Amazon Senior Manager interview questions

A single day for the interview with five 45 minute interviews each with a single person. The people were a mix of peers and higher levels. One interview was with the 'bar raiser.' If you don't know what the bar raiser is, then Google it. There was also a 45 minute presentation. My #1 tip: Prepare one or two examples of a Situation Task Action Response (STAR) for each of the Amazon Leadership Principles. This is the #1 thing you can do to prepare for an Amazon interview. If you don't do this, you will struggle in the interview.

Two phone screens, five hour onsite with eight different employees including hiring manager, peers and others outside the team. 95% of interactions were based on computer-generated questions that are meant to gather data on your alignment with company leadership principals. 5% actual human interaction, which is not factored into decision. Interview process is cold and robotic, as you are carefully recounting stories in a dry, repetitive format, while the interviewer feverishly attempts to write down every word you say. This is the case for both phone screens and in-person interviews, which is even more strange and uncomfortable. Two to four page writing sample based on the same bank of leadership principal questions is required to be submitted two days prior to onsite interview. Received coaching from former Amazon employee, did extensive research, including preparing six pages of case studies and career vignettes. Made it to onsite interview, and felt that the interviews went very well (considering the extremely dry and impersonal format) and that I gave strong answers to each question. Was notified by email the next morning after the onsite that the hiring manager was going to "pursue other candidates." No additional feedback was provided and recruiter blew off scheduled follow up call. Putting aside the feeling of rejection that naturally comes with not getting the job, I ultimately came away from this experience turned off by the culture and process. After a few days I felt relieved that I would not have to address the many concerns this process raised for me, including work/life balance, "fast-walking" everywhere and a generally high-pressure culture. In this next career move my goals is to accomplish great things with fun, passionate people who are smarter than me and that I can learn from. I did not get that impression from the people I met with.