I applied online. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Oct 2012
Interview
This is the most interesting interviewing process that I had with any company.
This is the email I sent to the HR person
Thank you for the email. I do know that Amazon does not give any explanation on what really happened. There is no room to learn and give myself an opportunity to be successful.
Interestingly, this is my third interview (for 3 different Product Managers) with Amazon and I frankly do not understand what Amazon is looking for. If I am not a worthy candidate, why do I keep on getting interviews. If I do not have the skills needed, I would not get past 3 1st round interviews. Most of the places I get my interviews and jobs, it is not this weird and different. Am not sure if it is worth trying for any more jobs at Amazon in the future.
Have an MSEE and a MBA from reputed universities, have enough experience to play a good role in the Kindle group or Digital teams, but I guess that is not enough.
Amazon may be one of the best companies in the world, but I do not want to torture myself or put myself through unsuccessful attempts and interesting scenarios by the recruiting teams and hiring managers anymore.
I went above and beyond trying to get in touch with you calling from Europe
(even after there was a mess up at your end). I was talking to the teams in Seattle at 12am/1am at my end to accommodate your schedules for making it to the group interviews.
You do realize that there are a of lot of people in my situation and I hope this does not act negatively for Amazon in the long run. I would like to request you to take me off the list in the future job opportunities at Amazon. I am sure my skill sets are taken into consideration more at a different place.
Please forward this to the upper management if needed.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a decision that did not work in your favor and how did you respond to it.
I applied online. The process took 2 months. I interviewed at Amazon in Aug 2012
Interview
I applied online end of July and got an email to schedule a phone interview 15 days later. I had a 45 minutes phone interview with a person of the team. That went well, 10 days later I was asked to schedule another phone interview with an HR person.
After that, I got an email saying they were willing to go further and schedule a whole day of interview. This day was planned for end of september.
I had 5 interviews (including an HR person) from 10 am to 4 pm (with a break at 1 pm, alone), and an Excel test.
All the interview questions were behavioural questions, as written below.
The Excel test aims at using some basic functions as vlookup or pivot tables, and be a bit strategic (nothing difficult).
The interviews lasted about 45 minutes, a bit more for the Excel test.
I really had no fit with the people I met, everybody seemed very stressed and under pressure. Nobody asks about who you really are (hobbies, choices in your career), recruitement is based on your abilities to answer behavioural questions with details and numbers.
After 3 on site interviews I had no motivation and interest left, so I think I performed badly during the 2 other meetings. That explains why I did not have any offer. I have no regret as the atmostphere of the company did not seduce me at all.
The HR staff told me I would have an answer after 1 week but they called me 3 weeks after only to give me the result of my interviews and explain (with details) why it did not work.
Apart from that the whole process was very professional.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
- Describe a time when you had to quickly make a decision
- Can You Describe a Time When Your Work Was Criticized and How Did You Handle It?
- Tell me about a challenge on a project you faced, how you dealt with it, what was your role, and what was the outcome
- Tell me about the most successful project you've done
- Tell me about a time when you have been innovative: How?
- Tell me about the most complex analysis you have worked on
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Sep 2012
Interview
Did a phone interview. Questions were very specific to the position and pertained to the Japanese Toyota Production System. Interviewer was very bland and hard to engage in conversation. Questions asked pertained to Takt time and What is andon. You either know this question or you do not. Overall interview was okay but not great.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
When I commented on a continuous improvement style used at my current company, the interviewer ask in a defensive way why I thought it was better than the way they did it at Amazon. That is not what I said at all.