several people who had worked there in a guild I run. This article is almost verbatim what they said about working there and none of them work there now.

• I love being able to drop politically correct speech in favor of straight forward truths because it is more efficient.
• I am also a work-a-holic who thrives on stress.

However, life happens and our employees need to be able to feel safe to deal with that when it occurs. Nobody asks for cancer, for little Timmy to break his leg at summer camp, or the plague you picked up while on vacation in the mid-west but these things happen. Culling an employee for life reasons is as sh*tty as it gets. The Game of Thrones atmosphere that permeates Amazon made me withdraw my application with the recruiter and perhaps if all Amazon has to choose from in the future is those that have no other recourse BUT to work there then perhaps they too will see that treating employees like cattle is not in their long term best interest. The current revolving door that is Amazon's accepted turn-over rate was a huge red flag that should concern anyone.

TL;DR - Know your worth and don't settle for an atmosphere that treats you like a chess piece.

Nightflier101BL

Wow. I had heard that their interviews were tough but I had no idea about the work atmosphere. Interesting article.

I think I'll steer clear of Amazon jobs. Heck, this is enough for me to not even want to buy anything from Amazon in the future.

Yikes. Life is too short to deal with sick mind games, especially from your employer.

DoubleNNs

I think an atmosphere like that would be PERFECT for someone near the beginning of their career that doesn't have too many life obligations/responsibilities and wants to make almost exponential growth in their skills. Might be perfect for someone w/ 1-3 years of experience and single/no kids but able to pass their interviews.

However, doesn't sound like someone you'd want to stay very long - get the experience and be out before the 2 year mark.

Kinet1c

DoubleNNs wrote: »

However, doesn't sound like someone you'd want to stay very long - get the experience and be out before the 2 year mark.

AWS has a big attrition rate because they offer so little to employees working there. While it's a big tech company, they don't offer you the same every day perks like google/facebook (food, drinks etc etc) and there is just about tea/coffee for employees. However, you get incredible experience and you can probably pick your next role after working there.

LinuxRacr

I interviewed with them before my current gig. It was interesting to say the least. Be perfect on the interview. I messed up on one question for the OSI layer, after killing on everything else.

nathandrake

LinuxRacr wrote: »

I interviewed with them before my current gig. It was interesting to say the least. Be perfect on the interview. I messed up on one question for the OSI layer, after killing on everything else.

This was my exact experience too. I felt I was doing great on my second interview. Then I got asked a question about the syntax of OSPF. I messed it up (not horribly and if I was actually typing it in, I would have been fine), and I could tell the interview just went downhill from there. The interviewer seemed to have a little attitude when correcting me and then just carried on with that same attitude throughout the rest of the interview.

doobu

eSenpai wrote: »

I once wanted to work at Amazon but then I befriended several people who had worked there in a guild I run. This article is almost verbatim what they said about working there and none of them work there now.

• I love being able to drop politically correct speech in favor of straight forward truths because it is more efficient.
• I am also a work-a-holic who thrives on stress.

However, life happens and our employees need to be able to feel safe to deal with that when it occurs. Nobody asks for cancer, for little Timmy to break his leg at summer camp, or the plague you picked up while on vacation in the mid-west but these things happen. Culling an employee for life reasons is as sh*tty as it gets. The Game of Thrones atmosphere that permeates Amazon made me withdraw my application with the recruiter and perhaps if all Amazon has to choose from in the future is those that have no other recourse BUT to work there then perhaps they too will see that treating employees like cattle is not in their long term best interest. The current revolving door that is Amazon's accepted turn-over rate was a huge red flag that should concern anyone.

TL;DR - Know your worth and don't settle for an atmosphere that treats you like a chess piece.

What guild? :P

Also, never discount yourself to work for some name brand. Like the wise Senpai said, know your worth.

Just because it's Amazon doesn't make it a bed of roses. Most companies don't get this massive and powerful without cutting the fat, be it ethically/morally right. You've heard the "it's just business" phrase. It's code for "go f*** yourself."

bensen

I was offered a job with AWS 2 years ago but refused it . The salary was not attractive for me, It was too complex for me understand. Stock options, bonus tied to me keeping my top secret (they wanted to get me a TS) so many variables. The interview process was long and had probably like 6 interviewers taking turns to interview me about various subjects and technologies. DNS, Perl, Storage. I enjoyed the interview but unfortunately the salary wouldn't work for the area they wanted me to work (northern virginia).

It is great opportunity to learn and having AWS on your resume is great for your career but you will need to evaluate it to make sure it works for you.