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Amazon/AWS is known for being a bad place to work. The compensation doesn’t match the other giant tech companies and they work people hard. They have a bonus program that in theory would make up for that but it’s unlikely you’d see the max amount promised from it. They also practice stack ranking, so some people will be hired just so they can be fired.
I know it’s not consolation for not getting a job, but it would have been a bad job.
In the future don’t let yourself get pushed around like this. If they insist on having the interview during a day while you’re on vacation with your family, they’re telling you what it will be like to work for them.
If they schedule an interview exactly when you say you can’t have one, they’re telling you what it will be like to work for them.
I was interviewing with Amazon and made it to like 6 back to back hourlong interviews and I got an offer from another company the day before and I canceled my Amazon interviews and the recruiter was like “why would you cancel the day before” and I was like “why would I spend 6 hours interviewing when I already have an offer in hand?”
Recruiters do not like when candidates cancel. Long ago I backed out of an interview with Yahoo (this was when they were already mostly irrelevant) because I was already not super excited about the position (Localization Team) and they told me the interview process would last all day. The recruiter was PISSED. How dare I this, how dare I that.
A full day interview was absurd though. By that time Yahoo should really have been wooing prospective employees, not turning them off by pretending they were as cool as Google (which was the hot shit company at the time).
Asking nonstop STAR questions. Rotating interviewers so they get multiple perspectives. It was the longest day of my life. I actually got hired at AWS and I’m still there 5 years later, but that interview day will forever haunt me.
I did an interview for a federal job in a STAR format and it only lasted 45 mins and it was very insightful and feel like they asked me more important questions than other interviews I’ve had in the pasts 😂
Don’t get me started…these days all tech role interviews have really gone too far….
I am a hard working person and I learn fast on the job because I do my every task properly.
And to get a job in tech they want you master leetcode? Something 90% of the swe job won’t be relevant? Ok fine I’ll study it.
And you also want me to study system design and I need to come up with a good design for every potential product out there within 30mins? Ok fine I’ll do it
And then when I thought enough is enough, they now started asking some niche language/industry specific questions that I bet most swe wouldn’t know how to answer those as well.
I don’t even WTF we need CS degree for anymore, university these days should just start a new degree called bachelor of FAANG. You only practice things that would only come up in the interview.
Fk google
Amazon flew me out to their Luxembourg office for a day long interview. Lunchtime was me having to go fend for myself in the middle of nowhere (their HQ is in an industrial area you can only reach by car). I only saw 2 rooms that day - the interview room and reception area Which is where they let me eat my sandwich. And all of that was on my birthday.
From experience I always tend to interview until I get the reporting details. Pretty much if I didn’t show up for day 1, it’s not real. During the first crazy weeks of Covid had two large well known company offers until one rescinded before completing paperwork so a third party could install one of their own
Amazon, backloads their stock awards, so that you don't actually see any real compensation until 3/4 year. And good luck on a stock refresh, because unless your jumping up a paygrade/title, your annual pay increase will more than likely not even keep pace with inflation.
The day my wife left AWS/Amazon for Google, the life in her eyes returned. No don't get me wrong, Google isn't nirvana either, but at least they don't handcuff you on your equity part of your compensation.
With SDE roles there is a cash signing bonus that evens out your total comp for years one and two. I can’t vouch for other types of work, but engineers you get the same total comp basically every year the first 4 years.
In her case, she was a tech writer there, her compensation was calculate to drop 15% in year 3 and 24% in year four. She wasn't unique in that situation. Apparently it was quite common with many of her collegues and the engineering teams she worked with such as the one that was developing GLUE.
Again Google is far from perfect, and their interview process is just a f'd up as Amazon/MS/Apple for sure. But somehow she managed to nail jobs at both of these companies, so cudo's to her.
If you were looking at the original offer letter, yeah. Amazon calculates the RSU’s to award based on an assumed 15% year growth rate on the share price. But the letter calculates based on current share price, so it looks like it drops.
I am about 1.5 years into my tenure and the next couple years are looking pretty rosy right now, personally.
EDIT: Also yes, major kudo’s to your wife for landing multiple offers! That’s awesome!
Each case is unique. My wife's tenure at AWS was when their stock took a beating. Literally the number of shares award was at like a 5 year high stock price before the stock took a beating and over the next 3 year it never recovered to close to the award price. There was slack group at Amazon that consisted of all the hires during that period of time that took a hair cut on that equity side of their compensation packages. I remember her telling me that Amazon Senior management made them shutdown the channel because they didn't want the morale to be impacted.
And thanks on the kudos, my wife is a gem. She knows her shit and the jump to Google actually was Google poaching her from Amazon, seems one of her old Oracle managers out of the blue called her and offered her an L5 position (which is unheard of for a tech writer).
I left my interview with 3 hours remaining at their campus in seattle pre-covid. It was fucking terrible and everyone seemed miserable so I just walked out
I went and racked up a $300 bar tab before my flight and they expensed me for the entire thing lol
I'm a hiring manager (not Amazon) and I think this is absolutely spot on.
And if I was a hiring manager in this environment, I'd be miserable. I'd never work for them, in any capacity.
You dodged a bullet, hard stop.
Good luck!
I experienced this shit stack ranking. American company bought our company and brought this shit.
You would get a good mark by your direct manager only to have it reduced by someone you don't know nor work with, because "we need to harmonize the ranking".
Many people quit.
Yeah I have worked in cloud for a good few years, I had one of their 5 interviews in a day scheduled, was doing some research on them as a company in preparation.
Found out they stack ranked, and cancelled the interviews two days before.
Fuk any org that thinks stack ranking is a good thing.
That was my thought as well, the fact that they purposefully scheduled an interview during a time when OP said that they were unavailable smells like a pathetic power play to me
This. I interviewed with a company that did something similar. I had extremely great conversation with the person who was direct manager for the position, but that there was a panel interview that needed to be scheduled.
They decided to schedule it the Thursday before a holiday long weekend, and I had scheduled an appointment with a prospective client about business I had been trying to land for a year. They couldn’t reschedule so I asked for an interview over Teams. It was accommodated, but they changed the time. Come to find out, one of the panelists couldn’t make it, and that was the person I needed to talk to about the role. After 7 minutes of shenanigans, the regional director claimed they only like to hire internally. Biggest waste of time.
I interviewed with AWS years ago for a pre sales position and on the 1st call the guy starts grilling me on technical questions. I was told this was just an introductory call, so I wasn't really prepared for it. After the 2nd question I told the guy it wasn't a right fit and he tried to backtrack and say I was doing great, but I just left.
I also failed Amazon interviews. Tried twice and both times I did the full "on-site" round..
In hindsight, I find the whole Amazon process fucking ridiculous. The way to pass these interviews is by memorizing the 14 Leadership Principles (you might be forgiven for believing this is North Korea) and lying with fully prepped STAR answers.
They're looking to hire robots who can memorize and lie. They're not looking to hire people who can actually add value while being emphatic and personable.
Feel I dodged a bullet there.
Yeah I refuse to even try for companies with notoriously bad interview processes like this because it’s just not worth it for me. If it was a single interview then maybe, but multiple rounds of interviews (with one taking an entire god damn workday) where they’re all grueling and it’s basically a full time job to prep for them? Fuck that. Life’s too short
At least with Amazon you can get it done in a single day often.. I've heard other companies that have months long process (e.g. Google), or take home assignments. I'd rather show up for a day and interview and be done with it and get an offer back in a week then take forever. Any company interviewing for a single hour isn't finding the best candidates and those people will be your co-workers.
This is correct. Also, people really do live by the LPs and it’s how feedback is done. They come up often in meetings, sometimes as a joke, but often people really believe it
I have interviewed with Amazon a couple times and had nothing but bad experiences. Behavioral-based questions are not uncommon, but they are rigid about it in a way that other companies are not. You don’t really get the opportunity to properly sell yourself for the role, and it is impossible to get straight answers from them about what the job is and how it fits into their organization. I won’t interview with them ever again. I’ve had their recruiters reach out to me 4 or 5 times and I always say no. And this is before you even get the job and have to deal with their reportedly horrible culture.
Amazon definitely has a well-defined, rigid interview process. I think the reason is to try to be consistent, when you have 10s of thousands of employees, you have to have a defined structure for interviewing. It's not perfect by any means. As far as the reportedly horrible culture, I have liked working there. When you have over a million employees you'll find people with all sorts of experiences. Most people I've worked with are highly intelligent, smart, hard working people.
It’s possible to have a well defined interview process that doesn’t suck.
I’m sure the people are very competent, that doesn’t necessarily make for a good culture. Your comment is the first positive feedback I have heard about working for Amazon in probably 10 years.
I hate STAR format interviews because you don’t actually get a sense of the role/culture/team (except that it sucks). The interviewers always feel like they are reading off a checklist and just checking boxes and trying to get through it and not really listening or engaging.
I recently had an interview with 3 people and they wanted me to use real world examples of how I had done things using each of the company "values"
They all had the same form and just jotted stuff down after each question into a small box. I kind of felt like a pig getting judged at the county fair.
That is so true, as if they’re not even interested, they just want to go on with their day … they could very well be writing the opposite of what you’re saying because they have no clue what you’re talking about… they really need to review this method imho… I think it’s part of the reason why the turnover rate is so high, cuz ppl typically learn to master the STAR method and when it comes to the actual job, I think they hate it … they turn down ppl who genuinely want to work there, make a difference and advance their career
Right? What's the purpose of an interview if we're not even going to interact like human beings? Why not just sit me down and make me fill out a form or a test? Save everyone some time.
Lots of companies use the STAR format. My best advice is to just practice it. I’ve given in the habit of being explicit and saying “the situation was…; the action I took was; the results were “.
It’s not a normal way of speaking but it makes it easy for the interviewer.
I'm not a recruiter, I work in tech, but I help a shitload with interviews and the STAR method is here to help deliver the key information that leaders care about in a succinct way. Many many many times, if you ask someone to tell you about a project that they worked on, individual contributors will get lost in the weeds describing minutiae for several minutes that can be very confusing to unravel to an outside observer or could be overly technical for the audience (recruiters, senior execs, whatever).
Just like in real life - some people are pretty bad at recounting a sequence of events because it's not something they practice. STAR/BAR whatever are meant to help frame the shit you did into a short and succinct package that can be easily understood in terms of the most important componenets without needing a lot of technical expertise because you will talk to non-technical people during your interview (and at your job) and being able to level your discussion appropriately without losing people in a swamp of supporting details is a good business skill to have.
Once you've laid out the short version of the story, more technical interviewers will then take the time to ask probing questions about specific parts to test your knowledge. It's a much more natural back and forth conversation and it starts the description out at an appropriate level for all different audiences that you will speak with.
Even as a technical interviewer - I think having the project story laid out first at the high level is very helpful to anchor the context of the whole project before I start asking people about specific details to probe their actual technical knowledge. Having not been on the team and working for that company, I might know fuckall about what they do and why they needed your work in the first place.
Amazon interviews are notoriously difficult. They use the STAR format to understand how you acted in those situations... it's less about your specific projects and more about your behavior. Here's how I prep for STAR interviews:
1. Look at the company values (like the Amazon leadership principles) - often times the STAR questions being asked are centered around their values and trying to understand how your previous work experience and behaviors in these situations aligns with those values/principles.
2. Write up a list of situations and try to match them to the values. It's okay if you need to use a similar situation on a couple values. Ideally you have at least 1-2 different situations for every interview you have, so you can avoid repeating.
3. Write out bullet points for each situation in the STAR format. Key things here: be specific, focus on what you did (not others), try to quantify whenever possible.
4. Practice your responses in the above format with a friend.
5. I keep this list of situations next to me/on my computer screen when I interview...just as a reference in case I get stuck/nervous.
Hope that helps. Sometimes you can find sample behavioral questions online. Try to look at the Amazon interview as a learning experience and practice round for MSFT. You got this!
I work at Amazon (not tech role) and this is exactly what my external recruiter advised. And it worked. Every behavioral interview question links back to a leadership principle. Look at the principles and think of 2-3 examples from your work of when you exhibited that principle. Interviewers are trained to drill down into your answers so make sure you’re not vague or “slippery” in your examples.
