Ask HN: Do you also get frequent Amazon recruitment emails?

58 points by falafelite 3 years ago | 53 comments

I, a fairly average and not at all notable software engineer, receive anywhere between 1 and 7 emails from people claiming to be recruiters with addresses that end in @amazon.com every week. It’s different names, sometimes the same content and layout, sometimes unique. I find this quite bizarre, and I imagine it’s some kind of “ask everyone on LinkedIn with software engineer in their title to apply” strategy. Does anyone else experience this? Do you know if these are just bots? I’d love to turn it off too as I have no interest in working there but yeah just curious if others experience this weirdness.

flak48 3 years ago |

My weirdest Amazon recruiter experience has been receiving an email in the middle of an onsite Amazon interview asking if I would be interested in interviewing at Amazon.

The recruiter who emailed me was the same one that had setup this interview in the first place, and had greeted me in the lobby just an hour earlier.

(Insert Xzibit yo dawg meme)

muzani 3 years ago | |

Not Amazon, but I've had one company reject me via email while interviewing, then canceled the rejection.

Another rejected me via email several days after sending me the offer letter. I didn't notice the email until I quit that job two years later.

nunez 3 years ago | |

Should have stopped the onsite and started over!

chefkoch 3 years ago | | |

Just interview again for a higher offer ;)

fetus8 3 years ago |

I too was receiving regular emails from Amazon recruiters for Software Engineering positions, and haven't been on Linkedin or any sort of job based site since 2017 when I got my current job, yet was still receiving these emails up until late last year.

Finally, I pretended to be interested in the position and started talking with the recruiter. When we got to the compensation and benefits part, I mentioned the only way I would consider working at Amazon is if they guaranteed Jeff Bezos be rocketed out in to space with no way to return to earth. The recruiter laughed it off, ended the conversation, and I've not received any more emails from them.

Try something stupid to get pulled off their email lists I guess? lol

wildrhythms 3 years ago | |

I told an Amazon recruiter they have to tell me the compensation of the position (I live in a state with such a law[1]) and they stopped replying after that.

I still don't know the compensation.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/12/states-and-cities-where-empl...

HWR_14 3 years ago | | |

I have no idea why they're so hesitant to tell you the compensation. That has to come up sometime, and early filters are better at not wasting everyone's time.

SethKinast 3 years ago |

I actually added them to my "spammy recruiters" Sieve rule because I was getting so many. The combination of these rules catches a LOT of recruiter spam; most importantly, it seems that most of the recruiters that configure their tooling to automatically nag 3 times (once per week) use one of these packages, so I get to ignore them as well.

Filtering ant.amazon.com keeps order emails and such while discarding any mail sent from recruiters (though it would likely also filter mail from non-recruiters if you actually correspond with someone at Amazon).

    if anyof (
      body :text :contains "znsrc.com",
      header :contains "user-agent" "Nylas",
      exists "X-Ashby-Stage",
      header :contains "message-id" "ant.amazon.com",
      exists "X-ZenSr-ID"
    ) {
      fileinto "INBOX.spam";
      stop;
    }

bakemawaytoys 3 years ago |

I get emails from Amazon recruiters; I work at Amazon.

nickd2001 3 years ago | |

Ha ha! I get emails from a former employer, who looks at my skillset and seems to think I'm a good match ;) They don't seem to have noticed I used to work for them, or else surely they'd actually say "would you like to come back?" . My theory is the recruiters are having performance measured by volume of approaches they've done, so there's an incentive to contact anyone who's a reasonably plausible lead.

pjbeam 3 years ago | |

Used to happen to me too!

nimbius 3 years ago |

true fact: I work as a commercial/diesel engine mechanic and our shop routinely gets glowing correspondence about how wonderful it is to start an amazon account, take payment through amazon and be an amazon affiliate business. until about six months ago, you could even find a stub landing page on amazon for our "new" store that we never created "coming soon." our attorney was fascinated.

turns out we service so many various amazon contractor fleets and warehouse fork trucks our names somehow made it into the shit filled vortex of amazon.com marketing.

teachrdan 3 years ago |

I replied to a recruiting email with: "I would literally rather shoot myself in the fucking head twice than work for Amazon."

