Want to work for one of the fastest-growing companies in the world?
Want to be a part of a world-renown name?
Unsure how to pass an Amazon interview?
I’ve worked at Amazon before. I was a trainer and a recruiter at Amazon. Now, as I coach and guide senior leaders on how they can prepare and land a job with other top-tier technology companies.
I share three tips based on my 20 years of experience to help you show up to the interview with confidence.
Are you ready to land your ideal role?
[Embed video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6r4cvr_CEo&t]
1. Know the Amazon 14 Leadership Principles
You must know the 14 leadership principles like the back of your hand. Amazon breathes those leadership principles, and you need to show that you have done your homework.
To name a few, here are some examples:
- Learn and be curious,
- Customer Obsession”
- Hire and Develop the Best
Understand and read up on the principles and list down some examples in your past jobs that show that you already have some of those principles embedded in you.
Since Amazon takes these principles pretty seriously, a candidate might have excellent technical skills, but they will most likely not be hired if they show no leadership skills.
2. Share Large-Scale Examples of your Achievements
In the interview, you will be asked to present three large-scale examples of your past achievements.
You should select three different areas where you handled a situation that led to massive achievements and present them to the interviewer. Your examples should be high-level and be relevant to the industry and role you would be applying for. It is important to have those situations well-thought-out so they can fit the question asked.
3. Structure your Behavioural Story with STAR method
For the behavioral questions you’ll be asked at the interview, you need to have your research done.
The questions could differ, but you would need to answer with an example from your past. Knowing the job description and job role well might give you an idea about those questions. For a product manager, those questions could be, “Give me an example of a time when you had to give direction to the development team.” For a recruiter, it might be, “Tell me about your most successful hire.”
To answer these questions, you would need to build a story around the event that took place. A well-known technique to use is the STAR Technique to structure your stories. Since you can be asked any number of questions, it is better to have a group of stories you can tailor according to the interviewer’s question.
More resources can be found on the internet on various platforms where people have written about their interview experiences, the questions they had trouble with, and what got some of them hired. As mentioned earlier, all the information is already present on the web.
My only concern is that I will only have just under 2 weeks to prepare for my next step interview however, I will entrench myself in Holly’s suggested guidance. Thank You Holly
Why are you going through with the interview if you’re not ready? It takes about 2 to 3 months to prep for any job interview with the top companies. I recommend a few months for those who don’t come from big tech companies and have had failed interviews. Amazon is not going anywhere 🙂