I made it to final loop stage at Amazon where I have to meet 5 people. Is it seriously 5 1 hr interviews and I need prepare 20 stories? Is it a strike if I use the same project experience but different applied leadership principles ? Do I need a different project/experience for each story? Im kind of shocked people are really willing to do this many interviews.
How do you deal with the feeling that your entire professional output is meaningless? I’m watching my company ignore every single one of my user-centric findings. They pay me to conduct deep-dive interviews and usability tests, but at the end of the day, the CEO just goes with whatever gut feeling he had. It’s soul-crushing.
I know of an employer that employs asian females almost exclusively in their production area. The job is mostly soldering through hole components. The pay isn't very high. There are about 40 people working in that production area and it's 95% asian females. The odd part is there are two leads and a supervisor in that area and they are all white. It really seems like race based hiring practices.
My company strongly encourages us to use copilot for coding. I have two “vibe coders” in my team. Sometimes they do funny things (like writing a separate java class with getters for two constants, complete with a test class - all AI generated and absolute BS), but most days, it’s taking a toll on the rest of us. The most annoying part is that the management praises the “creative duo” while we struggle, trying to put out their fires and keep the code quality decent.
That’s lot of work for a job at Amazon
I had 5 1hr, the two 1 hr before and a technical assessment. This has to be a 6 or 7 your interviewing for so they expect you've done enough to not repeat projects. I can tell you they cross check and they brought it up to me that I had even though I used the same job it was alright had the use cases I talked about were unique
AMZN uses the STAR method for interviews which I am sure recruiting made you aware of for the process. When someone asks me how to interview at AMZ, I tell them to search the web for top 25 STAR interview questions and they will be "Tell me a time when...." Based on the questions, prep stories for each and avoid using a story more than twice, regardless of interviewer response because interviewers look for depth and breadth in candidates. If you repeat too much, this can be called out for lack of depth/breadth. For each of your stories, identify the LPs that are applicable. In your STAR response, think of how you can inject the LP idea into the response...e.g. X issue arose and I took ownership of the problem to resolution, focusing on the best out come for customer. (Ownership, Dive Deep, and Customer Obsession).
Do they still do the thing where the interviewer types a running log of everything you say and do? Each time I interviewed with them in person they did this, and it was EXTREMELY annoying. They also *every time* did not pass dietary restrictions on to the lunchtime interviewer.
I interview a lot, A LOT, cause I've had to learn how to mask my autism in the right way to get hired, and out of hundreds of interviews, this is a super common practice, especially for senior roles. I often find myself curiously looped in with VP and CTO interviews, and my guess is I'm often pushing the top end of their payscales. I'm also interviewing for Principle/Architect roles, fwiw. The saying goes, "Google is good at hiring; Amazon is good at firing." Google has tougher CS requirements that allows for less interviews, with a much higher barrier of entry. Amazon has easier CS requirements and takes more risk on tech background so long as your soft skills are absolutely killer. Since they take more risk, they are more aggressively setting performance benchmarks. I think that's a completely fair trade-off, IMHO. If a company is investing 200k+/yr, and the potential you aren't a good fit is even more expensive, I really don't see the huge gripe about asking a candidate to invest 6-8 hrs. If you need minimal prep, then it's not a huge ask. If you need tons of prep, you're probably interviewing for a huge opportunity in your career journey. If that's the case, then the prep time investment is completely worth it in every way. I came from working retail customer service before falling into tech and excelling because of my work ethic. Because of that, I've noticed how tech really uses baby gloves with folks. I am appalled at how spoiled I've become while in tech, and the interview process is often where that pops up most often; for me at least. That's just my perspective; am I off by thinking those things? Happy to have folks check my math on this one.
Im not in a CS role and the TC is not even close to 200k so I would say unfortunately you're very off base and the math does not check out. My background is in no way spoiled or entitled. I have been paid as little as $6.50/hr to make sandwiches at subway. My time is valuable to me. I was not complaining, I was asking if this is always the case for all roles to set my expectations appropriately. I was surprised a lower TC role would require so much time investment.
It’s a tough experience. I didn’t get in despite having numerous examples in numerous scenarios. If you don’t get through they even have a policy not to give feedback. I personally wouldn’t put myself through it again. I think I had 5x45 mins from recollection. Plus the recruiter/1st round before that.