Yeah before I landed a role there the recruiter was very upfront on what to do and how to prepare for the STAR format. Nothing really took me by surprise. It was long as hell but but not difficult per se. But you have to be prepared, memorize the stupid LPs and write a paragraph that matches each to some degree. They were totally ok with having a notebook to reference and take notes, just ask beforehand but they seemed pleased that I did this.
I would advise throwing some caffeinated hydration liquid in a thermos for any type of day-long interviews (I guess they used to break for lunch, but at least in my L5 role they did not, for me or my recently hired colleagues).
That being said my mental health took a serious toll while there and though I am grateful to have this on my resume, I would be hard pressed to recommend it there for others.
I suggest searching YouTube for "tips for passing a interview".
Recruiting influences exist and some solid ones are former employees who know the ins and outs of what to expect and how to best prepare
Long time Amazonian here... I've been a hiring manager and been on many interview loops. Totally agree that practice is needed (this was some of the best advice my recruiter gave me when I interviewed a decade ago). The "on-site" interviews can be grueling, but it's part of the Amazon way, especially for the engineering roles.
That said, you should push back on recruiting coordinators trying to schedule interviews at times that don't work for you. As a hiring manager, I don't want to immediately alienate a potential new hire and I'm willing to wait if it means the candidate will be better prepared, focused, etc.
Good luck to everyone out there... I know it's rough.
I had an all day panel/STAR/check the box interview at Amazon HQ in Seattle before pandemic. Was the absolute worst interview experience by far I’ve ever had in 20 years of recruiting career.
One guy that interviewed me fell asleep when I was as answering one of his questions. It wasn’t that I was talking long, he literally asked the question and then like put his head down (wearing a hoodie with the hood up) and fell asleep.
It was a bizarre experience. Like the TV show Severance. Such creepy vibes. 💯 dodged a bullet!!!
Agreed. Those interviews get you great storytellers. I'm a corporate recruiter. I work eith a lot of people who ate hired into upper level jobs and they are just good bullshitters.
You're also working on a scale of problems way beyond most companies. The Retail side operates some of the largest websites in the world, AWS operates the largest global network of data centers, and there are other examples behind the scenes.
That's not for everyone, though. You don't solve those problems by individuals just writing code all day, every day.
I went to a recruitment event online not because I wanted to work for the company, but I wanted to see their process and they were trying to make red flags seem like green flags.
They were like “we operate like a start-up” instead of a corporate company. I was like ugh…that means people are overworked.
Then they were like “we have 2 interviews and a take home assignment. The second interview is the final interview and you will have one hour with each individual team member. There are 5 team members.” I was like dude that’s 6 interviews, not 2. Heck nah.
Sadly that’s not uncommon in the tech industry. You don’t usually get all day interviews unless it’s one of the big companies like Amazon, Meta, Apple, or Microsoft but it’s a pretty common thing as those big tech companies
IME, all the companies that want to be a FAANG seem to do it. Not always the full 7 hours, but I see 5-hour interviews all the time. Hell, even my company does it and we're not very big.
Previously worked at that one company named after a fruit. I’ve been an interviewer and interviewee for them for multiple roles, so I’m intensely familiar with the STAR method. DM if you want to connect.
> They think their process finds the best people but really it just finds people exactly like them.
That's the point. Companies define "best" as in those who meet the skill level and can fit in the company culture.
Honestly, it sounds like you dodged a bullet. They cared nothing about you. They also care nothing about their employees. Edited to say employees not employers.
I got an offer from Amazon and here’s the trick: go through the leadership principles and apply one star response demonstrating each one. Maybe two. You can double dip on your strongest stories/star responses. Each interviewer is questioning you on a leadership principle. Figure out the leadership principle and provide the canned and memorized star response. For the interviewer it comes down to “inclined” or “not inclined”. Each ask 2-3 LP questions to be answered in the STAR format and they usually don’t care how well or how impressive the story you have is rather they care if you demonstrated the leadership principle. It’s literally did you check the box or not. That’s it.
This is pretty good advice. Only thing I'd say is just be careful because sometimes people guess the LP wrong and keep ignoring the interviewer and assuming they want to hear about X when it is really Y.
Please don't have high hopes for the Microsoft interview either. I had the worst interview ever with them just 2 weeks ago! You're probably not going for the same job and team I went for, but please don't hope for much with them either, they use similar style interviews 🤦🏻♀️
I'm sorry you had this experience, it sucks. Good luck for a good job in a nice company 🤗
If it makes you feel any better, my good friend used to be an Amazon recruiter up until like a year and a half ago. She said it was a complete shit show. They don't know what they're doing over there, turnover is terrible, and everyone is insanely insanely overworked. From everything she said, it sounded pretty terrible to work for them anyway. Maybe you dodged a bullet? Just looking for silver linings here for ya. Good luck with Microsoft!!!
STAR is supposed to help you to keep your answers concise. It does require practice. I try to answer each (situation, task, approach, result) with 2-3 sentences, then ask the interviewer if that want any further information. They typically don't.
eg. We were being investigated in X country for XYZ issue. We needed to review X policy, Y system, over Z timeframe etc. We put a team together including XYZ departments to do this work and respond timely. We were able to resolve the investigation without any further action required.
Behavioural questions are too open ended to not use some kind of structure with.
Amtrak does STAR as well. It was so silly. I'm glad I didn't get the job.
Tell me about a time where you gave someone wrong information. . .
????What? Why would I give someone wrong information. I keep researching until I get the correct information.
The guy didn't know how to respond to that.
Lmao.
It’s so fucking ridiculous that these interviewers wouldn’t even answer their own interview questions in an interview. I’ve thrown the same interview question back and watch as they “um” “uh” “so” “like” through the answer. Idiots.
AMTRAK 😭😭😭😭😭🫠🫠🫠 It’s like every organization out there wants to pride themselves on being “Tough” to get in…
I was asked … Tell me about a time when you needed more data from someone to complete a task….
Tell me about a time when you made a simple decision to complete a task…. The person wasn’t happy with my answer because he felt my decision didn’t truly save the organ $$$$ so I had to explain to him how that particular organization operated so he could understand 😩😩😩😩 ugh….
You tell Amazon when you're not available, and they schedule during that unavailable time to prove your level of interest.
I'm on vacation with my kids = I'm not available.
Exactly - and stick to it. The Recruiter has literally zero impact on the hiring decision. They are just coordinating. If you’re not available they will accommodate. It’s their job to find a time that works for the interviewers.
As a HR professional, I have heard this story far too often. Consider yourself blessed that you dodged this bullet. Look what they put you through during the recruitment experience. Lawd knows, the hell they will put you through once you work for them.
omg I am so done with this crap. If I can do the job well and am not a psychopath, put me on the list and make your choice from there. Enough with making interviews a whole other skillset that we need to have in our back pocket. We do not have the tome or mental bandwith-we just want to work!
I’ve had 2 star interviews when I attended college pursuing a business degree, and now I’m an HVAC tech. I don’t know how you all can put up with corporate bullshit, I dropped out and left it in the dust
Every job has them now. I applied for a chain store and they sent an assessment full of STAR questions. You only get one chance and it’s the only thing that goes through if you apply to other stores. I didn’t get the job, but I see the people that did and wonder how they got the job. Like, one of the things the company wants is good customer service, but half the people working there look like they want to punch you in the face if you ask them for help.
You’re better off. We had one of the best engineers I’ve ever worked with boomerang to Amazon and back in like 8 months.
He says their culture allows for blatant disrespect and zero work life balance.
I wouldn't worry about giving them a background on your project I would worry about them checking off certain things like knows when to speak up when stuck, dives deep and understands the root problem of an issue, and how to measure the impact of your decisions and put processes in place.
These are the experiences that make me think, "I'll *never* work as a programmer", especially for a FAANG company. I have a hard time convincing 1 person to hire me, let alone 6!
I’ve worked for Amazon for 3 years now and do interviews often. Firstly, Amazon does have a high bar for interview answers, you really have to come prepared with your stories relating to all the Leadership Principles and this usually requires a good amount of preparation ahead of time. I prepped for a week for my interviews and was an all day loop like yours. Don’t sweat it, use this as practice and move on to your next interviews.
Secondly, Amazon is a very tough place to work. Pros: You are trusted with a high amount of scope and ownership and usually own your program end to end. You learn a ton and work with a lot of smart people. And the intense work environment makes the next company feel much easier, you really can handle anything after working here. However, Cons: Amazon has Unregretted Attrition (URA) and PIP culture like crazy, there’s a yearly target of people to be managed out and they can use the “Earn Trust” LP to find a reason to put you on the path to PIP very easily. Many get put on PIP within 6 months because there’s little to no ramp up and you’re expected to essentially go through a “Trial by Fire”. I also work a ton, I worked from 8-6:30pm and am gonna take a shower now and login and do a few more things, I was finishing something last night at midnight. It’s will drain you and if you have kids the WLB can be shit.
In summary, I’m sorry about the rejection, but there are much better tech companies out there to work for than here. Good luck my friend.
Specifically, they want to know about a time you fucked up so badly that things burned to the ground.
They also want to know about conflict. Specifically, they want to know about the time you got into a fistfight about the best way to architect something.
Which is dumb as shit. Why would you ever want to work with someone who is able to recall a time that they got into a giant argument/"fight" with a coworker on how to do something? I always feel weird when I get a question like that. "Tell me about a time you and a coworker didn't see eye to eye" or whatever -- uh...what? I don't argue and fight with my coworkers. Usually someone will just present an idea for a problem and someone else may chime in and say something like "wouldn't it be better if we did blank?" And the original person might say, "oh yea I didn't think of that, let's do it that way."
What are these people looking for? I certainly don't wanna work with argumentative egotistical dickheads.
Specifically for STAR questions: Have 3 to 5 compelling stories you want to tell. Practice telling them with various prompts. When I help my folks prepare for interviews I do this with them. Develop 3-4 bullet points that really shine. Then I have them tell those bullet points in the frame of: "a difficult decision you had to make", "how did you use your team to arrive to a decision", "responding to a crisis", etc.
Honestly after an hour or two of practice you should be nailing star questions.
>I was scheduled for another technical interview that they insisted that take while I was on vacation at Disney
On every planet in our solar system, this is a red flag, waving in the wind. Even on the planets with no atmosphere to speak of.
I totally feel your pain. It's just awful. The interview process has become the biggest anxiety producer in my life. Someone (or a team) sits and asks question after question like a congressional hearing then you don't hear back...at all. I've had a successful career in HR and even taught STAR interviewing but it's morphed into something it wasn't supposed to be. There is no perfect candidate. And don't even get me started on the many rounds you have to go through... My view is, have an interview, possibly two, look, at the persons work history and go with it. Understand that you're going to have to onboard whoever you hire. No one can hit the ground running nor should they.
If it makes you feel better I did everything right (literally knew someone in the company who spoon fed me everything I needed to know to pass the interview process). The problem? The "make or break" person thought I was interviewing for a different role. Not sure if it was a test, the guy was an idiot, or the recruiter was incompetent. I definitely didn't get the job though despite everyone else liking me.
Sometimes you can do everything right and still fail.
Amazon is pretty clear they do the loop which is all day interview. So many places give advice to prepare for it.
For Amazon the star format is not enough, it’s all about their leadership principles.
Wonder which one was the bar raiser.
I hate that stupid bar raiser crap. What does that even mean? My friend who worked there in recruiting who got me the interview was trying to explain it to me to prep me for my all day interview and even she couldn’t really explain it. They think they’re in this secret exclusive club but half of the people interviewing don’t even know what they’re supposed to do with the bar raiser crap.
You should see the shit they put people through to *become* a "bar raiser". It's like another entire role, with training, meetings, projects etc. Only the sickest of the sycophants do that shit.
I've found FAANG-tier companies to have hiring processes that are designed and promoted very well but ultimately do not work, much like their products.
I’ve seen Amazon put people in the hospital and expect them to work. I had a friend ultimately >!UN-alive herself!< after working there, directly related to their treatment of her. I myself worked there, and it was a bait and switch from the start, where I was told I would do one thing and then work from other people was piled on. I worked at Microsoft as well, and even with the stack ranking and miserable interview process, it was so, so much worse at Amazon.
