I applied through college or university. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Apr 2016
Interview
Amazon's recruitment is run like a factory. It is clear they have a rather large recruitment team (I hear upwards of a thousand) and the company is on an amazing growth trajectory. This means they run interviews like you're on a conveyor belt. I applied at my university and I was immediately put through the process of video interviews. In the first round it was two back to back interviews with current Senior PMs. The first one was focused on behavioral questions, work history, and fit. The second interviewer provided case studies and was quite rude and arrogant. Not sure if he was intentionally trying to make me angry but I had to hold myself back. It was clear after my time with him I was not going to move forward. After reading that NYTimes article it's probably a good thing.
Oddly enough one of my friends also went through the process and received an offer. We had two very different experiences. He did not get any case studies and his questions focused more on behavioral and situational questions. He also had much more pleasant interviewers. So it's the luck of the draw. It's also worth noting that once you make it past round one of video interviewers you will get called back for a second round of video interviews before receiving an offer. Amazon does not fly out graduate student candidates (at least not us). I find it a bit unnerving that you don't meet anyone face to face or get to experience Seattle. If you apply through this method, hopefully you've already visited Seattle to determine if you like living there and don't mind knowing which team you get assigned to until AFTER you accept the offer. Personally I like to know who I'm going to be working for before signing at the dotted line. You have no idea who your direct manager is going to be or if the team you are working with is going to be a cultural fit. Roll the dice.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Market sizing questions to determine if you know how to ask questions, estimate, etc. Quite pointless questions and has nothing to do if you can do the job.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (Londres, Inglaterra) in Jul 2016
Interview
I had interview with amazon video for snr product manager role in July 16. I was in market looking actively for past 3 months and had interview with big companies like apple, microsoft etc (and manage to get job with one of the big companies ) but I have to say Amazon was worst interview ever. The guy who conducted my interview was very aggressive and was not even ready to listen to my answers and kept continuously interrupting. I kept feeling that it was interrogation rather than interview. When I was suggesting strategic solution and was giving some numeric figures to back by my answer he became even more aggressive and kept interrupting so much so that I could not even complete my answer. In the end when it was my turn to ask question he answered in 4 to 5 words. After a week when I requested feedback from HR no feedback was given to me and I was told that you will be more suitable for other parts of business. If interviewer was any indication of culture & team environment I am happy not be selected.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
What was challenging product you worked on
Why amazon video
Why PM
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 7 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Jul 2016
Interview
Two recruiter phone screens followed by a hiring team member phone screen. I was then invited to go onsite to Seattle to interview with the team. The week prior to the onsite interview, a recruiter called to prep me for the interview.
The on site hiring team was comprised of relatively new hires (< 3 years) at Amazon. In my opinion, they brought in over qualified and highly experienced (Senior Director level) product management professionals with a top 10 or top 15 MBA degree from other (non e-commerce) tech backgrounds to fill a relatively junior level position (Sr. Product Manager) at the Amazon Global Store
Walk me through your presentation to your VP on how you would launch a new car sharing service. Show me how you would structure your product's UX flow.