Amazon Manager of Operations interview questions

Recruiter reaches out to you regarding interest and does initial interviews. A one page writing sample is requested prior to sending you onsite to one of the fulfillment centers where there is a tour followed by 4 individual interviews.

They send out a lot of information before the in person interview. They provide their unique list of leadership principles, that focus on inventiveness, accountability, customer service, ingenuity, leadership, creativeness, and having a backbone. Then they proceed to hold an interview completely counter intuitive of their principles. They buy into the rigid format of STAR interview responses that seem to go cross grain of the type of managers they are looking for. They give a ridiculous math test to see if you understand how to adjust manning levels and where to most effectively use manpower. All the meantime telling you it has nothing to do with the math. A high tech firm like Amazon relying on people to do long math? If you make it to this level of interview I am sure you understand the concepts of manpower. so basically I surmise that Amazon high management attrition rate is due to the interview process and who they hire. People who are slick in interviews is usually because they have interviewed a lot and have practice at it. Do you want someone who interviews well or people who meet your leadership principles. Canned questions with responses graded on required formatted responses probably wont get you cutting edge leaders who think outside the box and have excelled due to thinking outside the structured format. The interview process was off setting to me and not what I expected from Amazon, and their reputation. I walked in, interviewing Amazon as much as they were interviewing me, I walked away unimpressed, knowing it was not a fit for me.