Just got a call from some outfit called Amazon.com...

Phone interview Monday, 06 Feb 2006, 1 pm PST. Expect to last 1 hour, may be coding samples required, have resume, pen and paper handy, etc.

Here's the Job Description:
My task now is to research as much a possible about the company, the job, and the tasks described as I can. I wish to be well prepared for this interview. Support is my long suit, but I'm stressing some about the coding quiz... What could that be about? Hi, help desk? I have a problem, and I want you to write a script to fix it... Ditto the Unix support questions.Any suggestions out there? Any help desk jockeys willing to give me clue? I'd sure appreciate it.

See, this is one of those times when I shot for the 80% I could do, and I'm twigged about the missing 20%. (breathe ya dope, breathe).

That's your update. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Don't sweat the coding. I bet you can find a coding sample on the net for whatever they can dream up. Sounds like a good opportunity to me. I'd jump on it. Just tell 'em you can code anything then worry about it later. There's plenty of backup to be had. To get a job like that, they need somebody smooooooooth and confident. Make it so.

Rock on V.

PS-You'll have a much better February than the searats. ;)

Dear Beestie, Griff:

Thank you for the enthusiastic support.

Griff: Look for a new thread in the Sports section soon, just for you. :haha:

Just tell them you know all that and goats too. :thumb:

What exactly does this mean? Three months of days, three months of nights? That would kill me.

Just tell them that you're friends with the person who keeps them in business.

(I can't bring myself to try to add up the totals of my yearly purchases. It's just damn scary. But I've been shopping with them since the beginning. If only I had thought to buy stock ...)

I bought six books from them one year and got a travel mug, you must have gotten a cappucino machine!

Big V, Mail, in a box that has Barnes and Noble written all over it, is virtually on its way to you. Once it leaves the kitchen counter.

In the meantime, thinking of you:

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To love pure and chaste from afar
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star
This is my quest
To follow that star
No matter how hopeless
No matter how far
To fight for the right
Without question of pause To be willing to march
Into hell for a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true
To this glorious quest
That my heart will be peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star!

[/at a loss for words...]

Thank you.

[at a loss for words...]

BigV

YES!!!!!

Umm.. so if you get the job, will you be able to see what I've been ordering?
I mean not that it's a problem.... I really don't care, I'm just wondering.

Hi V - good luck with the job. I'm not from anything that close to the software world although I spent a few years at Reuters working with developers designing a few products/product enhancements mainly contributing from the user look and feel angle.

I was told by a software guy I know who deals a lot with ordering software, that the 'intelligence' behind the Amazon customer enquiry interface permits it to change the price offer according to the buying habits of the customer, and it's the reverse of what a lot of people would think. If you only buy, say once every six months, then the price offered is lower than if you buy regularly - logic being that if you return to buy frequently you don't need a discount inducement - likelihood is that you aren't comparing prices with other suppliers when you buy regularly so you don't need to be enticed so much. I think the info should have some merit. Best check out for yourself first though if it is something you haven't heard before.

One other thing - and apologies well in advance if this is a naive and unnecessary comment, but I'd rather state something that may be in the 'bleeding obvious' category than leave it unsaid and kick myself later for not having done so! If you're deep diving into a process, at the basic level elimination is so important. Analysis of any sort of problem is an 'if' -then' series of observations and this one of the easiest methods to use for communicating reasoning - e.g. if this is happening , and if that is working OK and if that also is happening OK then it is likely that this other thing here is most likely causing/behind/something to do with the problem - analysis then moves on to 'if/then' the 'likely cause'

All the best - will be interested to learn how the interview went in diue course.

Thanks to popular demand...

The Amazon.com phone interview went ok. I did not get the job. They were very nice, and efficient, and actually did have some follow up with me (one of the candidates not selected). That alone sets them apart by a few notches.

I fumbled one of the questions, and on another, the shallowness of my linux experience prevented me from embarassing myself on a whole list of other questions. Turns out there are only eight (!) Windows Support people in the whole group, and the rest are linux oriented. Just don't have the chops to run with that crowd.

So, I have recently applied to several other organizations. Here's a subset of them:

Boeing
Nintendo
Real Networks
Alaska Airlines
Comsys

The list of possibilities of a search I set up at NWjobs.com produced over 900 hits, and I read through them all. I culled all but about 200 and I'm slogging through those now.

Screw Amazon, you don't want to move to South America, anyway. ;)
You'll sort out your new employer from the wannabes, soon enough.

[fanfare]

I got a job.

[/fanfare]

[prayers]

Thank you. All of you.

[/prayers]