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Last active May 14, 2018 22:21
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Email to an Amazon recruiter (Re: "Alexa, Let's Try Again")

Hi ███████,

Somehow your other emails didn't register, but I did want to write and let you know that I'm not interested. Thanks for writing though, I do appreciate that I made it through your filters.

The reason I'm not interested in working on Alexa (and other similar IoT devices) is I think they are irresponsible outside of narrowly bracketed vision-impairment accessibility situations. The trade-off of privacy for convenience is only really possible for specific groups of very privileged people.

More generally, I don't think Amazon treats its warehouse workers very well, and I would feel bad being complicit in their continued mistreatment. The HQ2 effort to minimize tax exposure, followed by public statements by your CEO about how he's deciding how to spend his "winnings" would make me feel ashamed to call myself an Amazon employee.

I don't write this because I think you are going to fix these things, but because I think it's my responsibility to help push back on abusive business practices. You need to know that there is a recruitment cost to being ruthless.

I hope you might consider passing along my reservations to those who are in positions of authority, who might be able to address them structurally.

Sincerely,
Dan

Dan,
I sent you a couple of emails over the last month and wanted to give you one more try.

I’m aware you are probably reading a lot of spam from recruiters. And you’re probably not enjoying yourself. I’m writing this feeling like one of them, and I’m not enjoying myself, either. So, let me cut to the chase. Your background rocks, you have exp in several areas that are of prime need and you appear to have committed to repos on > Github that line up with our tech used on Alexa Comms and Mobile (I’ll get into that in a second). I won’t pretend that my message is different from the rest you’re receiving. But, know that it is from a real person who > researched your background and found it highly compelling.

I recruit for our Alexa Communications team (super cool stuff I’ll explain over the phone) and Alexa Mobile team (Android and iOS roles). We’re looking for leaders (both on the IC side and on the people side). Would you be open to me giving you a bit of an overview of the cool stuff we’re doing and see if it piques your interest?

Just FYI, we’re seeking these roles in Sunnyvale, Santa Cruz, Santa Monica, Toronto and Seattle.

If you’re interested, let’s chat! If you’re not, not a problem at all, just please let me know so I can leave you alone…..

Thanks Dan.

█████████ | Recruiter, Alexa Communications, Mobile & Alpha

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