The World of Stuff .com

It happened at the career fair

It’s my last semester of college, and for the past few weeks, I’ve been busy working on my senior project. But earlier this semester, something else was keeping me busy.

Every day, I spend some time in the Dungeon, the main computer lab in the Computer Sciences and Engineering building. One day in January, I noticed a banner on the wall advertising the Career Development Workshop. I foolishly assumed that it was some sort of career development workshop, but I soon found out that it’s a career fair just for students in my department (Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering) and a few related ones. Basically, you dress up and chat with representatives from these companies, and later, if they like you and your resume, they’ll ask you for an interview.

Since I had no idea what I was going to do with my life after graduation, I decided I should check it out. So, on Monday, January 24, I broke out my suit and resumes and headed to the Career Development Workshop. I thought I wouldn’t have to get there right when it started, but I was dead wrong. There was a huge line of people waiting to get in—way more than I had imagined.

And for all those job-seeking students, there were only 10 or 12 companies represented. Some were small, local companies, and the others were huge ones located elsewhere. When I finally made it inside, I realized that most people were waiting in long lines to talk to recruiters from Disney, Microsoft, Bloomberg, and Amazon.

I had done some research on the companies that were there, and Amazon was the one I wanted to talk to the most. They had sent out an e-mail before CDW with details on the position that they were looking to fill. I seemed surprisingly qualified, so I sent them my resume and did a little bit of research. I’d been really pleased with the dealings I’d had with Amazon as a customer, and I figured it would be a fun company to work for.

I decided to warm up by talking to some local companies. I didn’t have to wait very long to talk to them, which was good, because I bombed. The first guy I talked to worked for a local software company, and he asked me some questions about things I didn’t remember. That was awesome. He said he’d pass my resume on to the HR people for their consideration. The second company was even worse. That guy just looked over my resume and said thanks. Clearly I was not what they were looking for.

Then I decided to wait in line for Amazon. After about two hours, I had moved less than halfway up the line, but I was still at the end because hardly anyone had gotten in line behind me. I was wondering if I would even get a chance to talk to them at all, and I was also wondering how I could try to stand out from everyone else, most of whom seemed to be graduate students.

At that point, it was almost 10 PM, so CDW was almost over. One of the Amazon people came to the back of the line to talk to us poor souls who had been waiting for so long. She told us that they still wanted to talk to everyone who was in line and that they could continue talking to people in the CSE building that night or at Career Showcase, a much larger student job fair, two days later.

We said we wanted to be able to choose, and she said that was fine. But for the students who wanted to wait until Career Showcase, she wanted to make things fair: She didn’t want them to have to wait in a long line all over again, and she wanted to keep everyone in the same order as they were in this line. So she asked us for ideas on how to do that. Right then, I knew that this was my one chance. If I had a good idea, I could stand out from everyone else.

Somebody suggested that she write our names down, and then we could just tell them our name later, and they’d know who we were. She said that that wouldn’t solve the problem of keeping everyone in order, so she went away to the other Amazon people and came back with the idea of having a time slot for everyone who was interested.

I thought that was a terrible idea. People are always late for things, and some of them might decide not to show up, or their chats might last too long and make other people have to wait or whatever. Fortunately, by that time, I had a better idea.

“I have an idea,” I said to her. “Give each of us a card with a number on it. The first person in line gets number 1, the second person gets number 2, and so on. Then, at Career Showcase, when you’re ready to talk to someone, pick the person who has the lowest number.”

She said she really liked that idea and thanked me for it. Soon, she was giving everyone a number written on an Amazon business card (and she thanked me again as she was doing it). I was delighted.

By that time, everybody had to leave because CDW was over. The Amazon people were giving us the choice of talking to them right after CDW or at Career Showcase, so I decided to talk to them that night while my idea was fresh in their memory. I went to the CSE building with a few other students and waited for the Amazon people to arrive.

Once they got there, they used the numbered cards to keep people in their original order. One of the other Amazon people talked to me when it was my turn. He asked me some questions that weren’t too hard. I thought it went pretty well even though I needed a little help. We also talked about some of the projects I had done for my classes, like my artificial intelligence project. When we were done, I made sure to mention to him that I had the idea for the cards.

The next day, Tuesday, Amazon had an information session in the student union. There, they talked about what it’s like to work for Amazon and about the application process and stuff like that. They also talked about how much they liked Seattle.

I had found out that Amazon was based in Seattle, but since I didn’t like the idea of living there (too much rain, I figured) and because I knew they had offices in other places, I wanted to ask about working for them in another city. But during the info session, they managed to convince me that Seattle is a pretty neat place. I guess I’m easily convinced. Also, I figured it would be best to work at their headquarters so I could have a lot of opportunities to advance and try new things.

Career Showcase was the next day, and once again, I was wearing a suit. There were a lot more companies there because it was for all math and engineering students. I spoke to people from a few other companies, and I happened to see some of the Amazon people walking around. The HR woman saw me and told me that the numbered cards were working great. She gave me her business card and then said something like, “We’ll have to see what we can do about you!”

About an hour later, I got an e-mail saying that I had been accepted for the first round of interviews. They would be next Wednesday, February 2, on campus.

My boss had been very supportive of me in my search for a job after graduation, so that Friday, he took me out to lunch and talked to me about what I should say at the interview. He also said I should get a new suit—the one I had didn’t fit so great, and he made a case for it being the most important article of clothing you can have—so the day before the interview, I did. I went to the store in the mall where my sister works, and she helped me pick out everything. She even paid for it.

The first round consisted of a 45-minute interview for which I was snazzily dressed. I had done research on the types of questions to expect (mainly by reading blog posts written by people who had interviewed with Amazon and failed). My interview consisted of questions about design, algorithms, and scripting, the last of which I wouldn’t have been able to answer at all if it weren’t for my Linux experience.

I was feeling pretty good about the interview, and fortunately, I wouldn’t have to wait long to find out if I passed: they were going to be calling people for the second round that very night. I waited and waited until I was sure that they must have called everybody they were going to call, but… they called. They told me that my interviews for round two would be tomorrow.

So, I found myself in the same place the next day, but this time I had a different shirt and tie (I got two of each), and I would be facing three 45-minute interviews with other people. I thought I’d be really nervous, especially since the interview rooms were so tiny and it was just me and the other person in there, but it actually wasn’t that bad. I was pretty composed the whole time. The questions were similar to what I had been asked the day before: algorithms, design, scripting, and so on. One interviewer just asked me how I would design a particular system and spent the whole time pressing me for all kinds of details about everything. I enjoyed it.

The interviewers were pretty cool. The last one I talked to was himself a UF graduate, and once he was done with his questions, I asked him some questions about living in Seattle. He said that it was good that I was an undergrad because most of their applicants were grad students, and the undergrads were apparently too afraid to apply.

I wasn’t sure how well I’d do compared to the grad students, but one week later, I got the e-mail saying that I was being offered the position of Software Development Engineer. I officially accepted the position on March 9, and soon afterward came the best part. I talked with the HR woman, the one I had given the idea about the cards, and she asked me about my strengths and interests. Based on that, she got some managers to contact me and ask me to join their teams. I ended up picking Retail Systems, which deals with pricing, ordering, and things like that that are central to Amazon’s business.

I’m graduating on May 1. My start date is May 31. Between those two dates, I’ll be moving to Seattle!