[flink]

I've never applied for a job at Amazon but I have done the same thing with other companies. When I was last looking for a job, I found a couple of interesting positions whose HR systems would only take resumes in MS Word. I closed the tab and kept searching.

For me, it's a practical and ideological thing. My resume is written in LaTeX (with a plain text version) and unless I'm missing something, there is no good or easy way to convert from LaTeX to MS Word. I also have doubts about a company that insists on word documents - it smells like inflexibility and a heavy-handed top down management approach.

[btilly]

To convert LaTeX to word, use something like http://hyperlatex.sourceforge.net/ to convert it to HTML, and then rename it .doc.

Word should be perfectly happy reading that. And a lot of places that say they only accept Word won't notice the difference. (I don't know about Amazon.)

[derekp7]

Actually, a lot of the places that require Word format use a tool which extracts relevant information from the resume to automatically populate their database. For some reason those custom tools don't work with text documents (go figure).

[btilly]

I didn't say it worked with all. But it works with a lot.

[esrauch]

I think the source of this is that they use third party tools that automatically store/index/rip apart your resume for keywords. Theres obviously no reason why the third party tools don't support plaintext files, but it seems that they don't.

Considering Amazon didn't develop the system, I don't think the choice of software by the HR department is really something that is safe to make generalizations from.

[smutticus]

<quote> All the effort we put into technology might not matter that much if we kept technology off to the side in some sort of R&D department, but we don’t take that approach. Technology infuses all of our teams, all of our processes, our decision-making, and our approach to innovation in each of our businesses. It is deeply integrated into everything we do. </quote>

According to Bezos you're wrong. If technology infuses all of their processes that also includes hiring.

And let's not forget Conway's law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Law

Everything matters. If only because good people will ignore companies that have stupid hiring processes.

[esrauch]

I honestly think its a bit of a stretch to think that Bezos was talking about the HR department when he said that. Do you think he was talking about the people that vacuum the floors and sell sandwiches in the cafeteria too?