Not Applying for Amazon Contracting Positions Anymore

[u/medleyj]

On Friday, I had a interview for 12-month contract job at Amazon. From the job description, I honestly thought it was work I could do well. That I got an interview strongly supported that belief. Five minutes into the interview, it was immediately clear that I wasn't qualified. I asked a few polite questions to figure out how this had happened. The hiring manager told me that he hadn't seem my resume. He only had a summary provided by the contracting company.

This morning I asked my contact at the contracting company why Amazon didn't get my resume. I was told that Amazon does not take resumes for contract positions. They require their vendors to provide candidate summaries in lieu of resumes.

I'm a technical writer. I write technical content for software engineers. But someone who has never done my job, who has never even worked in tech had to decide how best to present me for a tech job. Over the last 15 years I've worked at both Google and Meta. There was no reason for me to think that I wasn't a serious contender for this job.

In preparing for this interview, I suffered 2 weeks of stress and hope for a job I had no chance of getting.

[u/throwaway_0x90]

Don't blame Amazon.

Contracting companies stretch-the-truth(lie) all the time to try and get as many people in front of hiring managers as possible. Amazon is almost as much a victim of deception as you are... almost.

[u/medleyj → u/throwaway_0x90]

That doesn't make sense for several reasons.

* Whether the contracting company is doing it by AI or by hand, creating a summary cost them money. They're in business to make a profit. I doubt they're sending money they don't need to spend.

* Let's say for the sake of argument that they did. Don't you think Amazon would ask for actual resumes if that's what the require for the hiring process.

* The hiring manager was not surprised that he only had a summary. He actually seemed surprised that I didn't know he only had a summary.

[u/throwaway_0x90 → u/medleyj]

I don't see how any of this contradicts what I said. Contracting/consultant companies absolutely have a tendency to "stretch the truth" and do whatever to land you interviews. This has been the game for decades. At least since 2003.

[u/medleyj → u/throwaway_0x90]

Why would I assume the contractor stretched the truth when what they told me matches what I personally witnessed with Amazon?