I applied online. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Toronto, ON) in Mar 2015
Interview
Applied online and got a general screening call from HR about my background, etc. The next stage was a phone interview with someone in their Seattle office in a similar role. Finally, I was brought in for an in-person sales loop, which is a full day's worth of 1-on-1 nterviews with 5-6 different people.
I read pretty much every single interview description on this site and it helped a lot. I suggest you do the same and don't take their interview process lightly. They're very intense about their process!
A lot of the questions asked throughout the interview process were 'situational' questions (ie. Tell me about a time...). And by a lot, I mean every interview except for the general HR phone screening consisted of these questions. During the in-person sales loop, I'm pretty sure I was asked the same question by every single person. It definitely helps to review the jobs description and have examples ready of when you did similar things. Also, study Amazon's list of core value/principles. You'll be asked situational questions based on those as well.
The entire process is long and tiring but I guess they just want to be thorough. Everyone I met with was pleasant and nice except for the VP from Amazon HQ. He was brash and a bit of an imbecile.
If you make it to the interview loop, HR will tell you that the 5-6 people you'll meet will act as a panel and each of them will vote on whether or not you're a good fit for the company. They'll stress that each person has an equal vote and their position doesn't hold any additional weight on their vote. This is completely inaccurate as the moment I started my interview with the VP (the one I mentioned earlier), he made a point to say: "i'm the lead hiring manager for the day". Well him and I obviously did not click, which would explain why I most likely didn't get the role. If I was offered the role, I probably wouldn't have accepted it due to the fact that i'd have to report in to him.
HR tells you at the beginning of the process that if you don't get the role, they're unable to provide any feedback as to why. I knew this going in, but after investing 8+ hours interviewing (one of which included me taking a vacation day from my existing job) it's still kind of frustrating to not even get a simple explanation (literally just a phone call saying you didn't get the role, thanks for your time, bye.)
I've heard mixed reviews about the company but I hear they pay well. I feel that their interview process is a bit too intense for a company that's barely in the top 30 of Fortune 500 companies. I'd expect a similar process for big tech companies like Google or Facebook, but not from a company with the 2nd highest turnover rate out of all Fortune 500 companies.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Mar 2016
Interview
One phone interview, then one in-person full day interview. aka 'the loop'. The loop involved 6 one on one in person interviews then presentation role play. You are presenting an AWS solution to the C-level members. You will need to learn AWS in order to present. During presentation role play they will distract you and ask you questions you can't possibly know to see how you react, to see if they can throw you off and how you deal with different roles. All interviewers then get together in a day or two to discuss and debate whether or not they think you would be a good fit and why or why not. One of the interviewers are known as a 'Bar Raiser'. They can completely override everyone's vote. During the process, no one can provide feedback on how you are doing because it is a group decision. It is a very lengthy day. Lunch was provided. You eat while you are being interviewed.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions are all behavioral 'tell me about a time when'...the questions are driven from the leadership principals. Lots of questions about 'why AWS'. Many questions about how you created change in your past organizations and how those have translated into results. Many questions about how you have helped others on your team.
The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Paris)
Interview
Before talking about my experience these are the key things to know in my opinion:
1) Give quantitative figures about past achievements
2) Be synthetic and concise about past experience always giving context ; ALWAYS ANSWER WITH THE STAR METHORD (Situation, Task, Action, Result)
3) Know the 14 leadership principles and link them with your experiences
4) This a behavioural interview scheme: "give me a time when..." or "give me a situation when..." so know your experiences thoroughly !!
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Met someone at university company forum who thought I was a good fit and directly put my CV in the internal database.
Was then sent an email telling me that I was selected to attend the interview process which was the following:
- 1st interview: Manager; ~1 hour
Received an email with a case study (selling the marketplace to a potential customer)
Had the call which lasted for about an hour: 40min motivation and 20min selling, I had TWO case studies in the end although only ONE was announced (had to explain why an account was seeing a major drop in sales, the idea was to find the important factors affecting the drop - stock, price, delivery time etc)
After that I was invited to the Amazon HQ in France for the 4 final interviews:
-2nd Interview: Manager ; ~1 hour
With a person who could become my manager: she looked at my fit with the job, asked about previous objectives I had surpassed, questionned my general understanding of the job, tested the ownership I had with my past projects etc. and then asked me some questions about a product page for about 10 min (how many suppliers, is the product shown the one of with the lowest price...)
-3rd Interview: HR ; ~1 hour
This was the only interview without a case study but the behavioural questions were very hard (see questions below) ; all Amazon interviews focus on the 14 leadership principles and this one might be the most important ; only one interviewer because the other one was on vacation
-4th Interview: Analytical Skills w/ Analytical Manager; ~1 hour
Was asked again my motivations for the job and then focused on a time where I had a very challenging analytical problem, looks at my appetite for problem solving and attention to detail ; then conceptual case studies - similar to what I experience in consulting - asking me if I should always allow free delivery and what is the next $1B idea Jeff Bezos should implement
-5th Interview: Selling Skills w/ Pure Sales person; ~1 hour
Asked again about my motivation for the job and then jumped into a case study which I was asked to prepare by email
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a time when you needed people to achieve an objective but these people did not want to help you