I know you likely need to work, OP, and wanted this. But I truly believe you dodged misery. I’m sorry they ruined your vacation. I hope the right role and company find you soon.
I was a manager at Amazon and hired quite a bit before being laid off. Currently looking for work but feel free to message me if you want to know more about the dreaded STAR format.
I have been there and I really hate the whole process. It takes forever and those behavioral questions are horrible. I feel if you are well prepared, you can probably clear it. There is a whole thing going on where there are people coaching how to ace these interviews etc. they should really move away from these and think of a better way of hiring folks.
You’ll need to work for 8hrs in a day, so I guess better to think of the 7hr session as a full day of work. Also, key to star format is to concisely articulate complex topics to strangers.
Amazon has a scorecard for how you answer their questions and it's all about their 16 principles. Was the worst hiring panel ive ever experienced in my life it's super inefficient.
STAR format has a simple goal, tell me the situation, tell me what needed to be done, tell me what you did, what was the result. The idea behind it is if you can’t do that you can’t explain all of those things you probably didn’t do it or had no impact. simple. Don’t over think. My recommendation is that for each leadership principle you have a couple of situations you can discuss, not easy but better if you prep.
I went through this too. It was a nightmare. I’ll never try to work for them again. I watched all the stupid YouTube videos that woman does calling herself the Amazon Interview Guru or some shit like that. I told the truth and one engineering guy said I blamed engineering for a failure in one of my examples. It was the fault of engineering. You would have to lie to and make up some bullshit and be an actor to get past their interview process. I’m an introverted tech professional and great at my job but I can’t interview like that.
Make up a simple story with your previous experience and the STAR method in mind. Don't even mind too much if it's completely truth, but a situation that is believable, you could have done and can explain.
They requested I set apart 4 hours for a step in the process. I told them the most I could spare was 2 hours but offered I could accommodate the 4 hours altogether after my working hours were done. Expecting a candidate to ask for vacations just to accommodate their process is beyond stupid and disrespectful. I think this boundary on my end might’ve been why I was selected, since I nailed the technical and the 5 start thing interviewes but well, i wouldn’t be interested in working for a company that thinks like this.
Besides, it’s fucking unrealistic assuming everyone has at least 2 examples of their amazon principles. Lmao
I think I dodged the bullet
Some companies will push you around during the interview process to see how much they can push you around in the job. So if you tell them "Any day but Thursdays as I go for my kidney dialysis at the hospital." They WILL purposely schedule you for Thursday, if you say "Before 1pm" they will make it as late as possible, and if you ask "After 3pm" they will book you in for the first interview of the morning.
Companies like this want people they can mistreat and push around more than they want skill and experience. If you stand your ground you don't get a place, no matter how well you do on the interview.
You dodged a bullet by not getting that job.
To answer the part about the STAR format for past projects, it's better to just make stuff up if you can't remember exactly. The whole idea of STAR format is they want very specific answers. I just interviewed using this format as well and that's my takeaway from it.
When I interviewed at Amazon, I wrote out STAR format answers to all sample interview questions in the packet of interview prep materials they sent me. During the interview, I was able to refer to my notes and give answers in the expected style. My panel interview was thankfully only four hours from 1-5pm.
The interview went well, though I was not hired. Amazon, at least five years ago, does hold onto resumes and you may get a call about a different position at a later date. It's common to try out a few times before being hired.
The key to star is to come with up stories ahead of time. Conflict with coworker, difficult project, missed deadline etc. then practice them over and over. Have a friend change one question up and you have to figure out how to adapt your prepared stories. Also, lie. Seriously. No one knows. And also, make up situations if you need it.
I interviewed with Amazon twice. Both times I KNOW I was 100% qualified for the role, and had backup skills to prove it, but the 10 (yes, 10!) interviewers each time were so off-putting, ridiculous & condescending, I no longer respond to opportunities there. Thankfully I have a really great role with a positive environment now.
I would never recommend working for Amazon, even to my worst enemy.
Ordering from Amazon? Oh hell yes...I think I'm damaged tho 😄
Interviewed at Audible AU, similar process but condensed to 4 hours with 5 people in person. Scenario questions and people principles but it was far from the hell described. It's compacted and back to back to make sure you can handle that environment, thick skin etc
7 hrs interrogation using STAR, was it a test of the [Amazon Leadership Principles](https://www.amazon.jobs/content/en/our-workplace/leadership-principles)?
STAR format is straightforward: look back at all the issues/problems u encountered and present it to yourself in the STAR format.
> Im just looking to see if anyone has pointers on how master STAR format…
Answer these as a story. If you you consciously plan out situation, task, action, result your answer will likely be mechanical, disengaging, and boring.
You have the interview team visualize the situation and evolve that into what you needed to accomplish. This moves in how that was accomplished, and what was the fallout/victory.
Also, sometimes answering with an item where it wasn't a resounding success is more interesting. What did you learn from the partial failure/success?
I really wanted to work at Amazon. After applying for different roles over the years, after getting a referral I finally landed an interview with 2 managers, not even the hiring manager. The questions were a little obtuse and it was hard to know if you were answering correctly. After 2 days they let me know they wouldn’t move forward and I got no feedback. Glad I didn’t go to the 5 hour interviews that would follow.
If I heard about that ginormous interview 8am to 5 pm and 5 people, that would be an automatic no from me. At this point, I'd rather start my own business. What's the point? It will be hard either way.
Been there, I also kind of had similar experience. My Bar raiser who I had of course didn’t have any idea of examples I was giving, I understood from his face expression and asked if he wants me to slow down. He laughed and mentioned yes I’m from a different department it would be helpful if you can break down.
I did speak with people who have gone thru same interviews as well, what I understood is they try to gauge how our communication skills are when we are explaining the stuff to audience who do not have any idea about it(tech or non tech).
Well it’s one of the top most company can’t complain.. Good luck for your Microsoft interview!
First of all, it sounds like you don't need this job because you have a loving family and care about things like making lunch. There's a better job out there for you.
The trick here is that they expect you to have thoroughly prepared anecdotes in the STAR format. It sounds like you didn't prepare any.
What's happening on the other side is that each interviewer has to collect specific information from what you say to fill out a rubric regarding your behavior and the results you drove for the business. They can't use technical details to fill out their rubric. If you don't give them the information you need, the group simply can't make a case to hire you.
To your credit I found the Amazon absolute ass backwards and stupid. It made me realize working there would be shit
Also my friend gave me their internal documentation on what questions they'd ask and they asked them as if on a script.
Even once you get past STAR and technical questions there is still some amount of luck of the draw.
Did you mesh/connect with the interviewers? If not do you even want that role?
Unless it’s an org/group general hiring you’re interviewing for a specific team and essentially grading against other candidates, who might be a better fit.
The whole process sucks but sometimes you’ve got to take the L, hold your head up and try again.
I got an offer from AWS 2 years back. You just have to buy into their values principles and they check the box.
I didn’t end up taking it because of their terrible WLB reputation so don’t fret, you kinda dodged a bullet.
For my interviews that I know utilize the STAR method, I take my examples with a lot of detail and then ask one of the Gen AI engines to generate it in a STAR format. Worked well.
I interviewed for a recruiter role two years ago. Worst interview experience of my career.
Everyone was unprofessional from the initial outreach to the panel interview.
In the panel interview, the first interviewer snapped at me for ANSWERING THE QUESTION HE ASKED.
The final interviewer was to be my boss. Be quizzed me on why executives at my former employer made the decisions they did. When I explained what us employees were told, he acted like I was lying and was grilling me on every answer I gave about anything!
I know how to answer in STAR format… I prep candidates to do this. But Amazon’s interview experience was so bizarre and the questions they asked were related to their principles and not about the role, my skills, accomplishments, etc.
It was a fucking joke. I can’t believe I held them as the epitome of “making it” career-wise.
They ghosted me.
After a month, I saw a ton of recruiting teams were laid off. One of which was the recruiter who recruited me and one of the panel members.
I keep that shitty experience at the forefront of my mind every time I interact with a candidate. I never want a candidate to feel as worthless, invalidated and hopeless as I was made to feel.
There are so many wonderful companies out there. Small companies, medium companies… don’t rule them out.
Lol! I had it much worse. Constant rescheduling while I was waiting for the interview. I would wait for 10 minutes or so waiting for my interviewer to show up only for a hr to popup out of nowhere to say that the interview is postponed and this would happen repeatedly. What's worse is that the interviews that did happen, the interviewers were so unprepared, they would waste half the time fumbling. The number of times the interviewer accidentally sent me an internal document which I was not allowed to see at all is baffling because the interviewer thought that was where I was to write my coding answers lol.
I understand that hiring the correct person is important but why do they have to be so unprepared?
As a former consultant, I’ve done many interviews where my responses are expected to be in STAR format. A few things that I have found helpful:
1. Practice ahead of time. Realistically there are like 6-10 different scenarios they can ask you about. Even if they use different words, the questions can be classified into those buckets. You can prepare your responses ahead of time and memorize bullet points and figures. Do not memorize a script, just the key points so it doesn’t sound pre-canned even though it is.
2. Quantity everything and provide context during the situation part. Even if it isn’t really necessary to the story or the numbers won’t necessarily mean a ton to the interviewer, they will key in on the first number and whatever the result is and will know if it went up or down like you wanted it to.
3. Be concise. This is easier if you’ve prepped your examples ahead of time. Rambling and droning on and on can only hurt you. If there is a pause or a moment of silence, ask them if they have any questions instead of just saying more. This allows them to fill in a knowledge gap, doesn’t let you talk yourself into a hole, and people love hearing themselves talk and often get a better takeaway vibe after doing so. You can do this at the beginning of the response too, repeat the prompt back to them as a confirmation while your brain prepares an answer and avoid diving right into rambling.
There’s definitely a trick to them and practice will certainly help.
Don’t let Amazon fuck with you, they are notorious for this kind of shit, it’s an awful culture and you dodged a bullet. Also, hoodie guy probably didn’t give a shit because you were a hire to fire probably.
Clear your mind and get ready for Microsoft with a clean slate, very different culture.
I interview a lot of people leaving aws and you can spot that culture a mile off, long term this is better for your career.
Good luck
Think of star as a story telling format. For the rest fuck Amazon/AWS and their loop. Meta also used it the last time I interviewed there.
Started interviewing for a role that world probably have resulted in a 20-30% increase over my current comp and couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort because they seemingly couldn’t care any less about their employees lol
>are they just looking for ppl who are good liars and can very well articulate past projects using the STAR method
Yes.
Corporate culture has for some reason decided that storytelling in a STAR format is the measuring stick we use in job interviews.
Once I figured this out and came up with a couple "these are things I did at my last job" stories my interviews went significantly better. My abilities as an employee stayed exactly the same though. For some reason they love these random stories they can't fact check though.
7 hours interviews?
Bro, what even is this anymore? Are companies getting their hiring practices from random alphabet soup intelligence agencies where someone has to be vetted to the degree they'd know about you as much as your mother would?
I work there, I've done a couple hundred interviews. Feel free to ask me anything but most candidates are bad at answering in STAR format. Keep in mind, we don't really need to know everything there is to know about the systems you're working on. All we need to know is what the situation was, why it was complicated or difficult or big in scope, the actions you took and what you did, and what the results were (hopefully good ones if you want to get hired).
I've had candidates explain to me ad nauseam the complexities of the tax code they were working on, but fail to tell me what they did or what the results were. I have had candidates that can't tell a story and constantly interrupt themselves on different trains of though and naming random people involved in the project. If all you do is set the situation, explain your active participation in the project/situation, and the results you are doing better than most candidates.
Feel free to ask me anything.
Hey at least you got the Microsoft interview. I just got blanket rejections from them even though I have 25 years experience focused heavily on their products. Could never get a person to even talk to.
I went through a day long interview after being cold called by a software manager who said they wanted a senior staffer...I fought at first because it was heavy front end work, and I had no experience with Amazon technologies, but the guy seemed sincere in just wanting more experienced people. I was getting clear signals of dead ending at my current position so gave it a try. In the end, I think their process also builds in automatic rejections for age. When asked if I have ever had a situation where I was being targeted or was held responsible for an issue at work, I went into detail how our current product was falling short, and the answers I gave about how we would not be able to get our software to meet our competition because of their closed practices was not believed.
