I applied online. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Amazon Robotics (Boston, MA) in Aug 2014
Interview
I has applied initially through Linkedin and was contacted by a recruiter. The recruiter instead offered to interview me for another role which I had no interest in. After this initial communication, I received no communication until almost a month later when another HR Manager contacted me saying that they would like to interview me for a TPM at a Non Senior level, ( which I was ok with). The phone interview with the Hiring Manager was very casual and was more about what Kiva does and little about my experiences. Following which I was scheduled for an onsite interview.
The onsite interview experience was very good. I had a total of 5 interviews, following which the Hiring Manager took me on a tour of the facility and it was really cool to see all the bots in operation.
All questions were geared to evaluate my experience and to gauge if I would be a good fit. Usually, in high tech companies, TPM positions involve a lot of technical questions. However in this place they asked mostly profile based and behavioural questions. So I understood that this team did not handle a lot of technical projects.
I received a "not a good match reply" from the recruiter almost two weeks later. Had to follow-up though.
The company seems like a great place to work with good perks and startup like culture but for me the role seemed a step down for what I am currently doing. Additionally, I also had another offer which was definitely high visibility. It didn't feel bad after all.
The company did allow me to stay over the weekend and visit Boston which was pretty cool.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What are potential bottlenecks of the Kiva Order Fulfillment Process ?
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon Robotics (Reading, MA) in Feb 2025
Interview
Fast but not really collaborative. They know what they want and they almost want someone that is a cookie cutter for their business. Asked good question but didn't lead in to understand the candidate and how I can adapt and do well. Very short sighted.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
How do I get things done without leadership decision
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon Robotics (North Reading, MA) in Feb 2020
Interview
Interview process was long, 4+ weeks with interviews with 4 people including the initial screening interview. All seemed to go quite well. Ended with a formal thanks but no thanks email.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Typical Amazon interview questions, some surrounding the 14 Leadership Principles.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon Robotics (North Reading, MA) in Feb 2017
Interview
Various behavior and technical questions. The people I met with ranged from managers I would be working with to entry-level Engineers. Worst part of the interview was they stuck me in a tiny huddle room for the entire day with little to no offer to take a tour until I asked. I think they forget that I'm also there to make a decision about them rather than sitting in a room to be grilled all day
Interview process was straight forward with the people who knew what this role was and what they were talking about (other TPM, managers-to-be, etc) - had a great conversation with those folks. However, they threw in a Senior Director and an entry level guy (interview program in training or something and had a mentor watching him interview) and they asked strange questions. The Senior director asked questions completely out of the scope of the role and had to leave before we finished our conversation. Seemed very bothered to be there. The jr. level guy asked very cookie-cutter questions and interrupted a ton - one in particular was asking me how I solved a technical problem and really tried to dig into how I made a technical design decision. Tried to tell him that someone in a TPM role is only meant to support and guide the solution but ultimately leave architecture to the architect/team and he seemed to take that as a negative.
Overall good conversations with the people who knew what they were trying to hire. No offer in the end due to what seemed like red tape from Amazon corporate rather than hiring someone who would be a good fit for the team.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
1) Tell me about a time... xyz - disagreement between team members, a plan changed, etc.
2) Tell me about a time you had to solve a technical hurdle that may not have been identified by the engineers