Amazon's interview is intense and involved, which isn't anything anyone here hasn't said. You take from it what you want.
I admired the detail and extent of their process, which I'll describe below. But, I was severely disappointed with one 'bar raiser' who seemed outright 'the bad cop' and explained to me prior to her partner joining the call that she (an individual contributor) was running the interview, was a bar raiser, and her partner (a highly experienced manager) was there to learn from her. When her partner joined, he was obviously the more experienced employee - not just in work years, but in employee engagement and interpersonal skills. He directed the interview, helping me to navigate his partner's snarky comments and brusque attitude. I appreciated his involvement, but she absolutely threw me off my game. I almost stopped the interview 10 minutes in to say that it was obvious that I was not going to move forward. I had 8 interviewers just in that phase, and I let her attitude knock me off my game.
Ok, long-winded, but here was the process:
1. Applied to the job online on the Amazon job board and was contacted for that particular job by a recruiter within three weeks.
2. I interacted with about three separate intake recruiters of different levels to schedule my first interview.
3. My first interview was with the hiring manager, who was friendly, appropriately inquisitive and did a thorough job explaining the position.
4. I met with the recruiter again, who prepped me to meet another manager - a stakeholder with whom the position would work.
5. I met with this stakeholder, who asked me job fit questions. He also made me feel very comfortable and I seemed to get his approval.
6. I met with another recruiter via video, who was amazing - she was down-to-earth, welcoming and very informative. She helped me understand the panel process, which was the next step.
7. I was given a writing assignment. Amazon is big on writing up proposals. I did this, and as an English major with over 20 years of work experience, I was pretty proud of my work.
8. The panel process, to which I refer to above. It was hours long, but with enough space in between to regroup myself. My first session was with the director of the group. She asked some job fit questions, but no experience or theoretical questions. It was a nice way to begin the day. Very pleasant, professional and laid back. My second panel interview had two interviewers and I answered behavior-based questions, focusing on SMART stories. They were fairly easy. My third panel interview was with the two employees referenced above; this is where I became very nervous and put off - I'm not sure if this is by design to see people under pressure - if so, Kudos, Amazon. But, we are already under enough pressure due to the intricate process and all day panels. Fourth, Fifth and Six sessions all had one interviewer, all with 'bar raisers'. They were absolutely wonderful and asked follow up questions to help me extract a full SMART. However, I was already feeling beaten down and pretty sure I wasn't getting the job. I flubbed these ones.
One thing I was disappointed with was that many of the questions were very similar but I was asked to make sure I wasn't repeating any of my work examples. This was extremely difficult.
Although I have plenty of experience, and I had practiced over 30 different SMART stories, I had focused too much on making sure I prepared wildly different SMART stories for any questions. I would suggest developing several SMART stories that could fit the same question, so that you aren't repeating the same one.
I will note that while I didn't get an offer specifically for that role, I was told to apply to others because I was a good fit for Amazon, just not that role. I consider that a win! I'm not sure if I will apply though, because if that one conceited employee is a 'bar raiser', then I am afraid the balance between results and relationships is off for me.