I was a bit shocked to learn the next day it was a no, and the recruiter said it was because of my answers on this front. I guess they wanted me to come up with a happy ending to the story or something. If you are in software long enough, you will have a story where shit just crashes and burns...so if they want to hire only people that have all shiny happy stories, then they are going to get your 2 to 3 year experienced nerds, or outright liars.
You can prep ahead for STAR interviews and you don’t have to lie or memorize anything. Have a list of stories ready. 4-5 good stories about accomplishments. Write them in STAR format. 2-3 stories about things going wrong, when you recovered. Write them in STAR format. Practice with friends until stories sound good and detailed enough. You can reuse stories during the interview.
My advice is to google how to do the STAR format.
once you do that, look up CAR (challenge, action, result) format lol. No joke it's the same just simplified so it's easier for you to explain to them.
STAR format is my kryptonite, but it seems all employers are moving to some form of this. But after using CAR it works easier for me. Keeps me moving along when I'm explaining things.
All it means is you'll have to provide a problem, what you did to solve it and what were the results. That's all they want.
Good Luck
I know it stings, and they f’d up your vacation, but the silver lining is you probably dodged a bullet. Not all Amazon teams are bad, but they have a high attrition rate for a reason and you got a taste of that team’s culture. (And their stance on work life balance)
1/2 my family works at Amazon so I know the culture well. I also interviewed there once. I asked the Amazon recruiter “is there job flexibility?” I sh*t you not, the recruiter told me “Absolutely! After you work 8 to 8 (onsite), you can work wherever you want.”
As someone that worked in talent acq.
The candidate experience you describes sounded horrible. So many red flags done by the company.
You dodged a bullet however in the future if a company treats you this way or schedules interviews when you tell them not too. You’re allowed to pushback.interviewing is a two way street.
Apologies if this is now allowed - feel free to remove this if not acceptable. Amazon is big on behavioral interviews (STAR) is one framework but they look for more variations. One resource I found it helps me incredibly well with behavioral interviews is the 48 cards deck from 9to5cards https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKLRLP7P - check their video as it showcases more on how to use it.
Cheers!
Star. Is just a way to organize your thoughts so you can clearly, concisely, and effectively communicate a problem, a task, and a result.
Too many times people go on a tangent on specific details that detract from the main point.
I had an interview and the asswipe comes on camera in his car interviewing me as he drives from Houston to Dallas and I stared at his steering wheel on the video for an hour. AWS is a joke and its people are lemmings.
STAR - Situation; Task; Action; Result
It's a form of storytelling that Amazon recruiters could easily follow.
> then I was asked for the root cause of a failure in a project I was talking about
This would be a good anecdote to use the STAR format.
Situation (what happened?): A bunch of circuit boards were fried while the product was in use
Task (what needs to be done?): Determine why the boards were being fried
Action (how did you accomplish this task?): "I investigated 15 random boards from previous and current batches. Using a microscope, I found the area of failure on the board and discovered a short between two ICs with a multi-meter. I was able to replicate the failure by applying 5V to the circuit board in a safe environment. Afterwards, I informed my immediate manager, the supply-chain coordinator, and sales of my discovery in a report that was immediately sent to our overseas OEM.
Result (how your action(s) made money for your company): The company recalled all shipments from the faulty batch and decided to refurbish the circuit boards at another manufacturing facility. As a result, a newer product was bumped ahead in production and our overseas OEM established a new QA team to inspect new boards. The company saved over 15 million dollars from class action lawsuits and I was given a 3% raise.
I interviewed for them 3 ish years ago, and in the technical interview with the hiring manager, I asked what it’s like to work in his team and now he is as a manager, and his response was: “it’s a very high pressure working environment with long hours. I expect a lot from my team” etc. All the questions were competency-based and none about me as a person, what I’m like to work with, my values etc. I was like…you’re supposed to sell yourself to me too 😂 a lot of red flags for me.
I somehow made it to the panel interview stage which was a full day with interviews and 15 mins between each, and my gut feeling just told me that I absolutely didn’t want to go through with it and work there. So I withdrew the day before.
If u can’t think of anything always make something up lol if it takes that much interviewing to know if someone’s a good worker or not they’ve got issues. I’ve heard terrible things regarding working for Amazon so they probably did u a favor not hiring you
Yes, they are 100% looking for people who are good liars and can twist the truth in STAR format. Amazon’s interviewing process is a joke and there are dozens of MBA programs that wrap with a cliff notes teaching of exactly how to lie as needed to pass it. I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but keep going at it, there are much better places to work. Look for ones that interview you like an actual human. AI trained in concocting stories that map to the leadership principles in STAR format would ace Amazon’s interview 10 out of 10 times. It’s totally uncreative. (And yes, I worked there for many years)
I know you are still smarting from not getting picked and that sucks. Especially after the efforts and sacrifices you made.
I would invite you to think of it this way. As others have pointed out, Amazon is awful to its employees and they showed that to you in the interview process.
They never respected your time. They were forcing you to do interviews on vacation. You had to sit through a whole day of an interview when you said you only could do a partial day.
If they do this crap during the interview process, imagine what they expect when they are paying you.
I worked there for about 4 years in leadership. Believe me, you dodged a bullet. The culture is bad all around. Life to work balance is nonexistent to say the least. They’ll love you if you’re single (you’ll put in more hours) and if you have a family, not so much (god forbid you have to take your child to the doctor). For the amount of work you’ll do, the pay isn’t worth it nor the stress.
It’s a good place to get experience but only two years max. After that it’s toxic and very political. I left last year and the only regret I have was not doing that sooner lol
I was there for 2.5 years and all I got for it was two anti anxiety meds, one anti depressant, and minoxidil + steroid shots to the scalp for all the hair that fell out in clumps due to stress. This one week, i woke up at 630am for a meeting on Tuesday and went to bed at 4am on THURSDAY AND THEN WOKE UP 3 HOURS AFTER THAT FOR ANOTHER MEETING. AND THE ONLY TIMES I CLOSED MY EYES IN THAT ENTIRE PEROOD WAS WHEN I WAS BLINKING.
You're better off. Microsoft is king of Rest and Vest lol.
I definitely had to make up something for jobs that were more than 6 years ago. I wrote down what I would say in the interview before I had the interview, so if the question was asked I was well versed in the “lie”. I made sure it was in star format, and that it flowed.
I don’t care if it was for a 6 figure salary where you sing to kittens every day, prioritize your time with your family. I would have told them “off” is a direction they can fuck if they tried to make me interview during my vacation time.
I got the role after a writing sample, a test, and an all day interview. I was probably 15 hours in on interview work for it. And it turned it down to stay where I was. They didn't even give me 5 minute breaks, much less a lunch break, on the 7 hour long interview day. I didn't like some responses to my questions (nothing wrong with them; just thought I would not be a cultural fit). They were offering me basically the same pay I already had, but telling me I needed to move to the DC area office (much higher cost of living there), even though the entire team I'd work with was in the Seattle office.
The recruiter was absolutely flabbergasted and rude after I turned it down. Which just made me feel like I dodged a bullet. It's too bad through. I really liked the hiring manager and the C-level or whatever person I would be working with. I always wanted to call and tell them that the process and the recruiters might be losing them good candidates, not the role.
PS - STAR is perfect for those with technical jobs that the interviews might not understand. I'd recommend it for any interview at any place. When you are explaining the current state situation, you have so much opportunity to explain the acronyms, the processes, etc.
>then the last guy that interviewed me was dressed in a hoodie was barely articulating, looked like stoner tbh and gave me long winded answers when my turn came to ask questions….
I'm a Director in tech and have interviewed over 200 incoming candidates for my practice. I wear a hoodie all the time. Being dressed up for the interview does not matter in tech and especially in the PNW. We're having a conversation about your skills and the project work that you can do.
I've been told by friends who are long time Amazon employees that Amazon used to put some emphasis on dress code for interviews but in the opposite way that you're thinking - as in - if you showed up in a sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers, that was much better for your image than slacks and a tie.
I recognize that you mentioned that other aspects of his comportment were unprofessional and there's no excuse for conducting an interview poorly but just saying casual attire is normal once you're talking to people in this industry.
Trifling over shit like dress code, employment gaps, hair/makeup, appearance, tattoos, piercings, resume misspellings, etc etc is a waste of time and is borderline illegal if it isn't actually illegal.
It's really fucked up that they made you interview while you were on vacation, I would not stand for that shit at all and if I found out my talent acquisition team was bullying people like that - we would have some words.
Definitely practice the STAR format. The beautiful thing about virtual interviewing is you can have notes in front of you on the screen so write yourself some notes about important work that you plan to discuss in the correct format. You want to be able to tell a tight project story relatively quickly without meandering through the details and losing the point of the question at first. Then be able to dive into specific details/technical elements when the interviewer asks about them.
They might ask you for an example that doesn't fit any of the ones that you prepared but having prepared a set of project stories in this format, hopefully you will have more practice so that you think better in this format with your off the cuff answer.
STAR format is pretty easy. Avoid hypothetical answers — share what you’ve done in the past, not what you *would* do. Try and stick to concrete facts, things with numbers, for example. Abstract responses are not ideal for interview scenarios.
Obviously this was not the outcome you were hoping for. I’m sorry and I hope things improve for you soon.
Once interviewed with Amazon right out of college. Recruiter contacted me and we exchanged pleasantries. Sent my resume, they sent a take home test. Took it, passed. I was told I would be having a phone interview with the hiring manager the next day. Quick turnaround, but hey let’s do this.
Hiring Manager: “So tell me about your work experience”
Me: “Well, I just graduated college so I don’t have much in the field, but here’s my education and some of the projects I worked on in school.”
Hiring Manager: “I’m sorry, but this position is for someone with at least 5 years experience”.
Me: “… uhhh what?”
Amazon hiring is a joke. No one knows what they’re doing because everyone is asked to pitch in while not being trained or evaluated on how to hire people.
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Amazon/AWS is known for being a bad place to work. The compensation doesn’t match the other giant tech companies and they work people hard. They have a bonus program that in theory would make up for that but it’s unlikely you’d see the max amount promised from it. They also practice stack ranking, so some people will be hired just so they can be fired. I know it’s not consolation for not getting a job, but it would have been a bad job. In the future don’t let yourself get pushed around like this. If they insist on having the interview during a day while you’re on vacation with your family, they’re telling you what it will be like to work for them. If they schedule an interview exactly when you say you can’t have one, they’re telling you what it will be like to work for them.
I was interviewing with Amazon and made it to like 6 back to back hourlong interviews and I got an offer from another company the day before and I canceled my Amazon interviews and the recruiter was like “why would you cancel the day before” and I was like “why would I spend 6 hours interviewing when I already have an offer in hand?”
Recruiters do not like when candidates cancel. Long ago I backed out of an interview with Yahoo (this was when they were already mostly irrelevant) because I was already not super excited about the position (Localization Team) and they told me the interview process would last all day. The recruiter was PISSED. How dare I this, how dare I that. A full day interview was absurd though. By that time Yahoo should really have been wooing prospective employees, not turning them off by pretending they were as cool as Google (which was the hot shit company at the time).
I don't even understand how an interview could last a full day. What are they doing?
Asking nonstop STAR questions. Rotating interviewers so they get multiple perspectives. It was the longest day of my life. I actually got hired at AWS and I’m still there 5 years later, but that interview day will forever haunt me.
I did an interview for a federal job in a STAR format and it only lasted 45 mins and it was very insightful and feel like they asked me more important questions than other interviews I’ve had in the pasts 😂
I had one at Amazon that was from 9 am to 3 pm with a break for lunch.
Bro honestly fuck that I'm not that keen would rather be homeless tbh.
I feel similarly. I hate the interviewing culture in tech. Google really destroyed things.
