I applied through a recruiter. The process took 6 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Jan 2012
Interview
Amazon.com contacted from a resume posting on Ladders.com.
Actually had two go rounds. The first was two phone interviews then a trip to Seattle and one on interviews with six interviewers. The first interview was technical in nature and came down to basically how do you scale systems. The second was a senior program manager, which was a good talk on management style.
The on-site interview was 11-4 and consisted of six one-hour interviews including one over lunch. I was interviewed for two positions. Questions weren't particularly tough and technically mostly about scalability of systems. Some of the younger interviewers seem to be following a script or were responsible to get an answer on a specific area.
I thought it went well but never heard back from Amazon.inc for six weeks and, of course, with no feedback.
I was surprised to hear back from them in January 2012 to set up another set of interviewers. This time, the recruiter was a total flake. On the first attempt for the initial phone interview, the interviewer was a no show. The interview was rescheduled for two weeks later. Amazon offered no explanation or apology.
This interview did not go well. I took an immediate dislike to the interviewer, a eastern European of some sort. He was arrogant and disinterested. I think this was a check box interview and a waste of both of our time.
Overall, Amazon's interview process is, well, a bit moronic. Very few organizational "fit" questions. It felt scripted and mechanic.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
All technical questions had to do with scalability. All management questions had to with estimating/reporting time to finish.
I applied online. The process took 3 days. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Sep 2011
Interview
I spoke with a recruiter and he informed me that the first step in the process was to have a Technical interview. Three days later I ways contacted by one of their Senior Designers. The interview questions were very detailed given the job role. I was asked about how to implement hashing algorithms and load balancing. I felt that many of the questions were better suited to someone applying for a designer or architecture position. It was explained to me that Amazon is developing a culture where all levels of management are very hands on and can assist team members in designing & writing code if needed. This was not a good fit for me, since it has been over 15 years since I last wrote any code. This is a different philosophy than used by the Project Management Institute. It was also explained that all work would need to be performed on-site in Seattle, Washington.
Interview questions [2]
Question 1
Explain how you would design and implement a asking algorithm using Java.
The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Dec 2011
Interview
Amazon found my resume online and called me for a TPM role. I had 2 phone interviews with them, first on Agile/SCRUM, second a more technical one (how do you design a system etc.). Both interviews and conversations went really well. The guys I talked to were nice, non-intimidating, good interviewers. But after the second interview I got an email from them saying they decided to move forward with other candidates! I asked for some feedback and the recruiter said Amazon has a non-feedback policy. What is this policy? how does it help Amazon and how does it help the candidate? where is the learning in this about the interview and about potential matches or non-matches?
I have never seen this before. Does anyone know if other companies do this as well? is this becoming standard? hope not. Its not at Microsoft, which is great cause then you can target your search better.
Anyway ...
ExitSpeed
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What is the hardest thing in moving a team to Agile?