Two former Amazon Web Services employees in South Africa explain what they did to get hired

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How to get hired by Amazon South Africa

Getting a job at Amazon Web Services (AWS) in South Africa requires deep technical skills, knowledge of the company's leadership principles, and enough determination to get through at least seven hours of practical and personality assessments.

This was revealed by two former AWS employees, who provided MyBroadband with insight into the company's extensive application process and how to best prepare for it.

They said the application process consists of two practical assessments, an online interview, and a trip to the Amazon office you'll be working at, where you will go through an intensive 4-hour interview.

An Amazon representative told MyBroadband that the company’s permanent South African workforce was increased by 3,000 in June 2020.

They could not provide updated statistics, but the representative did state that Amazon remains on a South African recruitment drive.

This is evident on the Amazon Jobs portal, where there is currently 168 positions to apply for in South Africa.
 
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Interestingly, when an AWS employee recommends a candidate to the company and the candidate successfully completes the application process, the person who recommended them receives a monetary reward.
/Snip

This was norm for all companies I worked at thus far.. Not sure why this is something interesting..
 
If they're able to complete their hiring process from time of applying to signing the contract in less than a month I'd be super impressed. HIring processes with multiple rounds of interviews seem to take months to get scheduling diaries aligned in SA.

I prefer these 8 hour super interview day that US companies seem to get right.
 
Very convincing place to work at when "Former" employees need to outline what they did to get the job. Doesn't seem like it was worth if the article couldn't get comment from a "current" Amazon employee.

With that said I can comment directly regarding a current employee experience since my brother started working for Amazon entry level support(pretty much the job openings they keep boasting about hiring in SA) late last year and best I can summarize is that when you consider the work hours well the basic pay is dogsht. Don't worry they will cover your Fiber connection (which is a must to even apply) however the cost of this is deducted from your actual salary so you are still paying for the fiber but they get to boast as if its a paid for included extra from Amazon.
 
"They said the application process consists of two practical assessments, an online interview, and a trip to the Amazon office you’ll be working at where you will go through an intensive 4-hour interview."

Please let me never be in such a bad position that I think of applying here.
 
hj007 said:
If they're able to complete their hiring process from time of applying to signing the contract in less than a month I'd be super impressed. HIring processes with multiple rounds of interviews seem to take months to get scheduling diaries aligned in SA.

I prefer these 8 hour super interview day that US companies seem to get right.
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Took my brother from very first contact to eventually getting the job 2 months. Not a quick process, for the most part chaotic and the potential employee is mostly left in the dark hoping they will get the job. Very little feedback about where you are in the process until you get a call at some random date that you either got the job or sht out of luck.
 
Hellhound105 said:
"They said the application process consists of two practical assessments, an online interview, and a trip to the Amazon office you’ll be working at where you will go through an intensive 4-hour interview."

Please let me never be in such a bad position that I think of applying here.
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Perhaps thats the "normal" process they want to follow but none of the hirings since 2020 ever met in person or at some Amazon office so I have no idea where these "former" employees got the idea of that being part of the hiring process.

Hiring in SA is fully online/over phone, lots of waiting and hoping and lots of back and forth. It is like they are trying to exhaust the potential employee just enough so they will give in and just take whatever is given to them.

Weird fking company to work for.
 
Hellhound105 said:
"They said the application process consists of two practical assessments, an online interview, and a trip to the Amazon office you’ll be working at where you will go through an intensive 4-hour interview."

Please let me never be in such a bad position that I think of applying here.
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Yea.. No thanks working for amazon. I read to many horror stories working there...
 
Athos said:
Applied twice for positions I am qualified for with plenty experience. Got zero feedback.
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Im convinced at least with the SA jobs they are looking for the people just shy of qualified for the job. Anyone qualified or over qualified will likely not get any of these jobs. Taking the guys just shy of being qualified gives Amazon the upper hand from start to finish. Definitely a sleezy hiring process but many people including my brother is just seriously desperate for any job and just have to take the pain in the process.
 
List your bottle peeing skills in your CV to get shortlisted
 
John Tempus said:
Im convinced at least with the SA jobs they are looking for the people just shy of qualified for the job. Anyone qualified or over qualified will likely not get any of these jobs. Taking the guys just shy of being qualified gives Amazon the upper hand from start to finish. Definitely a sleezy hiring process but many people including my brother is just seriously desperate for any job and just have to take the pain in the process.
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Your brother works for Amazon from the sounds of it..

This article is about AWS.. different leadership, hiring process, working hours and salary all together..

The two cannot be compared..
 
WAslayer said:
Your brother works for Amazon from the sounds of it..

This article is about AWS.. different leadership, hiring process, working hours and salary all together..

The two cannot be compared..
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He applied and is working 1st line support for AWS. We are talking about the same process but I guess to your point depending on what you apply for the hiring process is possibly completely different from 1st line support (most basic human being for AWS) to backend developer/sys admin.
 
John Tempus said:
He applied and is working 1st line support for AWS. We are talking about the same process but I guess to your point depending on what you apply for the hiring process is possibly completely different from 1st line support (most basic human being for AWS) to backend developer/sys admin.
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Strange, what is his job title, if you don't mind sharing..?
 
WAslayer said:
Strange, what is his job title, if you don't mind sharing..?
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AWS Cloud Support Engineer , ye they do make it sound super fancy.

Basically a glorified name for 1st line support wrapped in a very fancy sounding name.

Since he is at the bottom of the ladder, any incoming support calls/emails related to AWS cloud services go through 1st line and if its bit more technical gets most to 2nd etc. in case you wondered.
 
John Tempus said:
AWS Cloud Support Engineer , ye they do make it sound super fancy.

Basically a glorified name for 1st line support wrapped in a very fancy sounding name.

Since he is at the bottom of the ladder, any incoming support calls/emails related to AWS cloud services go through 1st line and if its bit more technical gets most to 2nd etc. in case you wondered.
Click to expand...

What's his job level if you don't mind sharing?
 
WAslayer said:
Snip
Interestingly, when an AWS employee recommends a candidate to the company and the candidate successfully completes the application process, the person who recommended them receives a monetary reward.
/Snip

This was norm for all companies I worked at thus far.. Not sure why this is something interesting..
Click to expand...
Yep, I've seen this before. Same with my current company.
 
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