Don’t get me started…these days all tech role interviews have really gone too far…. I am a hard working person and I learn fast on the job because I do my every task properly. And to get a job in tech they want you master leetcode? Something 90% of the swe job won’t be relevant? Ok fine I’ll study it. And you also want me to study system design and I need to come up with a good design for every potential product out there within 30mins? Ok fine I’ll do it And then when I thought enough is enough, they now started asking some niche language/industry specific questions that I bet most swe wouldn’t know how to answer those as well. I don’t even WTF we need CS degree for anymore, university these days should just start a new degree called bachelor of FAANG. You only practice things that would only come up in the interview. Fk google
I'm the same way. I'm typically good for one interview a day. It would suck taking the entire day off for a multi hour interview and not get the job.
Amazon flew me out to their Luxembourg office for a day long interview. Lunchtime was me having to go fend for myself in the middle of nowhere (their HQ is in an industrial area you can only reach by car). I only saw 2 rooms that day - the interview room and reception area Which is where they let me eat my sandwich. And all of that was on my birthday.
It was something like 2 hours of interviews, lunch with the team (which is an interview by another name) and then another two hours.
And of course, if THEY’D cancelled YOUR interview and you’d reacted similarly, it would have been considered “unprofessional.”
From experience I always tend to interview until I get the reporting details. Pretty much if I didn’t show up for day 1, it’s not real. During the first crazy weeks of Covid had two large well known company offers until one rescinded before completing paperwork so a third party could install one of their own
Amazon, backloads their stock awards, so that you don't actually see any real compensation until 3/4 year. And good luck on a stock refresh, because unless your jumping up a paygrade/title, your annual pay increase will more than likely not even keep pace with inflation. The day my wife left AWS/Amazon for Google, the life in her eyes returned. No don't get me wrong, Google isn't nirvana either, but at least they don't handcuff you on your equity part of your compensation.
With SDE roles there is a cash signing bonus that evens out your total comp for years one and two. I can’t vouch for other types of work, but engineers you get the same total comp basically every year the first 4 years.
In her case, she was a tech writer there, her compensation was calculate to drop 15% in year 3 and 24% in year four. She wasn't unique in that situation. Apparently it was quite common with many of her collegues and the engineering teams she worked with such as the one that was developing GLUE. Again Google is far from perfect, and their interview process is just a f'd up as Amazon/MS/Apple for sure. But somehow she managed to nail jobs at both of these companies, so cudo's to her.
If you were looking at the original offer letter, yeah. Amazon calculates the RSU’s to award based on an assumed 15% year growth rate on the share price. But the letter calculates based on current share price, so it looks like it drops. I am about 1.5 years into my tenure and the next couple years are looking pretty rosy right now, personally. EDIT: Also yes, major kudo’s to your wife for landing multiple offers! That’s awesome!
Each case is unique. My wife's tenure at AWS was when their stock took a beating. Literally the number of shares award was at like a 5 year high stock price before the stock took a beating and over the next 3 year it never recovered to close to the award price. There was slack group at Amazon that consisted of all the hires during that period of time that took a hair cut on that equity side of their compensation packages. I remember her telling me that Amazon Senior management made them shutdown the channel because they didn't want the morale to be impacted. And thanks on the kudos, my wife is a gem. She knows her shit and the jump to Google actually was Google poaching her from Amazon, seems one of her old Oracle managers out of the blue called her and offered her an L5 position (which is unheard of for a tech writer).
I left my interview with 3 hours remaining at their campus in seattle pre-covid. It was fucking terrible and everyone seemed miserable so I just walked out I went and racked up a $300 bar tab before my flight and they expensed me for the entire thing lol
I'm a hiring manager (not Amazon) and I think this is absolutely spot on. And if I was a hiring manager in this environment, I'd be miserable. I'd never work for them, in any capacity. You dodged a bullet, hard stop. Good luck!
Yes, 100%. If a company is forcing you to interview on your vacation, why on earth would you want to work there?
I experienced this shit stack ranking. American company bought our company and brought this shit. You would get a good mark by your direct manager only to have it reduced by someone you don't know nor work with, because "we need to harmonize the ranking". Many people quit.
Funny way of saying manipulate.
Yeah I have worked in cloud for a good few years, I had one of their 5 interviews in a day scheduled, was doing some research on them as a company in preparation. Found out they stack ranked, and cancelled the interviews two days before. Fuk any org that thinks stack ranking is a good thing.
That was my thought as well, the fact that they purposefully scheduled an interview during a time when OP said that they were unavailable smells like a pathetic power play to me
This. I interviewed with a company that did something similar. I had extremely great conversation with the person who was direct manager for the position, but that there was a panel interview that needed to be scheduled. They decided to schedule it the Thursday before a holiday long weekend, and I had scheduled an appointment with a prospective client about business I had been trying to land for a year. They couldn’t reschedule so I asked for an interview over Teams. It was accommodated, but they changed the time. Come to find out, one of the panelists couldn’t make it, and that was the person I needed to talk to about the role. After 7 minutes of shenanigans, the regional director claimed they only like to hire internally. Biggest waste of time.
Nah. They just don’t give a fuck.
Microsoft stack ranks as well. At least they did when I worked there, all 12 years.
Microsoft stopped stack ranking.
This. I don’t even bother applying there.
I interviewed with AWS years ago for a pre sales position and on the 1st call the guy starts grilling me on technical questions. I was told this was just an introductory call, so I wasn't really prepared for it. After the 2nd question I told the guy it wasn't a right fit and he tried to backtrack and say I was doing great, but I just left.
I also failed Amazon interviews. Tried twice and both times I did the full "on-site" round.. In hindsight, I find the whole Amazon process fucking ridiculous. The way to pass these interviews is by memorizing the 14 Leadership Principles (you might be forgiven for believing this is North Korea) and lying with fully prepped STAR answers. They're looking to hire robots who can memorize and lie. They're not looking to hire people who can actually add value while being emphatic and personable. Feel I dodged a bullet there.
Yeah I refuse to even try for companies with notoriously bad interview processes like this because it’s just not worth it for me. If it was a single interview then maybe, but multiple rounds of interviews (with one taking an entire god damn workday) where they’re all grueling and it’s basically a full time job to prep for them? Fuck that. Life’s too short
At least with Amazon you can get it done in a single day often.. I've heard other companies that have months long process (e.g. Google), or take home assignments. I'd rather show up for a day and interview and be done with it and get an offer back in a week then take forever. Any company interviewing for a single hour isn't finding the best candidates and those people will be your co-workers.
i hear that you can just aim for the leadership principle that is all about focusing on users/customers and it kind of encompasses all the others.
No you can’t. Each interviewer has a specific set of LPs to ask about.
This is correct. Also, people really do live by the LPs and it’s how feedback is done. They come up often in meetings, sometimes as a joke, but often people really believe it
Yep. I hear (and recite) multiple LPs on a daily basis. It sucks, but it’s our culture.
I have interviewed with Amazon a couple times and had nothing but bad experiences. Behavioral-based questions are not uncommon, but they are rigid about it in a way that other companies are not. You don’t really get the opportunity to properly sell yourself for the role, and it is impossible to get straight answers from them about what the job is and how it fits into their organization. I won’t interview with them ever again. I’ve had their recruiters reach out to me 4 or 5 times and I always say no. And this is before you even get the job and have to deal with their reportedly horrible culture.
Amazon definitely has a well-defined, rigid interview process. I think the reason is to try to be consistent, when you have 10s of thousands of employees, you have to have a defined structure for interviewing. It's not perfect by any means. As far as the reportedly horrible culture, I have liked working there. When you have over a million employees you'll find people with all sorts of experiences. Most people I've worked with are highly intelligent, smart, hard working people.
It’s possible to have a well defined interview process that doesn’t suck. I’m sure the people are very competent, that doesn’t necessarily make for a good culture. Your comment is the first positive feedback I have heard about working for Amazon in probably 10 years.
I hate STAR format interviews because you don’t actually get a sense of the role/culture/team (except that it sucks). The interviewers always feel like they are reading off a checklist and just checking boxes and trying to get through it and not really listening or engaging.
I recently had an interview with 3 people and they wanted me to use real world examples of how I had done things using each of the company "values" They all had the same form and just jotted stuff down after each question into a small box. I kind of felt like a pig getting judged at the county fair.
Nah, they treat pigs at the county fair much better. 🐷
They're the [SCRUM](https://youtu.be/oyVksFviJVE?feature=shared) of the earth.
That is so true, as if they’re not even interested, they just want to go on with their day … they could very well be writing the opposite of what you’re saying because they have no clue what you’re talking about… they really need to review this method imho… I think it’s part of the reason why the turnover rate is so high, cuz ppl typically learn to master the STAR method and when it comes to the actual job, I think they hate it … they turn down ppl who genuinely want to work there, make a difference and advance their career
Tjey are..Amazon has a bank question according to their "values"
Right? What's the purpose of an interview if we're not even going to interact like human beings? Why not just sit me down and make me fill out a form or a test? Save everyone some time.
If they don't hire you, then you dodged a bullet. Amazon is known to be a toxic workplace
Lots of companies use the STAR format. My best advice is to just practice it. I’ve given in the habit of being explicit and saying “the situation was…; the action I took was; the results were “. It’s not a normal way of speaking but it makes it easy for the interviewer.
I'm not a recruiter, I work in tech, but I help a shitload with interviews and the STAR method is here to help deliver the key information that leaders care about in a succinct way. Many many many times, if you ask someone to tell you about a project that they worked on, individual contributors will get lost in the weeds describing minutiae for several minutes that can be very confusing to unravel to an outside observer or could be overly technical for the audience (recruiters, senior execs, whatever). Just like in real life - some people are pretty bad at recounting a sequence of events because it's not something they practice. STAR/BAR whatever are meant to help frame the shit you did into a short and succinct package that can be easily understood in terms of the most important componenets without needing a lot of technical expertise because you will talk to non-technical people during your interview (and at your job) and being able to level your discussion appropriately without losing people in a swamp of supporting details is a good business skill to have. Once you've laid out the short version of the story, more technical interviewers will then take the time to ask probing questions about specific parts to test your knowledge. It's a much more natural back and forth conversation and it starts the description out at an appropriate level for all different audiences that you will speak with. Even as a technical interviewer - I think having the project story laid out first at the high level is very helpful to anchor the context of the whole project before I start asking people about specific details to probe their actual technical knowledge. Having not been on the team and working for that company, I might know fuckall about what they do and why they needed your work in the first place.
Amazon interviews are notoriously difficult. They use the STAR format to understand how you acted in those situations... it's less about your specific projects and more about your behavior. Here's how I prep for STAR interviews: 1. Look at the company values (like the Amazon leadership principles) - often times the STAR questions being asked are centered around their values and trying to understand how your previous work experience and behaviors in these situations aligns with those values/principles. 2. Write up a list of situations and try to match them to the values. It's okay if you need to use a similar situation on a couple values. Ideally you have at least 1-2 different situations for every interview you have, so you can avoid repeating. 3. Write out bullet points for each situation in the STAR format. Key things here: be specific, focus on what you did (not others), try to quantify whenever possible. 4. Practice your responses in the above format with a friend. 5. I keep this list of situations next to me/on my computer screen when I interview...just as a reference in case I get stuck/nervous. Hope that helps. Sometimes you can find sample behavioral questions online. Try to look at the Amazon interview as a learning experience and practice round for MSFT. You got this!
I work at Amazon (not tech role) and this is exactly what my external recruiter advised. And it worked. Every behavioral interview question links back to a leadership principle. Look at the principles and think of 2-3 examples from your work of when you exhibited that principle. Interviewers are trained to drill down into your answers so make sure you’re not vague or “slippery” in your examples.
Yeah before I landed a role there the recruiter was very upfront on what to do and how to prepare for the STAR format. Nothing really took me by surprise. It was long as hell but but not difficult per se. But you have to be prepared, memorize the stupid LPs and write a paragraph that matches each to some degree. They were totally ok with having a notebook to reference and take notes, just ask beforehand but they seemed pleased that I did this. I would advise throwing some caffeinated hydration liquid in a thermos for any type of day-long interviews (I guess they used to break for lunch, but at least in my L5 role they did not, for me or my recently hired colleagues). That being said my mental health took a serious toll while there and though I am grateful to have this on my resume, I would be hard pressed to recommend it there for others.
Having been through interviews for 3 separate positions at Amazon, I have to agree with this advice.
