I applied through a recruiter. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Aug 2021
Interview
From start to finish, my interview experience took about a month.
1. An Amazon recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn and we exchanged basic information over LinkedIn, followed by email. I was then sent 2 assessments that took me about an hour to complete.
2. I found out 1-2 days later that I passed and was moving on to a 1 hour phone screening. I completed that. I was informed in another 1-2 days I would be moving forward in the interview process.
3. I was emailed numerous links that shared tips for interviewing with Amazon. Suggestions included studying the core principles, reading a letter to shareholders written by Jeff Bezos, getting familiar with the STAR method of interviewing, etc. The HR team coordinated 5 hours of 5 back-to-back virtual interviews for me about a week or two in advance, an additional 1/2 hour phone interview the week prior to that in order to prep me more for that set of interviews, and I also opted for an optional 1/2 hour phone interview with a person from an affinity group within the company.
4. I was informed 6 days after my last interviews that they pursued another candidate.
The process, in total, took me over 8 hours of work, and it was a disappointment to have been encouraged to apply by a recruiter and gone through as many steps as I did to end up getting the no. Additionally, Amazon has a company policy of not providing interview feedback, so I'm not sure what I could have done better other than a few guesses I have based on my interviews.
The people I interviewed with generally seemed great, so nothing against them at all - but I've interviewed with several big tech companies (including the one I currently work at), and it was never nearly as intensive as this process. I have to think that there is a way to simplify it and still attract strong talent.
I applied online. The process took 3 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Santa Monica, CA) in Oct 2021
Interview
I had an initial test project (KPIs/Reporting/Metrics) followed by a 1 hour interview with a manager. The phone interview was structured and answers were in STAR format. I was moved on to a full loop of 5 individual 1 hour interviews. Key: Provide numbers and data with all of your answers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Can you tell me about a time where you were faced with an unhappy customer/client? How did you handle the situation? What was the outcome?