On: 'Clean your desk': My Amazon interview experience

[mikeash]

Seems like the proper way to handle this would be to have the test taker go somewhere with a proper test taking environment. If you don't want them to come on sit, then I'm sure there are local facilities they could contract to handle it.

Attempting to take over a person's own computer in order to prevent cheating on a test is simultaneously an egregious invasion of privacy and completely insecure. Are we really supposed to believe that you wouldn't be able to hide some cheating materials from your own webcam?

[Broken_Hippo → mikeash]

I recently had this a version of this with test taking - As part of immigration, I had to complete civics and language learning courses. Both had tests to take to complete the training.

The tests were held at the schools, all online. Purses, bags, jackets, electronics and so forth were left at the front of the room. Paper and pencils were provided in the computer labs, which were recorded and inspected for signs of cheating. Humans were at the site, but video wouldn't have been out of the question either.

It wouldn't seem too much to be able to rent a local school's computer lab for these sorts of purposes, for a small fee. And the internet and security on these is already tax-payer funded. This should put test taking environments well within reach of most people.

[nkozyra → mikeash]

> Seems like the proper way to handle this would be to have the test taker go somewhere with a proper test taking environment. If you don't want them to come on sit, then I'm sure there are local facilities they could contract to handle it.

I'm certain it's more expensive for the company, though. And some candidates don't have nearby access to this.

[rewrew → nkozyra]

There a so many locations that almost all do -- certainly much easier than any local interview location.

[nkozyra → rewrew]

But easier and cheaper than ProctorU? That's the main sell.

[mikeash → nkozyra]

Doing things badly is usually easier and cheaper than doing them properly.

[rewrew → mikeash]

Exactly. There are proctored testing labs worldwide -- there is absolutely no reason for Amazon not to handle it this way if they really feel the proctoring is necessary. Someone at Amazon just didn't do their job properly.

[dom0 → mikeash]

Mensa International tests work similar to this, ie. they rent a room in a VHS or university for a couple hours to conduct the tests.

[mikeash → dom0]

The FAA's written exam for pilots is similar, they have certified testing centers which can administer it. That's what made me think of this approach. Looking around a bit, it looks like dedicated testing centers are fairly common.