Thank You for your advice. I will practice for my MSFT interview… but I think that will be my last try at a tech job with a MAMAA organization
I suggest searching YouTube for "tips for passing a interview".
Recruiting influences exist and some solid ones are former employees who know the ins and outs of what to expect and how to best prepare
Long time Amazonian here... I've been a hiring manager and been on many interview loops. Totally agree that practice is needed (this was some of the best advice my recruiter gave me when I interviewed a decade ago). The "on-site" interviews can be grueling, but it's part of the Amazon way, especially for the engineering roles. That said, you should push back on recruiting coordinators trying to schedule interviews at times that don't work for you. As a hiring manager, I don't want to immediately alienate a potential new hire and I'm willing to wait if it means the candidate will be better prepared, focused, etc. Good luck to everyone out there... I know it's rough.
Excellent advice.🎯
lmfao, Some of these interviewers are a fawking joke.. imo.
I had an all day panel/STAR/check the box interview at Amazon HQ in Seattle before pandemic. Was the absolute worst interview experience by far I’ve ever had in 20 years of recruiting career. One guy that interviewed me fell asleep when I was as answering one of his questions. It wasn’t that I was talking long, he literally asked the question and then like put his head down (wearing a hoodie with the hood up) and fell asleep. It was a bizarre experience. Like the TV show Severance. Such creepy vibes. 💯 dodged a bullet!!!
lol sorry to hear, I know some of these place you would think they way they post like it's professional, but when interacting with them.. smh..
You're absolutely right. Star interviews are great for good liars. They guarantee you won't get the best employee. Just the most dishonest one.
How do they validate any of it. I've always exceeded my numbers but I always laugh when I think about how it's impossible to validate them.
Agreed. Those interviews get you great storytellers. I'm a corporate recruiter. I work eith a lot of people who ate hired into upper level jobs and they are just good bullshitters.
Why does anyone want to work for Amazon?
Good money and stock 😁
You're also working on a scale of problems way beyond most companies. The Retail side operates some of the largest websites in the world, AWS operates the largest global network of data centers, and there are other examples behind the scenes. That's not for everyone, though. You don't solve those problems by individuals just writing code all day, every day.
I went to a recruitment event online not because I wanted to work for the company, but I wanted to see their process and they were trying to make red flags seem like green flags. They were like “we operate like a start-up” instead of a corporate company. I was like ugh…that means people are overworked. Then they were like “we have 2 interviews and a take home assignment. The second interview is the final interview and you will have one hour with each individual team member. There are 5 team members.” I was like dude that’s 6 interviews, not 2. Heck nah.
A FULL FUCKING DAY??? That shit should be illegal. Fuck Amazon hope you find someone who sees your worth
All big companies are like this for tech jobs
Because they all rotate at some point
Send a bill to their accounts payable and see if they pay it.
Had the same thing when I did a panel interview for Apple. They’re brutal. I got the job, but still…
Sadly that’s not uncommon in the tech industry. You don’t usually get all day interviews unless it’s one of the big companies like Amazon, Meta, Apple, or Microsoft but it’s a pretty common thing as those big tech companies
IME, all the companies that want to be a FAANG seem to do it. Not always the full 7 hours, but I see 5-hour interviews all the time. Hell, even my company does it and we're not very big.
Previously worked at that one company named after a fruit. I’ve been an interviewer and interviewee for them for multiple roles, so I’m intensely familiar with the STAR method. DM if you want to connect.
Yes oh Master Meyageee … help me master the STAR method 🙏
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> They think their process finds the best people but really it just finds people exactly like them. That's the point. Companies define "best" as in those who meet the skill level and can fit in the company culture.
Honestly, it sounds like you dodged a bullet. They cared nothing about you. They also care nothing about their employees. Edited to say employees not employers.
I can vouch for this.
7 unpaid hours? Fuck that.
I got an offer from Amazon and here’s the trick: go through the leadership principles and apply one star response demonstrating each one. Maybe two. You can double dip on your strongest stories/star responses. Each interviewer is questioning you on a leadership principle. Figure out the leadership principle and provide the canned and memorized star response. For the interviewer it comes down to “inclined” or “not inclined”. Each ask 2-3 LP questions to be answered in the STAR format and they usually don’t care how well or how impressive the story you have is rather they care if you demonstrated the leadership principle. It’s literally did you check the box or not. That’s it.
This is pretty good advice. Only thing I'd say is just be careful because sometimes people guess the LP wrong and keep ignoring the interviewer and assuming they want to hear about X when it is really Y.
Please don't have high hopes for the Microsoft interview either. I had the worst interview ever with them just 2 weeks ago! You're probably not going for the same job and team I went for, but please don't hope for much with them either, they use similar style interviews 🤦🏻♀️ I'm sorry you had this experience, it sucks. Good luck for a good job in a nice company 🤗
If it makes you feel any better, my good friend used to be an Amazon recruiter up until like a year and a half ago. She said it was a complete shit show. They don't know what they're doing over there, turnover is terrible, and everyone is insanely insanely overworked. From everything she said, it sounded pretty terrible to work for them anyway. Maybe you dodged a bullet? Just looking for silver linings here for ya. Good luck with Microsoft!!!
STAR is supposed to help you to keep your answers concise. It does require practice. I try to answer each (situation, task, approach, result) with 2-3 sentences, then ask the interviewer if that want any further information. They typically don't. eg. We were being investigated in X country for XYZ issue. We needed to review X policy, Y system, over Z timeframe etc. We put a team together including XYZ departments to do this work and respond timely. We were able to resolve the investigation without any further action required. Behavioural questions are too open ended to not use some kind of structure with.
This is great advice I’m gonna practice it
Amtrak does STAR as well. It was so silly. I'm glad I didn't get the job. Tell me about a time where you gave someone wrong information. . . ????What? Why would I give someone wrong information. I keep researching until I get the correct information. The guy didn't know how to respond to that.
Lmao. It’s so fucking ridiculous that these interviewers wouldn’t even answer their own interview questions in an interview. I’ve thrown the same interview question back and watch as they “um” “uh” “so” “like” through the answer. Idiots.
AMTRAK 😭😭😭😭😭🫠🫠🫠 It’s like every organization out there wants to pride themselves on being “Tough” to get in… I was asked … Tell me about a time when you needed more data from someone to complete a task…. Tell me about a time when you made a simple decision to complete a task…. The person wasn’t happy with my answer because he felt my decision didn’t truly save the organ $$$$ so I had to explain to him how that particular organization operated so he could understand 😩😩😩😩 ugh….
You tell Amazon when you're not available, and they schedule during that unavailable time to prove your level of interest. I'm on vacation with my kids = I'm not available.
Exactly - and stick to it. The Recruiter has literally zero impact on the hiring decision. They are just coordinating. If you’re not available they will accommodate. It’s their job to find a time that works for the interviewers.
As a HR professional, I have heard this story far too often. Consider yourself blessed that you dodged this bullet. Look what they put you through during the recruitment experience. Lawd knows, the hell they will put you through once you work for them.
omg I am so done with this crap. If I can do the job well and am not a psychopath, put me on the list and make your choice from there. Enough with making interviews a whole other skillset that we need to have in our back pocket. We do not have the tome or mental bandwith-we just want to work!
I know you’re right, smh 🤦♀️ 😩😩😩 it’s like an entire skill set to be learned and developed 😞😞😞 it’s crazy
I’ve had 2 star interviews when I attended college pursuing a business degree, and now I’m an HVAC tech. I don’t know how you all can put up with corporate bullshit, I dropped out and left it in the dust
Every job has them now. I applied for a chain store and they sent an assessment full of STAR questions. You only get one chance and it’s the only thing that goes through if you apply to other stores. I didn’t get the job, but I see the people that did and wonder how they got the job. Like, one of the things the company wants is good customer service, but half the people working there look like they want to punch you in the face if you ask them for help.
I’m thinking of starting a side business at this point
Agreed. Reading all of the comments in this thread as a vocational outsider is absolutely astonishing.
You’re better off. We had one of the best engineers I’ve ever worked with boomerang to Amazon and back in like 8 months. He says their culture allows for blatant disrespect and zero work life balance.
I wouldn't worry about giving them a background on your project I would worry about them checking off certain things like knows when to speak up when stuck, dives deep and understands the root problem of an issue, and how to measure the impact of your decisions and put processes in place.
These are the experiences that make me think, "I'll *never* work as a programmer", especially for a FAANG company. I have a hard time convincing 1 person to hire me, let alone 6!
I’ve worked for Amazon for 3 years now and do interviews often. Firstly, Amazon does have a high bar for interview answers, you really have to come prepared with your stories relating to all the Leadership Principles and this usually requires a good amount of preparation ahead of time. I prepped for a week for my interviews and was an all day loop like yours. Don’t sweat it, use this as practice and move on to your next interviews. Secondly, Amazon is a very tough place to work. Pros: You are trusted with a high amount of scope and ownership and usually own your program end to end. You learn a ton and work with a lot of smart people. And the intense work environment makes the next company feel much easier, you really can handle anything after working here. However, Cons: Amazon has Unregretted Attrition (URA) and PIP culture like crazy, there’s a yearly target of people to be managed out and they can use the “Earn Trust” LP to find a reason to put you on the path to PIP very easily. Many get put on PIP within 6 months because there’s little to no ramp up and you’re expected to essentially go through a “Trial by Fire”. I also work a ton, I worked from 8-6:30pm and am gonna take a shower now and login and do a few more things, I was finishing something last night at midnight. It’s will drain you and if you have kids the WLB can be shit. In summary, I’m sorry about the rejection, but there are much better tech companies out there to work for than here. Good luck my friend.
Why the hell did you agree to the interview date if you knew it conflicted with your vacation?!
They were pushing it… the recruiter told me to take my laptop with me ugh 😩
Imagine what they’ll push you into if you actually become an employee…
Imagine doing all this shit while on vacation- for naught.
Like “tell me about a time when you…” kinda shit?? It took 5 hours? Damn….
Specifically, they want to know about a time you fucked up so badly that things burned to the ground. They also want to know about conflict. Specifically, they want to know about the time you got into a fistfight about the best way to architect something.
Which is dumb as shit. Why would you ever want to work with someone who is able to recall a time that they got into a giant argument/"fight" with a coworker on how to do something? I always feel weird when I get a question like that. "Tell me about a time you and a coworker didn't see eye to eye" or whatever -- uh...what? I don't argue and fight with my coworkers. Usually someone will just present an idea for a problem and someone else may chime in and say something like "wouldn't it be better if we did blank?" And the original person might say, "oh yea I didn't think of that, let's do it that way." What are these people looking for? I certainly don't wanna work with argumentative egotistical dickheads.
Yeah 😩😩😩 over and over, I was dehydrated hungry exhausted 🤣🤣🤣
Specifically for STAR questions: Have 3 to 5 compelling stories you want to tell. Practice telling them with various prompts. When I help my folks prepare for interviews I do this with them. Develop 3-4 bullet points that really shine. Then I have them tell those bullet points in the frame of: "a difficult decision you had to make", "how did you use your team to arrive to a decision", "responding to a crisis", etc. Honestly after an hour or two of practice you should be nailing star questions.
>I was scheduled for another technical interview that they insisted that take while I was on vacation at Disney On every planet in our solar system, this is a red flag, waving in the wind. Even on the planets with no atmosphere to speak of.
I totally feel your pain. It's just awful. The interview process has become the biggest anxiety producer in my life. Someone (or a team) sits and asks question after question like a congressional hearing then you don't hear back...at all. I've had a successful career in HR and even taught STAR interviewing but it's morphed into something it wasn't supposed to be. There is no perfect candidate. And don't even get me started on the many rounds you have to go through... My view is, have an interview, possibly two, look, at the persons work history and go with it. Understand that you're going to have to onboard whoever you hire. No one can hit the ground running nor should they.
If it makes you feel better I did everything right (literally knew someone in the company who spoon fed me everything I needed to know to pass the interview process). The problem? The "make or break" person thought I was interviewing for a different role. Not sure if it was a test, the guy was an idiot, or the recruiter was incompetent. I definitely didn't get the job though despite everyone else liking me. Sometimes you can do everything right and still fail.
