I applied through a recruiter. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Mar 2011
Interview
Contacted by the recruiter --> first round phone interview:
-- How would you evaluate a new product/service to be launched online?
-- How would you price the service? subscription/ one-time?
-- How would you measure the online users purchase behavior?
Basically, all standard e-commerce questions. I got through this round well and was scheduled for a second round interview.
Second round interviewer says at the interview -- "I think you would be a outstanding candidate for the team, and based on your interest, i think you would not enjoy this particular position, so I am going to recommend you for another position in our team"!! ???? Well oh well, okay dude. He also informed me that he recently was in this position and that he moved to kindle group -- so this position was vacant right now.
Third phone interview with the "new team" manager -- the moment he opened his mouth, i realized I am not getting this offer -- He sounded so tired/unenthusiastic as if I was thrown on his shoulders unnecessarily -- he was just not interested in interviewing -- he asked some random questions about what are your strengths and weaknesses crap -- 30 mins of boredom.
no response for few days -- I emailed the the recruiter for updates -- standard "good luck with your job search" email response.
Overall -- You can never be sure what these guys want or are thinking.
I applied online. The process took 1 week. I interviewed at Amazon in Dec 2010
Interview
Very professional. HR personnel and the interview set up the interview well and conducted it in friendly cooperative manner. Was surprised not to get further interviews, since the phone interview stated clearly he was sure I would be contacted again. In the end, did not get another call for interview. Did receive final notice by email that I was no longer being considered. Mystified by the hiring decisions made, but not disgruntled by the experience. All contacts were professional as was follow up.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Dec 2010
Interview
Had a good phone interview but the experience was awful from the beginning, recruiting was very disorganized and I didn't even know I was interviewing in person until the night before. When I got there I didn't know who I was interviewing with. The lady who met me, didn't even introduce herself beyond her name, I had to interrupt her to ask what is she did, this is after she asked me very specific questions about my skills and experience. She said she was the real recruiter. To add insult to confusion, she demeaned my professional experience and said they were not equivalent to Amazon's senior team. The position I was interviewing for wasn't even "senior" so not sure what that was about. When I asked what the rest of the day was going to look like she said I had 6 more interviews and gave me the names of each person. When I asked when I would next hear from her she said it will be 2 weeks since she is on vacation. Very unprofessional!
My next interview made it better and the other interviews got better as the day progressed. The people I interviewed with were not happy or even excited about the work they were doing. What was surprising was the amount of feedback about how busy they were and how not a lot gets done. The questions were random and broad - clearly they didn't prepare for the interviews. They focused on customer communication, issues with shipping and product innovation.
I have never had such a terrible interview experience in my life, what a huge waste of time.