> I can't help but to wonder if it was really worth it.
It sounds like the kind of thing I might enjoy doing for fun, anyhow. It's my goal not to jump between employers. If I wasn't trying to find somewhere to stay for 5 or more years, then I'd be complaining about the up-front cost too.
> I've always felt that if I can't get through an interview with a little prep and my existing skills, I don't belong.
Ridiculous as it is, they're testing for things that your existing skills may not cover well, and that you may not have practiced in the last...well, since you learned it in school. You're trying to get a job doing things matching your skills, but the interview tests for something different (and arguably only loosely related). Still, that's the bar for getting the job.
> It would be interesting to know more about his desire to work for Amazon that badly.
For me, they've got local offices, so I wouldn't have to sell my home or leave the area my family lives in. They're a well-known company, and their engineering teams have a reputation for being picky. They also engineer for a scale that's hard to find in most other companies. If/when I decide to leave them, there would be the nice line on my resume where I can say I worked for them for x years. Of course, all of those apply for a couple other companies in my area as well, but they're still valid reasons to want to work there.
It sounds like the kind of thing I might enjoy doing for fun, anyhow. It's my goal not to jump between employers. If I wasn't trying to find somewhere to stay for 5 or more years, then I'd be complaining about the up-front cost too.
> I've always felt that if I can't get through an interview with a little prep and my existing skills, I don't belong.
Ridiculous as it is, they're testing for things that your existing skills may not cover well, and that you may not have practiced in the last...well, since you learned it in school. You're trying to get a job doing things matching your skills, but the interview tests for something different (and arguably only loosely related). Still, that's the bar for getting the job.
> It would be interesting to know more about his desire to work for Amazon that badly.
For me, they've got local offices, so I wouldn't have to sell my home or leave the area my family lives in. They're a well-known company, and their engineering teams have a reputation for being picky. They also engineer for a scale that's hard to find in most other companies. If/when I decide to leave them, there would be the nice line on my resume where I can say I worked for them for x years. Of course, all of those apply for a couple other companies in my area as well, but they're still valid reasons to want to work there.