I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (New York, NY)
Interview
Internal referral, which led to a call with the Hiring Manager, then HR and then one phone interview with someone on the team (but not someone I would report to).
Hiring manager and HR were great and friendly. However, the first phone interviewee was quite cold. Although I answered all of the questions well and my very specific work experience would have been perfect for this very specific marketing job, it was this one person's opinion that I did not quite satisfy the Ownership leadership quality (those interviewing are well versed in these 14 leadership principles) that led to my elimination from the process.
The process feels incredibly rigid and subjective at the same time. It requires a lot of preparation and work to interview at Amazon so be prepared for that.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me a time that you had to make a decision quickly without much information.
I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Jan 2019
Interview
Gesprächspartner war weder aus meiner künftigen Abteilung , noch hatte er inhaltlich Interesse an meinem Werdegang oder konnte mir inhaltliche Fragen zur Stelle beantworten. Für ein erstes Interview wählt Amazon immer irgendwelche beliebigen Personen aus. da sie der Meinung sind, jeder müsse ein Interview nach den Amazon Leadership Principles führen können. Extrem schwieriger Akzent, der für mich trotz 15 Jahre internationalem Arbeiten kaum zu verstehen war.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do you use data? Name a problem and how you solved it? How did you show ownership?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (New York, NY) in Oct 2019
Interview
- I interviewed for a job at AWS. Spoke with recruiter, then a 45 min interview with hiring manager which I thought I nailed. I was then asked to complete a writing sample, based on a time I was innovative. Was brought in for the Loop interview to meet with 6 people! and a lunch buddy, and left feeling like I did well, but didn't nail it. I didn't get an offer. I was bummed, but I got a sense that everyone there was working to the bone and very stressed. Smart people but stressed.
- The recruiting process was so seamless. They really prep you well. They basically hand feed you what you should prep and obviously use the STAR format. Why can't every company use this model! It has spoiled me for other opportunities I have!
- I researched Interview questions for AWS and found this guy on Youtube: Dan Croitor. I have NO affiliation to him, but there is a video that has top 35 questions asked in an interview and any question I was asked was on that video. It was super helpful and he was my best resource. Some of the questions were verbatim- so please prep answer for these.
- Have multiple examples of successes pertaining to the Leadership Principles (LP). And I mean MULTIPLE. Here is one area in which I failed. I prepped 2 answers for each LP as I thought each person was going to cover a different LP. Well I felt I was asked the same question over and over again- Name a time you had to act without a lot of data and name a time you took a risk. I went to the well on my two main examples, which towards the end even annoyed me! I would focus on 6-7 examples of the LPS that are more prevalent to what you are interviewing for. Maybe 4-5 LPS vs all 14!
- There will be the bar raiser, not from your team, who will ask more behavioral questions. Mine was tough, but said I did a great job afterward. So....that goes to show how much power they yield when making the final decision :)
Interview questions [5]
Question 1
Name a time someone on the team was feeling excluded and what did you do to help them.