Amazon Programming Manager interview questions

I applied for a Program Manager Position with the Fullfillment by Amazon (FBA) area. I received a call from an Amazon internal recruiter two days later to schedule a phone interview with a member of the FBA department. The recruiter was very nice and reviewed the detailed of the job posting with me and asked if I had any questions or concerns. The posting was vague about the amount of travel so I asked about it. The internal recruiter set up the interview time but said she would get more details about the travel prior to the interview.. I recevied a call back and was told it was 80-100% travel and I stated that was too much travel for me at this time. The recruiter said she would cancel the interview but to let me know if I was interested in any other positions with FBA. I week later I got an alert about a new position that matched my criteria through the Amazon careers site. It was another Program Manager position without a big travel commitment. I contacted the internal recruiter via email and was set up for an interview a few days later. I really liked Amazons culture and values statement. Line by line I read it and said Wow! this is exactly how I am. I would really thrive in such an environment to continually push for higher standards. I had the phone interview with the Senior Manager over one of the FBA business units. The interview went great. It was really upbeat and positive especially after we discussed my background in leading process improvement projects and my broad experience in several industries plus extensive experience in warehousing, distribution and customer relations as a manager. The manager then talked about current challenges in his FBA area (globally) and how I would approach the situation. I talking about the way I would isolate the area that is causing the negative customer experience and analyze the process to fix the issue. At the end of the interview (about 45 minutes) he said my skills and qualifications made me an excellent fit for the position but he wanted to ask me about something else. The manager stated he had on his desk another job position that he was finishing writing up and would submit it for requisition in three days. It would take about three weeks to get approval. He said he really wanted me for that position instead because I would be a bigger benefit in that role. He asked if I would agree to pass on the position I was interviewing for and wait for the other position. I thought about it briefly and agreed to pass on this one. The manager then made a few more comments and said someone would be in contact with me about the next interview for the other postio, please keep in mind it would be about three weeks. I continued to interview at other places in the mean time. After 4.5 weeks I sent an email to the internal recruiter asking about the new postion and it has been almost two weeks later than the manager said (hey, I know delays happen). She said she would send an email asking the hiring team for that area. About two weeks later she relayed the reponse saying a couple of additional requirements were added at the last minute to the new position and they were going to pursue other candidates. So I was out of both positions. This really surprised me how the manager flat out told me he was impressed with my talents and previous accomplishments and I would be an excellent addition at Amazon in his team then to just leave me hanging for six weeks. It was very unprofessional. Pros for me: Very customer centric company. Very bright talent. Cons: Too much pushing for MBAs. Almost every position says MBA desired. Some departments discount real world experience against such degrees. At

I had two phone interviews for a SharePoint program manager, then the job description changed to focus more on SharePoint dev, which I was then ineligible for. The recruiter put me in touch with the hiring manager from another group for a program manager where I met with him in person. He had the notes from the previous phone interviews. The in person with the hiring manager went well enough to move forward with an all day 1:1 interview loop with 6 people. A lot of the interview questions involved provided detailed examples of my experience in leadership, teamwork, communication, project management, problem solving and critical thinking. They want to understand how you process information and think through a problem. The bar raiser was my favorite and most challenging interview. They are someone who is at an advanced level of interviewing, is a key decision maker in the hiring process, and is not affiliated with the hiring team. They will ask you challenging questions that are scenario based and expect a lot of detail. For example, I had a question around which involved launching a 2 different product lines in a country, both were high priority to launch by the holiday season and you only have the resources to do one. How would you launch both before the holidays. My advice is to treat these meetings like you already have the job and this is simply a working meeting. Be prepared to whiteboard.