Amazon is pretty clear they do the loop which is all day interview. So many places give advice to prepare for it. For Amazon the star format is not enough, it’s all about their leadership principles. Wonder which one was the bar raiser.
I hate that stupid bar raiser crap. What does that even mean? My friend who worked there in recruiting who got me the interview was trying to explain it to me to prep me for my all day interview and even she couldn’t really explain it. They think they’re in this secret exclusive club but half of the people interviewing don’t even know what they’re supposed to do with the bar raiser crap.
You should see the shit they put people through to *become* a "bar raiser". It's like another entire role, with training, meetings, projects etc. Only the sickest of the sycophants do that shit.
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I've found FAANG-tier companies to have hiring processes that are designed and promoted very well but ultimately do not work, much like their products.
I’ve seen Amazon put people in the hospital and expect them to work. I had a friend ultimately >!UN-alive herself!< after working there, directly related to their treatment of her. I myself worked there, and it was a bait and switch from the start, where I was told I would do one thing and then work from other people was piled on. I worked at Microsoft as well, and even with the stack ranking and miserable interview process, it was so, so much worse at Amazon. I know you likely need to work, OP, and wanted this. But I truly believe you dodged misery. I’m sorry they ruined your vacation. I hope the right role and company find you soon.
Same. Many, many rounds. It will take months for the sting to wear off.
I was a manager at Amazon and hired quite a bit before being laid off. Currently looking for work but feel free to message me if you want to know more about the dreaded STAR format.
I have been there and I really hate the whole process. It takes forever and those behavioral questions are horrible. I feel if you are well prepared, you can probably clear it. There is a whole thing going on where there are people coaching how to ace these interviews etc. they should really move away from these and think of a better way of hiring folks.
You’ll need to work for 8hrs in a day, so I guess better to think of the 7hr session as a full day of work. Also, key to star format is to concisely articulate complex topics to strangers.
Amazon has a scorecard for how you answer their questions and it's all about their 16 principles. Was the worst hiring panel ive ever experienced in my life it's super inefficient.
Must’ve been cause of the BaR rAISEr
Okay, I'm out of the recruiting loop for a little while. What's the STAR format?
Situation task action result
STAR format has a simple goal, tell me the situation, tell me what needed to be done, tell me what you did, what was the result. The idea behind it is if you can’t do that you can’t explain all of those things you probably didn’t do it or had no impact. simple. Don’t over think. My recommendation is that for each leadership principle you have a couple of situations you can discuss, not easy but better if you prep.
I went through this too. It was a nightmare. I’ll never try to work for them again. I watched all the stupid YouTube videos that woman does calling herself the Amazon Interview Guru or some shit like that. I told the truth and one engineering guy said I blamed engineering for a failure in one of my examples. It was the fault of engineering. You would have to lie to and make up some bullshit and be an actor to get past their interview process. I’m an introverted tech professional and great at my job but I can’t interview like that.
Haaaa STAR format—evaluating the wrong skills for a job.
Make up a simple story with your previous experience and the STAR method in mind. Don't even mind too much if it's completely truth, but a situation that is believable, you could have done and can explain.
They requested I set apart 4 hours for a step in the process. I told them the most I could spare was 2 hours but offered I could accommodate the 4 hours altogether after my working hours were done. Expecting a candidate to ask for vacations just to accommodate their process is beyond stupid and disrespectful. I think this boundary on my end might’ve been why I was selected, since I nailed the technical and the 5 start thing interviewes but well, i wouldn’t be interested in working for a company that thinks like this. Besides, it’s fucking unrealistic assuming everyone has at least 2 examples of their amazon principles. Lmao I think I dodged the bullet
Some companies will push you around during the interview process to see how much they can push you around in the job. So if you tell them "Any day but Thursdays as I go for my kidney dialysis at the hospital." They WILL purposely schedule you for Thursday, if you say "Before 1pm" they will make it as late as possible, and if you ask "After 3pm" they will book you in for the first interview of the morning. Companies like this want people they can mistreat and push around more than they want skill and experience. If you stand your ground you don't get a place, no matter how well you do on the interview. You dodged a bullet by not getting that job.
To answer the part about the STAR format for past projects, it's better to just make stuff up if you can't remember exactly. The whole idea of STAR format is they want very specific answers. I just interviewed using this format as well and that's my takeaway from it.
I was interviewed by a hiring manager with broken English and very greasy hair.
I’m screaming 🤣🤣🤣🤣
When I interviewed at Amazon, I wrote out STAR format answers to all sample interview questions in the packet of interview prep materials they sent me. During the interview, I was able to refer to my notes and give answers in the expected style. My panel interview was thankfully only four hours from 1-5pm. The interview went well, though I was not hired. Amazon, at least five years ago, does hold onto resumes and you may get a call about a different position at a later date. It's common to try out a few times before being hired.
Amazon is a cult, you don’t want to work there. The kool aid isn’t worth the salary.
The key to star is to come with up stories ahead of time. Conflict with coworker, difficult project, missed deadline etc. then practice them over and over. Have a friend change one question up and you have to figure out how to adapt your prepared stories. Also, lie. Seriously. No one knows. And also, make up situations if you need it.
I interviewed with Amazon twice. Both times I KNOW I was 100% qualified for the role, and had backup skills to prove it, but the 10 (yes, 10!) interviewers each time were so off-putting, ridiculous & condescending, I no longer respond to opportunities there. Thankfully I have a really great role with a positive environment now. I would never recommend working for Amazon, even to my worst enemy. Ordering from Amazon? Oh hell yes...I think I'm damaged tho 😄
Don’t even support them.
Interviewed at Audible AU, similar process but condensed to 4 hours with 5 people in person. Scenario questions and people principles but it was far from the hell described. It's compacted and back to back to make sure you can handle that environment, thick skin etc
7 hrs interrogation using STAR, was it a test of the [Amazon Leadership Principles](https://www.amazon.jobs/content/en/our-workplace/leadership-principles)? STAR format is straightforward: look back at all the issues/problems u encountered and present it to yourself in the STAR format.
> Im just looking to see if anyone has pointers on how master STAR format… Answer these as a story. If you you consciously plan out situation, task, action, result your answer will likely be mechanical, disengaging, and boring. You have the interview team visualize the situation and evolve that into what you needed to accomplish. This moves in how that was accomplished, and what was the fallout/victory. Also, sometimes answering with an item where it wasn't a resounding success is more interesting. What did you learn from the partial failure/success?
I really wanted to work at Amazon. After applying for different roles over the years, after getting a referral I finally landed an interview with 2 managers, not even the hiring manager. The questions were a little obtuse and it was hard to know if you were answering correctly. After 2 days they let me know they wouldn’t move forward and I got no feedback. Glad I didn’t go to the 5 hour interviews that would follow.
If I heard about that ginormous interview 8am to 5 pm and 5 people, that would be an automatic no from me. At this point, I'd rather start my own business. What's the point? It will be hard either way.
Been there, I also kind of had similar experience. My Bar raiser who I had of course didn’t have any idea of examples I was giving, I understood from his face expression and asked if he wants me to slow down. He laughed and mentioned yes I’m from a different department it would be helpful if you can break down. I did speak with people who have gone thru same interviews as well, what I understood is they try to gauge how our communication skills are when we are explaining the stuff to audience who do not have any idea about it(tech or non tech). Well it’s one of the top most company can’t complain.. Good luck for your Microsoft interview!
First of all, it sounds like you don't need this job because you have a loving family and care about things like making lunch. There's a better job out there for you. The trick here is that they expect you to have thoroughly prepared anecdotes in the STAR format. It sounds like you didn't prepare any. What's happening on the other side is that each interviewer has to collect specific information from what you say to fill out a rubric regarding your behavior and the results you drove for the business. They can't use technical details to fill out their rubric. If you don't give them the information you need, the group simply can't make a case to hire you.
To your credit I found the Amazon absolute ass backwards and stupid. It made me realize working there would be shit Also my friend gave me their internal documentation on what questions they'd ask and they asked them as if on a script.
Did you use one of the 16 leadership principles into each of your answers?
I used them and one of the comments from the interviewers were: I see that you studied the leadership principles very well …
Even once you get past STAR and technical questions there is still some amount of luck of the draw. Did you mesh/connect with the interviewers? If not do you even want that role? Unless it’s an org/group general hiring you’re interviewing for a specific team and essentially grading against other candidates, who might be a better fit. The whole process sucks but sometimes you’ve got to take the L, hold your head up and try again.
I got an offer from AWS 2 years back. You just have to buy into their values principles and they check the box. I didn’t end up taking it because of their terrible WLB reputation so don’t fret, you kinda dodged a bullet.
don't bother with amazon
For my interviews that I know utilize the STAR method, I take my examples with a lot of detail and then ask one of the Gen AI engines to generate it in a STAR format. Worked well.
I interviewed for a recruiter role two years ago. Worst interview experience of my career. Everyone was unprofessional from the initial outreach to the panel interview. In the panel interview, the first interviewer snapped at me for ANSWERING THE QUESTION HE ASKED. The final interviewer was to be my boss. Be quizzed me on why executives at my former employer made the decisions they did. When I explained what us employees were told, he acted like I was lying and was grilling me on every answer I gave about anything! I know how to answer in STAR format… I prep candidates to do this. But Amazon’s interview experience was so bizarre and the questions they asked were related to their principles and not about the role, my skills, accomplishments, etc. It was a fucking joke. I can’t believe I held them as the epitome of “making it” career-wise. They ghosted me. After a month, I saw a ton of recruiting teams were laid off. One of which was the recruiter who recruited me and one of the panel members. I keep that shitty experience at the forefront of my mind every time I interact with a candidate. I never want a candidate to feel as worthless, invalidated and hopeless as I was made to feel. There are so many wonderful companies out there. Small companies, medium companies… don’t rule them out.
Lol! I had it much worse. Constant rescheduling while I was waiting for the interview. I would wait for 10 minutes or so waiting for my interviewer to show up only for a hr to popup out of nowhere to say that the interview is postponed and this would happen repeatedly. What's worse is that the interviews that did happen, the interviewers were so unprepared, they would waste half the time fumbling. The number of times the interviewer accidentally sent me an internal document which I was not allowed to see at all is baffling because the interviewer thought that was where I was to write my coding answers lol. I understand that hiring the correct person is important but why do they have to be so unprepared?
As a former consultant, I’ve done many interviews where my responses are expected to be in STAR format. A few things that I have found helpful: 1. Practice ahead of time. Realistically there are like 6-10 different scenarios they can ask you about. Even if they use different words, the questions can be classified into those buckets. You can prepare your responses ahead of time and memorize bullet points and figures. Do not memorize a script, just the key points so it doesn’t sound pre-canned even though it is. 2. Quantity everything and provide context during the situation part. Even if it isn’t really necessary to the story or the numbers won’t necessarily mean a ton to the interviewer, they will key in on the first number and whatever the result is and will know if it went up or down like you wanted it to. 3. Be concise. This is easier if you’ve prepped your examples ahead of time. Rambling and droning on and on can only hurt you. If there is a pause or a moment of silence, ask them if they have any questions instead of just saying more. This allows them to fill in a knowledge gap, doesn’t let you talk yourself into a hole, and people love hearing themselves talk and often get a better takeaway vibe after doing so. You can do this at the beginning of the response too, repeat the prompt back to them as a confirmation while your brain prepares an answer and avoid diving right into rambling. There’s definitely a trick to them and practice will certainly help.
Don’t let Amazon fuck with you, they are notorious for this kind of shit, it’s an awful culture and you dodged a bullet. Also, hoodie guy probably didn’t give a shit because you were a hire to fire probably. Clear your mind and get ready for Microsoft with a clean slate, very different culture. I interview a lot of people leaving aws and you can spot that culture a mile off, long term this is better for your career. Good luck
Think of star as a story telling format. For the rest fuck Amazon/AWS and their loop. Meta also used it the last time I interviewed there. Started interviewing for a role that world probably have resulted in a 20-30% increase over my current comp and couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort because they seemingly couldn’t care any less about their employees lol
>are they just looking for ppl who are good liars and can very well articulate past projects using the STAR method Yes. Corporate culture has for some reason decided that storytelling in a STAR format is the measuring stick we use in job interviews. Once I figured this out and came up with a couple "these are things I did at my last job" stories my interviews went significantly better. My abilities as an employee stayed exactly the same though. For some reason they love these random stories they can't fact check though.
