Amazon Discover: Spring Insight Participant Review

There was many panels over the 3 day insight giving many tips for computer science and interviews along with panels about the culture within Amazon. Technical workshops were also ran daily in sub teams. My mentor in the sub team was incredibly kind and explained everything well. The panels included a day in the life, a review of the application process, a q and a with interviewers and an Amazon culture and affinity groups talk.

I have learnt many new interview skills, particularly regarding the technical aspect of the interviews. I learned a lot about the interview process. Some tips included using the s t a r acronym to answer example based questions. The leadership principles were also a great insight into how Amazon works as a company and how the staff operate. The first workshop was particularly enjoyable as I learned the best ways to find what a customer wants when asked and ambiguous question

I enjoyed listening to the software engineers describing the day in their life and specifically about how they still do not know everything and still have imposter syndrome. They also talked about their specific roles in their teams and the progression they can take within Amazon. There seems to be many potential roles included within amazon as there are so many different products and teams within those products. The amazon echo particularly interested me during the insight

The company culture seems very open and caring. My mentor was in the office and was talking about how nice everyone has been since she has moved to dublin. The panelist on te first day also mentioned an interaction with a fellow amazon employee out in Seatle during a trip to day 1. These sort of interactions are what give a company a very welcoming and enjoyable culture and atmosphere. This can also be seen from the people running the insight

I very much so enjoyed the insight. The timing of the event is poor however as it falls on the last week of lectures and from talking to other attendees we have been putting in an extra shift in order to keep up. That being said I have gained a lot of useful advice from the insight and I will certainly applying to join the team as an intern or a graduate in the future

Yes

I would tell them to learn all about the leadership principles and what they mean. Another tip would be to brush up on using the s t a r method for when being asked to give examples of past experiences. For the technical side i would mention the most commonly used algorithms and data structures should be studied including the likes of hashmaps which were new to me. Also do not be afraid to ask interviewers to explain questions.