Amazon data science interview questions
It appears that the current generation of "hackers" seems very keen to work for a big name company-- Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook.  As someone who has worked for many startups and several of the above named companies, please let me give you a bit of advice:<p>- A big company on your resume has no outside value to your prospects.<p>Seriously. There's not "hey well he worked for amazon so we know he's good" free pass in the future for having Amazon on your resume.<p>There might be a "well, she wasted 3 years at amazon and we all know that's a hellhole so we can get away with abusing her" signal though.  (Amazon is a hellhole, I spent 2 years there, in retrospect I would have been better off walking the day it became clear they were using cult methodology.[1])<p>It took me many years to find my calling. Once I did then my career direction was set.  I'll only be working for companies in this industry going forward, because it really is my calling.<p>Take a job that maximizes your creativity and ability to contribute.<p>Don't chase big money or big names.  The two almost never go together, anyway.<p>[1] Magical Phrases are a key indicator of cult methodology. Also known as "thought terminating cliches" they are multi-purpose sayings that are used to invoke company ideology and shut down dissent.  At amazon there are things like "It's day one!" and the like.   Every time I've seen these cult signals at a company it turned out to be a toxic work environment.<p>A good question to ask in interviews is if they company has any slogans all the employees know.