I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Amazon (Allentown, PA) in Jul 2012
Interview
Easiest interview I ever had. The difficult part was getting someone from the company to talk to, my friend worked there and got me the email of an HR rep. I knew they were hiring because they were telling their employees to get good people to come in. It took me 2 weeks of 2 emails a day to finally get a call in.
I was interviewed in a group of about 10-20 people, and be prepared because they will make you stand just inside the door for about a half hour first (I think this is a test to see if you can put up with their B.S.) I was in the warehouse for about 1.5 hrs and 95% of that time was just sitting around.
They called me into a room to "interview" me. Easiest interview ever, even easier than my interview to work for the ma and pop pizza shop up the street when I was in high school. They asked me 5 questions, which were printed out on a piece of paper. I stole one off a table and read the questions before the interview. Questions are designed to weed out only the mentally challenged and anyone illiterate. "Name a time you were creative at work" - only question I remember but they were all a piece of cake.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
It was difficult to sit there for an hour and a half. It was also difficult to get in touch with anyone in the HR office (a problem I found for amzn workers as well as perspective workers)
1. Apply Online
You apply through Amazon’s hiring site
Pick your shift + location
Takes like 15–20 minutes
🔹 2. Online Assessment (sometimes required)
Called a Work Style Assessment
Takes ~30–50 minutes
Tests:
Work ethic
Teamwork
Decision-making
👉 This is usually the “hardest” part for warehouse roles.
🔹 3. Pre-hire Appointment / Hiring Event
This is where most people get confused—it’s not really an interview.
You usually:
Go in person (or virtual appointment)
Verify your identity (bring ID)
Take a drug test
Get your photo + badge setup
👉 Many candidates say it’s fast and easy, sometimes hired on the spot
🔹 4. (Optional) Short Interview or Questions
Some locations may ask a few basic questions like:
“Why do you want to work at Amazon?”
“Can you handle physical work?”
“Tell me about teamwork or working under pressure”
👉 Nothing crazy—no technical or deep questions.
🔹 5. Background Check + Offer
Background check runs
You usually hear back in a few days to a week
Some people get offers same day or within 1–2 days
🔹 6. Day 1 (Orientation)
Go to warehouse
Training + safety instructions
Start working right away
⚡ Reality (what most people experience)
Very fast process (sometimes under 1 week)
Very low-pressure
Often no real interview at all
More about:
Showing up
Passing checks
Being available for shifts
🔑 What Amazon actually cares about
Even for warehouse roles, they look for:
Reliability (show up on time)
Work ethic
Ability to handle physical work
Basic teamwork
I applied to work at the distribution warehouse, and the interview process was really easy. I had just applied online and set up my prehire appointment right away. As long as you pass a drug test and background check, as well as have everything in check with your documents to work, you most likely will be guaranteed a position here.
Smooth and fast. I really like how the process went, quick and simple drug test and that was it. Nice recruiter too, she was awesome. One of my favorite interviews