That was last year, and I continue to receive their recruiting emails every week or two.

Bombthecat 3 years ago | |

Say you love in the eu now and moved DVD you need your data to be deleted and never get contacted again :)

coffeefirst 3 years ago | | |

Alternatively, reply with pro-Union links.

voakbasda 3 years ago | |

I reply similarly and tell them to stop contacting me. And yet the spam continues….

bilsbie 3 years ago |

I get a ton! And it’s frustrating because I wouldn’t pass the crazy white board interviews (hazing).

If they really wanted to hire all these people why not have a better interview process?

satokema 3 years ago | |

i've started telling the horde of recruiters exactly why i don't want to take a side job studying for their interviews for a slight chance to work somewhere that is reportedly bad to work at - maybe if enough people say something to enough of them they'll trickle it upwards.

that's a good pipe dream, but one can hope.

nunez 3 years ago | |

I don't think their loop is crazy (leadership principles aside)

whack 3 years ago |

Amazon is a very decentralized company. Which means that Amazon's thousands of recruiters are all operating independently of each other, and have minimal systems/regulations to prevent multiple recruiters contacting the same person. The different recruiters are often recruiting for different teams/divisions as well, so if you're open to joining Amazon, you should certainly talk to a recruiter whose team matches your interests.

jdmg94 3 years ago | |

Most all tech companies treat recruiting as an after thought, you would think this Trillion dollar companies would try to use their technological leverage to make recruitment more efficient but no…

aynyc 3 years ago | | |

I'll say this. I went to FB and AMZN interviews and hiring committee. While leetcode style isn't my favorite, the process at both companies are outstanding. It was transparent, quick and never any pushy sales tactics. I personally couldn't see myself working for them so I took less money to go elsewhere.

glouwbug 3 years ago | | |

Microsoft totally could with their ownership of LinkedIn + GitHub. Why haven't they?

nunez 3 years ago |

Yup, and I can't seem to stop them.

I did go through the interview loop once but stopped right before the final because of comp.

They basically pay everyone a cap of ~$150k/year USD, but they'll make up whatever you're losing in base with a tiered sign-on attached to a clawback clause and their famously-high RSU package with their infamous four-year vesting schedule. Not for me. (I make $215k base and am eyeing for more.)

__derek__ 3 years ago | |

I don't expect this will change your mind, but the base-pay cap was increased significantly last year. Also, a few years ago the sign-on bonus changed from being paid lump-sum to pro-rated, so there's no more claw-back. The RSU vesting schedule is still the same, although that might be a boon for anyone accepting offers in the last year (cash push, stock down).

nunez 3 years ago | | |

I didnt know that. Might consider going through their loop in the future. Thanks!

starwind 3 years ago |

On multiple occasions I've emailed back and asked to be put on a "do-not-contact" list but it never works :/

After replying to FB recruiters asking to be taken off their contact list one finally added a note to my file saying not to contact me and I haven't heard from them since. So...props to Facebook I guess

zamalek 3 years ago | |

It took one reply explaining my disinterest on account of moral grounds for them to stop contacting me.

nus07 3 years ago |

Yes and I have a folder full of Amazon spam emails.Amazon gets away with crap because they have a supply of smart but desperate H1b folks. If ever the H1b pipeline dries up or they find other opportunities , Amazon’s hiring and business model of infinite supply to churn out will fail.

2OEH8eoCRo0 3 years ago |

Yes. Nonstop. Got two today.

I've already run their gauntlet once and a few of the interviewers were dbags (though two were exceedingly awesome and nice).

stusmall 3 years ago |

I've been getting them too. I used to tell them to stop contacting me but after that had no effect I've just been ignoring them.

