Amazon.com Interview Questions & Reviews in Lexington, KY Area

Interviewed Aug 2010 in Lexington, KY (took 2 months)

I was contacted via e-mail by an Amazon.com recruiter. I was already in the interview/hiring process with several other companies and agencies and decided to entertain the Amazon path as a secondary/tertiary option while completing a long federal hiring process. The process started with two separate phone interviews, one with a recruiter and the other with an operations manager at the site itself. The first interview with the recruiter had to be rescheduled once after I had arranged time off of work and awaited his call to no avail. He would later blame this mistake on me saying that I was supposed to call him, despite the fact that this had not been previously arranged and I wasn't provided with a number to call. All in all I felt the interview was positive and went really well. The second interview was initially scheduled with the facility GM. Like the first interview, I scheduled time away from work and no call came...not once, but on three occasions. Each time I would phone the contact I was given (basically a scheduling secretary), and explain to her that he hadn't called once again. She seemed genuinely shocked each time, and was quick to cover with a "something came up" kind of story. Before we go any further, it is safe to say that by this point I had serious reservations, specifically in regards to punctuality and professionalism. Granted, Amazon is not the military, although they admittedly recruit very heavily from the military, but this is simply not acceptable in the environment to which I am accustomed. After the third attempt with the GM, I was rescheduled with an operations manager. The interview with the operations manager went well enough. However, I was on speaker phone for the duration, and the interviewer was noticeably distracted. At one point I paused mid answer to ask him a question. The response I got was him practically gagging on food to answer my question. I was sure by this point that my disappointment and disinterest in the company was more than apparent in my tone of voice. It wasn't, probably due to the aforementioned distraction, and Amazon invited me out to the facility for a face to face. The on-site interview consisted of a math test, facility tour, and then two panel interviews. The math test was easy enough, although the instructions lacked specificity and left much to assumptions and implied tasks. I initially thought this was on purpose and was part of the test, but would later find out in the panel interviews that the vagueness was unintentional. The facility tour was the best part of the experience. The tour guide was an engineer who was intelligent and delightful, and perhaps the most remarkable employee I encountered at Amazon. The first panel interview was administered by two gentlemen who were completely unremarkable and I do not remember their positions. I noted that they were very uncomfortable fielding my questions regarding training and employee care. They were more interested in talking about reaching the goal (quota). Most of their questions for me were leadership vignettes. Their scenarios were a little awkward, unrealistic and plain wonky at times. Quite simply, for individuals so insistent on leadership themes...these men were not leaders. The last panel started with an HR individual who was later joined by the GM (his tardiness was not surprising considering our phone interview history). The HR gentlemen was very cordial and positive. However, sarcastic remarks here and there related to the company alluded to the possibility that his job satisfaction was not the highest. For example, I remarked in passing that the facility was "extremely efficient." He sarcastically replied, "yeah, it seems that way." When the GM finally joined, he naturally took over with the questions. His tone was condescending and he seemed to be grumpy (he did remark as he entered that he had to take care of something that required his immediate attention, so that was understandable). Most of his questions were also leadership-oriented. I was slightly uncomfortable with the tone and implications of his questions because he implied that the needs and satisfaction of the employees were a far second to the mission of meeting the daily quota. One of his questions referenced the issues of the employees that were "of little importance" in the grand scheme of meeting the goal. When I referenced his employees "trivial issues" and asserted that importance was oftentimes left to the mere perception of the employees, and that they were the very individuals allowing you to meet that goal, he seemed taken aback by my less than 100% endorsement of quota above all. The GM also told me that the Amazon job was a job that could "bring distinguished combat leaders and people with impressive resumes to their knees" and/or "make them hide in a corner."