This was a most terrible and unorganized interview process. The interview itself lasted over 8 hours, and they made me sit through that twice, plus two additional one-hour screening sessions. This is my recent experience.

Several years ago, they asked me to arrange for a hotel and flight for an on-site interview. In the middle of the airplane line, they called and asked me to go back because they had hired someone else.

This time, I interviewed with a team first. Their judgment was that I met their leadership standards very well, but my coding was a bit below par. So, they sent me to another team with less coding focus. The second team's feedback was that I was not good at leadership at all, even though I was asked the same questions. They just contradicted the first team's assessment, despite the questions being identical.

In the interview, you talk to so many people, and hardly one of them is from the same team you are interviewing for.

In my case, I was interviewing for a Solution Architect role at AWS, but most people were from the warehouse section. So, good luck communicating technical achievements and the value you added to a problem when talking to people who have no clue or relevance to AWS services.

The process is so boring, physically exhausting, and repetitive that unless you are a marathon athlete, you can't physically make it. You have to sit upright for 8 hours answering repetitive questions. In my case, they asked the same thing three times. Maybe this torture is part of their test and is intentional.

I have a back problem, migraines, and dizziness that are triggered when my blood sugar drops. So, I used a small chocolate during that 8-hour period. Based on some hints in their feedback, the true and original reason they rejected me was that small chocolate. So, if you're ready to join a company that lacks that much understanding, that you need something to grab to maintain blood sugar, and they reject you like that after two months of hard work and preparation, then go for it.

I am almost 40 years old and I really don't understand what they can gain with these behavioral questions. Some interviewers were seniors, and I respect their opinions, but how can a 20-year-old person who has just started working analyze your answers from a psychological perspective?

If you want to pass, you should lie; that's what they are looking for: very shiny, polished, flawless answers. There are even companies that charge $10,000 to teach you what to tell them, and they have specific tracks for AWS. That's the world we are living in.

I used real examples that really happened to me, and I was awarded in my company for going above and beyond. Obviously, that's not enough. How many good examples of conflicts (something that's worth mentioning) could you give? 1, 2, 3. No, you need much more than that, which is not likely unless you lie. And who is judging you? Someone who has just started their career, which in their view, qualifies them. They are all psychology experts!

Tell me about conflict.

Tell me about conflict.

Tell me about conflict.

Tell me about conflict.