I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Aug 2009
Interview
I would like to give Amazon the benefit of the doubt in that their recruiters are overwhelmed and may not have the support they need. That being said, I was contacted by a recruiter to do a phone interview with the hiring manager after I was submitted as an employee referral. That conversation went well (tell me about a time when type questions) and the hiring manager said that he'd want the other department manager to talk with me. I followed up with the recruiter to set this up and she sent me a completely different job description that was for an entry level role (vs. the 10-15 years experience role I'd been discussing). I responded that I felt I might be overqualified. She didn't respond to that but then asked me to come out to Seattle for an interview. We made the plans but it wasn't until a few days prior that I actually found out which role I was interviewing for.
Once in Seattle, I was set up with 6 interviews. The first was over lunch and it was definitely an interview - not casual conversation. The rest were in a room where I sat and they rotated in to ask questions. The questions were "tell me about a time when" as well as case type questions regarding Amazon services and decision making thought process. I felt 4 went well and 2 were not as good. Afterward it took two weeks to get a response from HR. They said that they didn't have negative feedback but went with another candidate and we'd work on finding a different role. Then they became nearly impossible to contact.
My impression - they are short staffed, disorganized and possibly too decentralized to streamline their hiring process.
Advice - understand, be prepared to answer questions on and have your own questions prepared regarding their services from search to the checkout process. Ask questions as you're answering regarding their own policies and culture of guest service. In one example, I suggested that looking at margin would be a good way to help determine which customers see certain deals. I was told that that IS NOT part of Amazon's Customer Service culture...and they're right. I should have asked clarifying questions.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Explain the pros and cons of the Amazon Prime shipping program.
Screening call with recruiter, followed by 3 back-to-back interview loops. Interviews focused primarily on behavioral questions tied to Amazon Leadership Principles, along with an Excel assessment testing analytical and data manipulation skills.
The process was well-structured and followed Amazon’s typical interview format:
1. Recruiter Screening
* Initial discussion about experience, role scope, and expectations
* Basic behavioral and background questions
2. Hiring Manager Interview
* Focus on past experience, business impact, and ownership
* Mix of behavioral and situational questions
3. Interview Loop (3–5 interviews)
* Multiple interviewers covering different Amazon Leadership Principles
* Included a Bar Raiser interview
* Heavy focus on:
* Decision-making
* Trade-offs
* Metrics and impact
* Depth of ownership
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Useless leadership principles framed in behavioral question. Tell me about a time when
You start with an online assessment, which is relatively easy. Then a recruiter reaches out to you if you pass and will ask standard hiring questions. After which, you will then have a phone screen interview and if you pass, you do an interview loop with 5 people. Which is insane for a role that does not pay 100K annually. They also make you go prepare 12-20 STAR stories that you should pretty much memorize.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time you invented a process to make things simpler