Agreed. Its a trend all tech companies are following. So will be a good practice. I understand it's a little frustrating if u don't get through but yiu can reuse with other companies and don't have to prep again
Totally ok to use the same stories. I just told my interviewer “I already used this example is it ok if I repeat” twice and both times interviewers were like of course. I think 10-12 stories is good. Good luck you got this!! Today is my first day at Amazon:)
#day1 welcome
You should prepare one to two stories for 10 of the LPs
This- also my recruiter met with me for 30 min and specifically pointed out values to focus on and told me to prepare 2 stories for each. I was asked similar questions and used the same project for discussion. It got quite repetitive.
You can use the same project but different stories for different LPs (more than likely that your 1 story has STRONG elements of 2-3 LPs and that’s ok, but ensure you have 2 stories for such overlapping LPs). They are scheduled for 1 hr but typically, 15 mins is for you to be able to ask questions, discuss next steps etc.
Thanks Microsft, this was really helpful. I have some very large projects I worked that have multiple LPs but wasn't sure I could use the same projects so this definitely helps me not over think things.
Isn’t it 45 min each? And no I didn’t prepare 20 stories. I had 9.
I had 32 stories.
You can use the same stories with different points to fit the senerio. It's best if you start with..." the example I can think of that fits best is the time I worked on project X. I used this project with the other person but let me give you the points to answer your question..." You can use the same project 1 or 2 times highlighting different data points. I would not recommend using it more the 2 times. It happens all the time.
But why are you leaving Indeed for Amazon? Is it just TC?
Yeah Amazon isn’t known for their amazing managers. There are some don’t get me wrong! But it is very well known for not being emotionally intelligent. High expectations, high demand, lots of work, but you are usually compensated well. Best thing I learned was that Amazon is either the best or worst place to work depending on your work style and your manager/ team. Definitely interview them as well to learn what you need to make a good decision for you!
You can absolutely use the same STAR stories. DM if you want to chat more about what works
I just finished mine. 3 took the full hour and the others were about 45 minutes long. I prepared a good 25 stories or so, but I did repeat a few examples here and there for different LPs
They called me later that day!
I had 5 interviews in a row for my loop and prepped at least one story for each leadership principle. Best of luck.
I had the same a couple weeks for 2 roles combined. 3 points for you: - 12-15 stories should be enough - It’s absolutely okay to use the same in a different context for a different leadership principle - I was able to portray only 8 stories and got an offer
I also went through this ridiculous process last year. Yes, you have 5 1 hr interviews. I was given the option to break them up into 2 days. It was repetitive and meant to see if you answer the same way each time. They will share notes on your stories. I was advised to let an interviewer know when you were repeating or even say “I’ve used this example a few times so let me try another.” So on and so on. It’s not worth giving up your quality of life for Amazon. Really. There are plenty of other options now in this market. Find a company with former Amazon. That’s way more of an opportunity for you than actual Amazon.
Pretty straightforward. Find a company with former Amazon employees if you’re looking to work with that caliber of peer. LOL.
Pick 2 or 3 stories and be able to dive deep into them based on the question. Recommend selecting at least one of them to be about a complex situation which required you to do some real critical and creative thinking whether you accomplished your goal or not. If you didn’t accomplish your goal then be ready to provide the lesson learned from that situation.
I'm prepping for my virtual on-site as well and had the same question! The recruiter gave me a link to weekly meetings that you can go to an ask the hiring managers questions about the interview. I was told to go to those meetings to get an idea on what leadership principles to prepare for to help narrow down on the examples. To answer your question re: using the same answer, don't. There's a good youtuber who was an Amazon bar-raiser for 15 years or something and she covers topics like this. Check her channel out: Amazon Interview Whizz. Those interview prep meetings happen twice a week and the hiring managers cover what they're looking for. My group has them Tuesday and Thursday near end of day. Good luck!
I know a few people who've gone to Amazon and left shortly thereafter due to the culture being... less than great. It's also the only phone interview I've ever had where I immediately knew that I'd never want to meet the interviewer in person. I suppose this could get me started on a rant about everything wrong with Jeff Bezos and Amazon as a company, leading to a debate on whether or not the good of their buying convenience outweighs the bad of their work practices, but this isn't really the place. In summary, I'm shocked people are willing to do that many interviews as well, and for many people, the potential benefits don't outweigh the costs.
I agree it is exceedingly difficult to have that many solid examples and not overlap. Do your best. If you need to use a prior example give details you didn’t in an earlier interview.
I’m sorry for you loss. Of time. Getting Little out of hand.