I've got a feeling they've built enough of a reputation they have to cast a wide net for competent people. Of the people I've known who've worked at Amazon, only one enjoyed it. Every mega corp is different and the team you land on makes all the difference in quality of life, but I'm having trouble thinking of anywhere else where I hear such a uniformly negative things. I hope this is a sign of them paying a price for the culture they've built.

mtmail 3 years ago |

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30363644 ("Amazon recruiters have sent me an email almost every weekday", "I've received two today")

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29255283 ("I have recruiters reaching out weekly now for the past month"),

rsstack 3 years ago |

After a busy season of Amazon recruiter spam, which didn't stop even after I asked to be removed from their database, I emailed their corporate support at jeff@amazon.com and it stopped almost complete.

datavirtue 3 years ago |

I was contacted through a seemingly organic and sincere recruiting email about a week ago. I ignored it but she kept following up with seemingly hand crafted emails. I responded with something to the effect of "if this isn't some type of bot/scam, I appreciate it but I'm not interested.

Again, she responded with another well crafted email thanking me for responding and referencing my reason that I gave in the abstract--and also LOL'ing about the bot comment.

It could have been AI I guess..I'm still paranoid.

hepinhei 3 years ago |

I got some emails from them asking for some dates, I gave them 5 different timeslots, 5 times and they failed to answer within all the time-frame I gave to the. no-go for me after this.

Macha 3 years ago |

Definitely in the 10s of emails a year category, even in a market they don't really have that large a headcount in (and most are in-market positions, though I have been contacted about US positions also).

They're not bots as such, but there's a lot of recruiters trawling LinkedIn and less reputable aggregators then inserting your email into their CRM for auto follow ups, which I also would consider at least bot-adjacent behaviour even if there is technically a person in the loop.

sethammons 3 years ago |

I get them. Replied to one for a principal role for $900k/yr. Turned out they wanted what I consider a principal II and I was a tad shy of what they were looking for.

achanda358 3 years ago |

I once got a Amazon recruiter email asking for my email address.

dyingkneepad 3 years ago |

Yes, at least one new recruiter per week. They send the initial email, then usually two follow-ups. A few weeks ago the follow-up even had a "FINAL CHANCE" in the opportunity line or something worded like that suggesting I wouldn't get more offers from them. Turns out that was a lie.

casenjo 3 years ago |

I was, up until I started reporting them to the Canadian Anti Spam website and they stopped shortly after that.

Kon-Peki 3 years ago |

Now that you mention it, it's been a while (unless they've all be going to spam or something).

I deleted my LinkedIn 5+ years ago; maybe "my" profile has finally aged out of their system.

glonq 3 years ago |

Emails, no. But plenty of messages on LinkedIn from people recruiting for Amazon.

I usually say "thanks but no thanks" because I'm not actively looking for a new gig right now.

fidgetspinner 3 years ago |

Yep - I also failed their interview process at one of the later stages in 2020 and they seem to have forgotten, because I still get at least one recruiting email a week.

nickphx 3 years ago |

They stopped emailing me when I refused to do free work as an 'assessment'.

nexus7556 3 years ago |

I get about 1.5 a week from them and I always tell them I’m not interested in working for Amazon. They call about once a month too. I wish they would leave me alone.

dekhn 3 years ago |

Lots. Meta too until recently.

jrumbut 3 years ago | |

Interestingly, they've picked up for me recently. I think they send one email to me before but now it's close to Amazon frequency.

As annoying as it is to get tons of emails or have an unsolicited recruiter message pop up while you're screen-sharing in a meeting, this is a very low price to pay for being in a high demand occupation.

jakobov 3 years ago |

yes

if anyof ( body :text :contains "znsrc.com", header :contains "user-agent" "Nylas", exists "X-Ashby-Stage", header :contains "message-id" "ant.amazon.com", exists "X-ZenSr-ID" ) { fileinto "INBOX.spam"; stop; }