I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Amazon (Detroit, MI)
Interview
You will be given lots of behavior based leadership questions . The problem is the interviewers are engineers who interview manager for leadership. This does not make any sense as they need to grow themselves first.
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Bengaluru) in May 2014
Interview
Amazon approached through a consulting recruiter, who found my CV on one of the job portals. In my case, it moved forward very quickly - a HR person from Amazon called me and described the team. Then the director of the department (who was in Seattle) talked to me in detail about what the team does and explain the interview process. The HR also forwarded some material about Amazon values and what are the expectations from a SDM, etc.
After the discussion with the Director, there were 2 telephonic rounds - one with an Engineer and one with a SDM. Throughout the process, the HR contacts were extremely helpful and did proper follow-ups. I guess I blew the 2nd round with the SDM. Although, I did get a feeling that the SDM had not reviewed my CV and after 15 mins I had to point out that I have never worked on the things he was asking about and I am just trying to build from first principles. He could not change the track, however and the call abruptly ended. I knew that this was the end :).
The HR reverted within a day with the rejection news. I am thankful for the quick turnaround.
I applied through other source. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon (Hyderabad) in Mar 2014
Interview
Communication:
They contacted me through linkedin.
Interview process:
First round was telephonic with the hiring manager.He asked on why I was looking for change. He also asked some high level design based questions. At this stage , I was not told about the expectation from the open position, which later caused good amount of discomfort .
Then I was called to have face to face interview. Five rounds were conducted in 3 different buildings spaced almost 10 kilometers apart and I was expected to rush to each building . This shows how Amazon's team work in silo with absolutely zero coordination. It also shows how they treat/going to treat their prospective employees. Interviews were okay'ish in terms of difficulty with often the interviewers not sure what they were looking for from a candidate(this position was purely a people management job).
I understood one thing is at the very least , Amazon wants to grow aggressively in India,but in an very unorganized fashion with no "vision statement" .
Post interview communication :
None. I knew I was not going to make it in the penultimate round as the expectation from the job was not matching my expectation from the new role. But to say the least , the recruiting team should have been a bit more considerate to inform a "no" to me.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The reasons you are citing for leaving your existing job could be easily mitigated. So why leaving your job ?