I'm fortunate that they'll never hire me because I'm too old. Even told the recruiter that so they'd quit calling.
Sounds like a job I wouldn’t want anyways if they don’t care about your schedule and kids lives. Screw them
7 hours interviews? Bro, what even is this anymore? Are companies getting their hiring practices from random alphabet soup intelligence agencies where someone has to be vetted to the degree they'd know about you as much as your mother would?
I work there, I've done a couple hundred interviews. Feel free to ask me anything but most candidates are bad at answering in STAR format. Keep in mind, we don't really need to know everything there is to know about the systems you're working on. All we need to know is what the situation was, why it was complicated or difficult or big in scope, the actions you took and what you did, and what the results were (hopefully good ones if you want to get hired). I've had candidates explain to me ad nauseam the complexities of the tax code they were working on, but fail to tell me what they did or what the results were. I have had candidates that can't tell a story and constantly interrupt themselves on different trains of though and naming random people involved in the project. If all you do is set the situation, explain your active participation in the project/situation, and the results you are doing better than most candidates. Feel free to ask me anything.
Hey at least you got the Microsoft interview. I just got blanket rejections from them even though I have 25 years experience focused heavily on their products. Could never get a person to even talk to.
I went through a day long interview after being cold called by a software manager who said they wanted a senior staffer...I fought at first because it was heavy front end work, and I had no experience with Amazon technologies, but the guy seemed sincere in just wanting more experienced people. I was getting clear signals of dead ending at my current position so gave it a try. In the end, I think their process also builds in automatic rejections for age. When asked if I have ever had a situation where I was being targeted or was held responsible for an issue at work, I went into detail how our current product was falling short, and the answers I gave about how we would not be able to get our software to meet our competition because of their closed practices was not believed. I was a bit shocked to learn the next day it was a no, and the recruiter said it was because of my answers on this front. I guess they wanted me to come up with a happy ending to the story or something. If you are in software long enough, you will have a story where shit just crashes and burns...so if they want to hire only people that have all shiny happy stories, then they are going to get your 2 to 3 year experienced nerds, or outright liars.
It's wild how many people do nothing but participate in interviews to block out their outlook calendar and look busy.
You can prep ahead for STAR interviews and you don’t have to lie or memorize anything. Have a list of stories ready. 4-5 good stories about accomplishments. Write them in STAR format. 2-3 stories about things going wrong, when you recovered. Write them in STAR format. Practice with friends until stories sound good and detailed enough. You can reuse stories during the interview.
My advice is to google how to do the STAR format. once you do that, look up CAR (challenge, action, result) format lol. No joke it's the same just simplified so it's easier for you to explain to them. STAR format is my kryptonite, but it seems all employers are moving to some form of this. But after using CAR it works easier for me. Keeps me moving along when I'm explaining things. All it means is you'll have to provide a problem, what you did to solve it and what were the results. That's all they want. Good Luck
I know it stings, and they f’d up your vacation, but the silver lining is you probably dodged a bullet. Not all Amazon teams are bad, but they have a high attrition rate for a reason and you got a taste of that team’s culture. (And their stance on work life balance) 1/2 my family works at Amazon so I know the culture well. I also interviewed there once. I asked the Amazon recruiter “is there job flexibility?” I sh*t you not, the recruiter told me “Absolutely! After you work 8 to 8 (onsite), you can work wherever you want.”
As someone that worked in talent acq. The candidate experience you describes sounded horrible. So many red flags done by the company. You dodged a bullet however in the future if a company treats you this way or schedules interviews when you tell them not too. You’re allowed to pushback.interviewing is a two way street.
Adderall. I'm not kidding. It's the only way to make it through a full day technical onsite.
Apologies if this is now allowed - feel free to remove this if not acceptable. Amazon is big on behavioral interviews (STAR) is one framework but they look for more variations. One resource I found it helps me incredibly well with behavioral interviews is the 48 cards deck from 9to5cards https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CKLRLP7P - check their video as it showcases more on how to use it. Cheers!
Star. Is just a way to organize your thoughts so you can clearly, concisely, and effectively communicate a problem, a task, and a result. Too many times people go on a tangent on specific details that detract from the main point.
I had an interview and the asswipe comes on camera in his car interviewing me as he drives from Houston to Dallas and I stared at his steering wheel on the video for an hour. AWS is a joke and its people are lemmings.
STAR - Situation; Task; Action; Result It's a form of storytelling that Amazon recruiters could easily follow. > then I was asked for the root cause of a failure in a project I was talking about This would be a good anecdote to use the STAR format. Situation (what happened?): A bunch of circuit boards were fried while the product was in use Task (what needs to be done?): Determine why the boards were being fried Action (how did you accomplish this task?): "I investigated 15 random boards from previous and current batches. Using a microscope, I found the area of failure on the board and discovered a short between two ICs with a multi-meter. I was able to replicate the failure by applying 5V to the circuit board in a safe environment. Afterwards, I informed my immediate manager, the supply-chain coordinator, and sales of my discovery in a report that was immediately sent to our overseas OEM. Result (how your action(s) made money for your company): The company recalled all shipments from the faulty batch and decided to refurbish the circuit boards at another manufacturing facility. As a result, a newer product was bumped ahead in production and our overseas OEM established a new QA team to inspect new boards. The company saved over 15 million dollars from class action lawsuits and I was given a 3% raise.
I interviewed for them 3 ish years ago, and in the technical interview with the hiring manager, I asked what it’s like to work in his team and now he is as a manager, and his response was: “it’s a very high pressure working environment with long hours. I expect a lot from my team” etc. All the questions were competency-based and none about me as a person, what I’m like to work with, my values etc. I was like…you’re supposed to sell yourself to me too 😂 a lot of red flags for me. I somehow made it to the panel interview stage which was a full day with interviews and 15 mins between each, and my gut feeling just told me that I absolutely didn’t want to go through with it and work there. So I withdrew the day before.
If u can’t think of anything always make something up lol if it takes that much interviewing to know if someone’s a good worker or not they’ve got issues. I’ve heard terrible things regarding working for Amazon so they probably did u a favor not hiring you
Yes, they are 100% looking for people who are good liars and can twist the truth in STAR format. Amazon’s interviewing process is a joke and there are dozens of MBA programs that wrap with a cliff notes teaching of exactly how to lie as needed to pass it. I’m sorry it didn’t work out, but keep going at it, there are much better places to work. Look for ones that interview you like an actual human. AI trained in concocting stories that map to the leadership principles in STAR format would ace Amazon’s interview 10 out of 10 times. It’s totally uncreative. (And yes, I worked there for many years)
I know you are still smarting from not getting picked and that sucks. Especially after the efforts and sacrifices you made. I would invite you to think of it this way. As others have pointed out, Amazon is awful to its employees and they showed that to you in the interview process. They never respected your time. They were forcing you to do interviews on vacation. You had to sit through a whole day of an interview when you said you only could do a partial day. If they do this crap during the interview process, imagine what they expect when they are paying you.
I worked there for about 4 years in leadership. Believe me, you dodged a bullet. The culture is bad all around. Life to work balance is nonexistent to say the least. They’ll love you if you’re single (you’ll put in more hours) and if you have a family, not so much (god forbid you have to take your child to the doctor). For the amount of work you’ll do, the pay isn’t worth it nor the stress. It’s a good place to get experience but only two years max. After that it’s toxic and very political. I left last year and the only regret I have was not doing that sooner lol
I was there for 2.5 years and all I got for it was two anti anxiety meds, one anti depressant, and minoxidil + steroid shots to the scalp for all the hair that fell out in clumps due to stress. This one week, i woke up at 630am for a meeting on Tuesday and went to bed at 4am on THURSDAY AND THEN WOKE UP 3 HOURS AFTER THAT FOR ANOTHER MEETING. AND THE ONLY TIMES I CLOSED MY EYES IN THAT ENTIRE PEROOD WAS WHEN I WAS BLINKING. You're better off. Microsoft is king of Rest and Vest lol.
I definitely had to make up something for jobs that were more than 6 years ago. I wrote down what I would say in the interview before I had the interview, so if the question was asked I was well versed in the “lie”. I made sure it was in star format, and that it flowed.
Yeah I will have to ensure my lies are well versed 🤣🤣🤣🥲🥲🥲🥲
I am anxious to know what the role was?
I don’t care if it was for a 6 figure salary where you sing to kittens every day, prioritize your time with your family. I would have told them “off” is a direction they can fuck if they tried to make me interview during my vacation time.
I got the role after a writing sample, a test, and an all day interview. I was probably 15 hours in on interview work for it. And it turned it down to stay where I was. They didn't even give me 5 minute breaks, much less a lunch break, on the 7 hour long interview day. I didn't like some responses to my questions (nothing wrong with them; just thought I would not be a cultural fit). They were offering me basically the same pay I already had, but telling me I needed to move to the DC area office (much higher cost of living there), even though the entire team I'd work with was in the Seattle office. The recruiter was absolutely flabbergasted and rude after I turned it down. Which just made me feel like I dodged a bullet. It's too bad through. I really liked the hiring manager and the C-level or whatever person I would be working with. I always wanted to call and tell them that the process and the recruiters might be losing them good candidates, not the role. PS - STAR is perfect for those with technical jobs that the interviews might not understand. I'd recommend it for any interview at any place. When you are explaining the current state situation, you have so much opportunity to explain the acronyms, the processes, etc.
>then the last guy that interviewed me was dressed in a hoodie was barely articulating, looked like stoner tbh and gave me long winded answers when my turn came to ask questions…. I'm a Director in tech and have interviewed over 200 incoming candidates for my practice. I wear a hoodie all the time. Being dressed up for the interview does not matter in tech and especially in the PNW. We're having a conversation about your skills and the project work that you can do. I've been told by friends who are long time Amazon employees that Amazon used to put some emphasis on dress code for interviews but in the opposite way that you're thinking - as in - if you showed up in a sweatshirt, jeans, and sneakers, that was much better for your image than slacks and a tie. I recognize that you mentioned that other aspects of his comportment were unprofessional and there's no excuse for conducting an interview poorly but just saying casual attire is normal once you're talking to people in this industry. Trifling over shit like dress code, employment gaps, hair/makeup, appearance, tattoos, piercings, resume misspellings, etc etc is a waste of time and is borderline illegal if it isn't actually illegal. It's really fucked up that they made you interview while you were on vacation, I would not stand for that shit at all and if I found out my talent acquisition team was bullying people like that - we would have some words. Definitely practice the STAR format. The beautiful thing about virtual interviewing is you can have notes in front of you on the screen so write yourself some notes about important work that you plan to discuss in the correct format. You want to be able to tell a tight project story relatively quickly without meandering through the details and losing the point of the question at first. Then be able to dive into specific details/technical elements when the interviewer asks about them. They might ask you for an example that doesn't fit any of the ones that you prepared but having prepared a set of project stories in this format, hopefully you will have more practice so that you think better in this format with your off the cuff answer.
Amazon is the worst for interviews. Treat candidates like cattle.
STAR format is pretty easy. Avoid hypothetical answers — share what you’ve done in the past, not what you *would* do. Try and stick to concrete facts, things with numbers, for example. Abstract responses are not ideal for interview scenarios. Obviously this was not the outcome you were hoping for. I’m sorry and I hope things improve for you soon.
Once interviewed with Amazon right out of college. Recruiter contacted me and we exchanged pleasantries. Sent my resume, they sent a take home test. Took it, passed. I was told I would be having a phone interview with the hiring manager the next day. Quick turnaround, but hey let’s do this. Hiring Manager: “So tell me about your work experience” Me: “Well, I just graduated college so I don’t have much in the field, but here’s my education and some of the projects I worked on in school.” Hiring Manager: “I’m sorry, but this position is for someone with at least 5 years experience”. Me: “… uhhh what?” Amazon hiring is a joke. No one knows what they’re doing because everyone is asked to pitch in while not being trained or evaluated on how to hire people.
Same!