bloglike:2013-09
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bloglike:2013-09 [2013/07/06 11:58] – add Amazon on-site interview experience stybla | bloglike:2013-09 [2013/09/08 06:44] (current) – ADD: Reaction to: GoG rules out Linux support due to platform disparity stybla | ||
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- | ====== Issue 2012 - September ====== | + | ====== Issue 2013 - September ====== |
+ | ===== I became a hypocrite ===== | ||
- | ===== Amazon - on-site interview experience ===== | + | I'm sad to say, but I became hypocrite. Some years ago, I've signed an oath not to buy any UEFI device. I did break |
+ | this oath yesterday by buying Samsung ATIV Book 730U which has UEFI BIOS. I'm sorry. Perhaps one day there will be | ||
+ | an open BIOS replacement or something. And of course, I've turned Secure Boot off and didn't install Windows 8 shipped | ||
+ | with this notebook(no, | ||
- | Tags: Amazon, Dublin, Ireland, AWS, interview, onsite, on-site | + | --- // |
- | Please note this is a back-post I promised myself to do. I don't want to brag about my on-site interview | ||
- | at Amazon. But I've read quite slander of Amazon for its interview process. I haven' | ||
- | so it's possible there are success stories on intranets. I don't feel like checking now. | ||
- | Also, if you're looking for specific questions asked during the interview, you won't find it here. | ||
- | Get ready for unexpected and as much as possible ;-) | ||
- | The reason for this post is after reading all that slander and how dreadful Amazon' | + | ===== Plea to game developers - NPC AI is good nowadays, but could it be better? ===== |
- | process | + | |
- | like a prick, I'm out of the door immediately" | + | |
- | beginning. You see, I have a problem with writing up on whiteboard during interviews no matter where | + | |
- | and what it' | + | |
- | "So, write me a program which does this and that. Oh, and use whiteboard to do it". Right. | + | |
- | Anyway, I want to say big thanks to people from Amazon | + | Despite it may seem a as a rant, it's actually seriously meant post. I' |
- | for a great interview | + | and Dishonored. By amazed I mean they felt alive particularly by having meaningful conversations(more or less in case of |
+ | Dishonored) between each other. | ||
- | Without further delays, here we go. | + | Now, the space for improvement I see is these NPCs have no links/ |
+ | a conversation. If you kill one of them, the other one doesn' | ||
+ | people, would, wouldn' | ||
+ | rather event driven with a bit of randomness(Do I feel like replying to event I've received?). Would be something like this hard to | ||
+ | do? To keep track of conversations, | ||
+ | but it would add a bit more life-likeness to NPCs as well. On the other hand, I'm well aware making NPC AI isn't easy and I'm sure | ||
+ | somebody from game industry could give me a handful of corner-cases where this would either break the game or would cause NPCs to | ||
+ | go crazy :-) | ||
- | ---- | + | --- // |
- | ==== Interview process in short ==== | ||
- | - phone call with hiring manager ~ 60 minutes | + | ===== Reaction to: GoG rules out Linux support due to platform disparity ===== |
- | - phone call with different person ~ 60 minutes | + | |
- | - on-site interview which is 6 hours straight of interviews with different persons | + | |
- | - should some deficiencies be found during on-site interview, you might be given coding exercise | + | |
- | Now, let me note as far as I remember both phone calls I had were on time(say +couple minutes off max). | + | I've just read [[http:// |
- | I've read about phone interviews being off by more than couple minutes | + | and I must say it sounds to me like a lot of bulls. Why? Because |
+ | still runs after all those years and it doesn' | ||
+ | So, please, don't tell me how impossible it's to support games on GNU/Linux. What? HoMaM3 isn't 3D game. I hear you. Hidden and Dangerous 2 then? | ||
+ | Seriously, stop it. | ||
+ | Why don't you do it as Valve? Just clone [[http:// | ||
+ | I'm not exactly sure what else you were planning to do. Re-write all games to be native on GNU/Linux? I doubt it. | ||
+ | Again, why don't you do it as Valve? Just support one distribution. Which one? I'm sad to say, Ubuntu. That's where your user-base is most likely | ||
+ | going to be. And Debian will, or might, come along since Ubuntu is somewhat " | ||
+ | right? So, how came we have a lot of those years old applications which are still able to run nowadays. Strange, isn't it? | ||
- | ==== On-site interview ==== | + | There are ways how to do it. I understand it most likely isn' |
- | + | Again, look at Valve. From time to time, there are news about Steam's GNU/Linux user-base thinning out at [[http:// | |
- | On-site interview is pretty straightforward and simple. If you come in early you might be given tour through | + | It could be caused by the fact nobody is going to reboot into GNU/Linux just to play Half-Life 2. I wouldn't. |
- | the offices(I guess I didn' | + | But don' |
- | go. You have 60 minutes with each person and topics and even style of interview will differ from | + | all fine and we understand. Just don' |
- | person to person. You might even be asked to write something on whiteboard. No, that's wrong. You're going to be | + | |
- | asked to write something on whiteboard. Oh, and somewhere in the middle is interview/ | + | |
- | manager. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Now, that wasn't anything new and I'm sure you can read it elsewhere in greater details. But there are couple | + | |
- | things I want to talk about. First of all, all these people were caring. How am I? Do I want to take a break? | + | |
- | Do I need anything? Yes, given some blog posts this is rather unusual! | + | |
- | + | ||
- | As for writing code on whiteboard, don't horse around. Don't forget to add all checks and stuff like | + | |
- | '' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | As for interview/lunch and 6 hours of interview. Yes, lunch is a bit more awkward than your lunch with colleagues | + | |
- | discussing work-related stuff. Yes, you'll have to eat while you're not talking and be ready to respond. But hey, | + | |
- | come on, are you there for interview or lunch? And you know it was coming! Stop complaining. And 6 hours flew, | + | |
- | at least for me. Yes, I was quite happy to be outside once done. But I had far worse streak in TurnovFree.net days. | + | |
- | Are you still complaining? | + | |
- | + | ||
- | I recommend you to take eg. Coke with you. Something with sugar will keep you on your toes and will help you to | + | |
- | fight hunger, should you become hungry. Glass of water is, was, there should you needed. I haven' | + | |
- | hospitality any further, thus I don' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | ==== Coding exercise ==== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Due to my incapability to show much at whiteboard and lack of thinking, I've been given coding exercise. If I | + | |
- | remember correctly, I had 24 hours to complete it. And that's all information I'm going to give you. Oh, just | + | |
- | don' | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | ==== Was the interview easy? ==== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Is any interview easy? And frankly, if it was, I'd be disappointed. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | ==== Have you been offered a permanent job/contract? ==== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | Yes, although not exactly position I interviewed | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | ==== Have you accepted the offer? ==== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | No. It wasn't meant to be at that time. | + | |
- | + | ||
- | + | ||
- | ==== Closure ==== | + | |
- | + | ||
- | You might think I'm being positive about the whole thing only because I made it through the interview. | + | |
- | And that I would probably slander Amazon if I didn' | + | |
- | I made this promise right after my interview ended, in front of the Amazon HQ in Dublin. I didn't know | + | |
- | results back then and I actually though I failed. Also, I have failed at Google interview, but I didn' | + | |
- | go off slandering Google for it. It was because I'm dumb(not that I got much better). :-) | + | |
- | + | ||
- | And remember, it's about people you meet. May be I was just lucky. Anyway, good luck to you! | + | |
+ | --- // |
bloglike/2013-09.1373129896.txt.gz · Last modified: 2013/07/06 11:58 by stybla