2. Phone Screen
Like any standard phone screen, the recruiter will assess your interest in and fit for the role. They will also ask basic questions about your background, such as:
What experience do you have managing teams?
They may also ask about salary expectations. Our advice is to defer this conversation to the end — read our guide on salary negotiation for the right language to use.
3. Video Interviews
If you pass the phone screen, you’ll be invited to do subsequent video screens. These may involve a hiring manager or a peer of the same level as your role, who will ask more in-depth questions about your resume, as well as behavior-based questions, such as:
Tell me about a time you failed and how you handled it.
For a software engineering role, be prepared to answer technical questions about algorithms, data structures and coding. Have a notebook, pen and laptop ready as you may be required to code on the fly.
For a product manager role, expect to work on a case and answer strategy questions.
This specialization applies to other roles too. Operations roles usually involve a deeper discussion of your resume. Designers should expect to go through your portfolio.
Depending on the role, you may be asked to provide or discuss examples of past work. If possible, hyperlink these samples in your resume (if you code, make sure your GitHub portfolio is ready for prime time).
4. Onsite interviews
Amazon’s onsite interviews are known as a “Loop” where you spend an entire day with 4-6 current staffers at its Seattle headquarters. Due to current COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, all interviews are being conducted virtually. Your interviewers may comprise senior members on your team, a prospective teammate, someone from the hiring team, and what’s called a “bar raiser.”
A bar raiser is an Amazon employee trained to be an interview expert. They serve as an objective mediator for hiring decisions outside their department to ensure a fair decision-making process. Their job is to determine whether or not you would “raise the bar” on performance or simply perpetuate the status quo -- a concept borrowed from Microsoft’s hiring methods.
