I applied through a recruiter. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Sep 2017
Interview
I was initially contacted by a recruiter via email saying I seem like a good candidate based on my experience, etc. and they wanted to chat for a few minutes. We set up the initial phone screen and went over the position details. There were a few different positions the recruiter wanted to consider me for. They were all Lead EA positions. Fast forward a couple of weeks, I had several phone interviews. They were all with current Amazon EA's. One of the EA's didn't think I was a good "fit" for one of the positions. All of the other EA's seemed to like me and they invited me to an all-day onsite in Seattle. They contacted me with the travel details and I flew out to Seattle. My interviews started at 8:15am and ended around 3pm. VERY LONG DAY.... I was taken to lunch by one of the EA's and then brought back for more interviews. They were back to back, non-stop interviews. Everyone was very nice. I met with an HR Director, a VP that I would potentially support, and the rest were current EA's (except for my recruiter who I met with at the end of the day). I think overall the interview process is a little extreme. I am an experienced EA (over 15 years) and I work for a very large, worldwide top automotive company.... with that being said, the recruiter was supposed to contact me a few days later and let me know my interview results. Of course, that did not happen. I had to reach out to her to see what was going on. I called and left her a message and also emailed her - very unprofessional! Finally, she called me. She said at this time they are not going to make me an offer and she could not give me an exact reason why. She stated that overall, my interview went well but the team doesn't think I would be happy "long term" in that position. REALLY?? Why would I apply for the position if I wouldn't be happy??! How can you even assume that? Made no sense to me at all.
Overall, the entire hiring process at Amazon was unprofessional, VERY slow, and a complete waste of time. Not to mention they had to keep moving my phone interviews around and every single person who called me were LATE to the interview!
I can tell you that their EA's think they are better than everyone else. One of them told me "you have no idea how it is to work here and it is much crazier here than the current company you work for." Ummm how in the world would she even know that??? She does not work for my company! My company is just a large as Amazon. I honestly tried not to laugh at that statement. I could run circles around more than half of their EA's!!! They are not that special.
I wish I would have read some of these negative reviews on here before I even agreed to talk to them. I am not bitter because I was not offered a position. I am upset with the way the entire process was handled. Either way, I would have declined an offer from Amazon. Knowing what I know now, that is NOT a company I want to work for.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
I don't really think the interview was difficult. The questions were not that hard. They just try to dig deep by asking question after question. If you are an experienced EA, you will do fine.
Signed the NDA - so cannot disclose interview questions.
Mostly behavioral questions - tell me about a time when... also a lot of questions related to the Amazon leadership principles.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Jul 2017
Interview
I applied online for a handful of EA positions at Amazon. Got emailed for the first phone screening with the recruiter about 3 weeks later. The first interview was an hour of non stop questions (be prepared for how overwhelming that is - no time for chit chat). I had to complete an online assessment: multiple choice personality test and an "attention to detail" test, and 2 short essay questions that required more thought as writing samples. 2 weeks later I had a phone interview with an EA. After that, they flew me out to Seattle for in-person interviews with 4 people (about 45 minutes per person). It was from 9 - 12 and very quick with each person - basically question after question. The next day I was invited for 2 more phone interviews once I was back home. About 3 days after that I actually received an offer from a different company so I reached out to Amazon and they extended an offer.
I interviewed with 7 people total.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
- Given hypothetical situation and asked to described how I would complete the task
- all others were typical EA questions
I applied through an employee referral. I interviewed at Amazon
Interview
Call from Recruiter, followed by two other phone interviews. Followed by in-person interview. Process is over a month long. Be prepared to answer questions in the STAR format. Situation/Task/Action/Result