My process began with a friend reaching out to me to let me know that Amazon was ramping up their hiring and he would be able to get my resume in front of a manager via Amazon’s candidate referral program. I was then contacted by an HR rep requesting a time for a phone screen for a Senior Vendor Manager position. That was followed a few days later by a phone screen with what would be my manager. She began by introducing herself and telling me about the position. After that, she asked about my background and details on my resume. Finally, she asked two or three what-would-you-do-in-this-situation questions pertaining directly to inventory management. In the end, she said she loved my resume and my responses to her questions but, that I didn’t look like an exact fit for the position. She then explained that I would be a good fit for another position that she had open and asked if I would be interested in a Senior In-stock Manager position. I asked a few questions about the position and then decided that I would love to be a candidate for the In-stock position. The entire conversation lasted about 40 minutes.
Within 48 hours I received another email from the HR rep to ask me for a second phone screen. This phone screen was with a team member (I believe she was a Sr. Vendor Mgr). She basically asked questions very similar to the first interview but, was looking for a little more depth and thought to the answers. This call lasted only about 30 minutes.
Within 24 hours I was contacted by the HR rep once again informing me that Amazon would like to fly me out to Seattle for a day of interviews. I happily accepted. One thing I’d like to note here: DO NOT WEAR A SUIT! Amazon is a very casual environment and being in a suit will seem out-of-place. I wore dress shoes, slacks and a buttoned up shirt that was tucked-in (essentially, business casual without a tie). When I arrived at the campus, I was greeted by my first interviewer who would also be my manager (and, as luck would have it, she was an alumnus of my alma mater). As we began speaking about the position I had to stop her. I was a little confused by her team description as I thought I was interviewing for a position with a different group. She then explained that the position I was originally interviewing for was filled and that now I’d be interviewing for a position on her team (it was the same position but, with a different group—this was now the third position I was interviewing for with Amazon in this process). Apparently, Amazon was really in a personnel ramp-up and was moving so quickly that they neglected to notify me that I had been moved to another group. I had six interviews that day and one meeting with the HR rep. The interviews were similar in many ways—all asked a variety of behavioral questions—but, were also very different from one another. One gentleman had me do calculations in which I actually needed a pen, pad and the use of my phone calculator (I asked first to make sure that he wasn’t looking for me to come up with the answers in my head). Another guy asked me one of those critical thinking-type questions that are designed to demonstrate your problem-solving skills (I’ll post this question along with a few others in the questions section below). A third gentleman took me to lunch in one of the campus cafeterias and the interview continued (I was barely able to eat my lunch as I was asking or being asked questions during the duration). The day ended with the bar-raiser. I had a good experience with this as I was prepared for it. Essentially, Amazon incorporates what they call the bar-raiser into your round of interviews. It’s a person from a different team that comes in to push your thought process a little further than the other interviews. He definitely focused on two things: behavior questions (how I’ve actually handled situations in the past) and situational questions (how I would handle specific situations in the future). All-in-all it was an exhausting but informing process. I left Amazon feeling very good about my answers and really excited about the possibility of working there.
A week later I received a call from the HR rep presenting me with a job offer. I was given only 48 hours to make a decision. It was explained to me that this was the typical procedure currently used at Amazon since they were hiring so many folks they needed quick turn-around times on candidates.
