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Comment by kodah | Hacker News Reader

That is absolutely not true. Maybe in certain areas, but in much of the country a drug test is required for at least software engineering. I don't know about accounting.

Edit: At Amazon that may be true, but OP's statement seemed much wider than that.

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much of which country? I live in the US and I've never been drug tested as a software engineer, nor have any of my peers or friends (unless you're getting a security clearance or something.)

I replied to this here => https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27365187

Anecdotal, but I had a job offer for a software engineering position with McKesson back in 2010 and they told me I would have to pass a drug test in order to obtain the position.

I was a marijuana user at the time, so I took a competing offer that paid less (though ended up being a much better fit for me -- still with the company now 11 years later)

Some of those detox drinks actually do work well. There's also the possibility of using fake piss. Both of these have worked for my friends in the past. The one friend who failed a test used real clean urine, but did not warm it up enough before the test. They just gave him another shot to pass the test.

You can even buy a fake dick to "urinate" out of:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3bjbgn/fake-drug-test-foilin...

You can even do an “oil change”

https://youtu.be/JMpgeMoQS7o

It kind of makes more sense to get a drug test when you’re applying to work at a company that deals in drugs.

I was drug tested for a software engineering internship with EMC in MA back in '05 and '07, but never since, including at Amazon.

It varies. I've seen software engineering with a security clearance that didn't require a drug test. Of course, all the friends of your friends were going to be interviewed in person, and they'd be asked about your behavior regarding drugs and more.

I think OP means “at Amazon”.

Software engineers were not drug tested at Amazon 10 years ago, and as far as I'm aware they never were. In what part of the country are companies required to drug test programmers? I have never heard of this being legally required for programmers anywhere. Maybe if you're working on federal contracts?

At Amazon sure, but what I got from OP's statement was not at Amazon. When I was in Dallas it was pretty routine to get drug tested and I worked for a variety of companies. It was only when I got into product and engineering firms that I stopped getting drug tested.

Maybe a coastal thing, since they don’t want to lose a really good percentage of their good developers.

It's a puritanical east-coast thing. Every job I worked required it.

West coast employers never cared.

I wonder how the stats actually hash out. I’m on the east coast and never seen a drug test except for my very first job which was a direct government contract.

I’m in finance now and doubt any of the senior partners could pass drug tests for cocaine much less something as banal as marijuana.

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