Amazon interview preparation is one of the most important aspects that you need to pay attention to during the hiring process.
Today, considering the popularity of Amazon and the numerous applications the company gets every day, it is almost impossible to get your dream job at Amazon without proper preparation and knowledge of the process.
This Amazon interview preparation post will provide you with more information regarding the entire process, it also boosts your confidence going into your interviews.
Needless to say, by knowing the bells and whistles of the details of Amazon interview preparation, you will be familiar with the processes and eliminate all kinds of surprise elements.
Of course, being well prepared and knowing what to expect from each step will significantly affect your overall mood during the interview loops. In other words, interview preparation is one of the most important efforts that will help you to increase your chances of getting hired.
This is why we wanted to provide you with an in-depth guide, where you can learn about the Amazon interview processes. Please note that the processes may differ depending on the positions you are going to apply for and the country/state you’re in.
However, in general, every new candidate will go through the majority of the steps we have shared with you in this article.
Let’s get started!
Do you have an interview with Amazon?
Pro Tip
Make sure to check out our top-selling Amazon Interview Guide which comes with a full refund guarantee in case you fail your interviews.
Table of Contents
Why Do You Need to Prepare for Amazon Interview?
You spend a great deal on creating your resume, but honestly, it won’t matter if you have the perfect resume unless you’re also perfectly ready for the interview process. We are all human beings, and we tend to experience some level of anxiety in unfamiliar situations.
Due to their nature and purpose, Amazon interviews are one of these unfamiliar situations that trigger a fight or flight response.
As you might guess, this can significantly affect your overall performance during the hiring process. It is very important to get prepared for the interviews to minimize this response.
By getting prepared for your Amazon interview, i.e., being more familiar with possible scenarios, you can have full control over your emotions. Eventually, this will boost your performance and put you one step ahead of your competitors.
Another important factor you need to consider is the competition. Keep in mind that Amazon is one of the largest corporations in the world and everyone wants to secure their future by working in this company.
This means the number of applicants applying for the same position with you is relatively higher compared to regular companies. Thus, you need to show off your technical/personal/behavioral skills better and leave a good impression on any interviewer to get the job offer!
Amazon Interview Preparation in 3 Steps
The first thing you should do before starting to prepare for your Amazon interview is to understand the structure of the whole process. This way, you’ll be able to identify which areas you need to focus on.
After all, preparing for an Amazon interview can be a challenging task but if you know where and how to start, you will definitely feel more confident during the interviews. In this regard, you need to focus on some conceptual methods such as the STAR method.
So, let’s dive in and discuss how you can prepare yourself and get the job you want. As you know, before you start preparing for your Amazon interview, you need to analyze your strengths and weaknesses.
In order to make sure you don’t miss anything, you should conduct a self-assessment. To do so, you need to ask yourself questions like:
What am I good at? What am I not good at? How can I improve my weak points?
Once you’ve answered those questions, you should create a list of your strengths and weaknesses.
Afterward, you need to compare them with the requirements of the specific position you want to apply for.
Your Resume and Cover Letter Matters
Your resume and cover letter are usually the first and most important factors when applying for jobs at companies like Amazon. These two will help you to leave the first impression and decide whether you have a chance to get invited to interviews or not.
Make sure that you prepare a formal resume and cover letter depending on the requirements of the position you are going to apply for. The resumes for a human resource business partner and graphic designer should not, in fact, be the same.
So, you need to prepare a resume depending on the nature of your position and match the requirements or characteristics that recruiters would like to see.
Also, a recruiter can only spend at most five minutes reading a resume or cover letter. Thus, make sure that you share short and concise information on your resume.
Study Amazon Behavioral Questions
Regardless of the job you’re applying for, you will be interviewed by someone who asks behavioral questions during the hiring process.
These types of questions tend to cause people to freak out, but they’re the basic questions you’ll be asked in any Amazon job application.
Amazon interview questions let the recruiters have an opinion about how you are going to perform in your team, whether you will fit in the company culture, and your possible attitudes.
Amazon pays utmost attention to providing a peaceful working environment for its employees. This increases their performance, which increases the overall profitability of the company.
In this regard, it is proven that the STAR method works very well in answering behavioral questions and is required by recruiters when you answer their questions during the interviews. It is crucial to learn this method and take the advantage of it to provide satisfactory and efficient answers.
S.T.A.R. method consists of Situation, Task, Action, and Result. You can provide answers to questions by using this formula to provide precise answers, which are what recruiters would like to hear.
Learn The Amazon Leadership Principles
Leadership principles are very essential for Amazon, for all of the positions, and for all day-to-day processes. Amazon leaves and breathes its 16 Leadership Principles. Even if you don’t need any leadership skills in your next job, you will still be faced with these leadership-type questions.
The recruiting team would like to see that you take responsibility for what you and your team do. In other words, you need to take ownership of the duties and tasks, not only yours but also your colleagues.
Showing off your leadership skills by emphasizing these skills can significantly increase your chances of getting hired.
Additionally, you need to have a customer-centric approach no matter what you do. This does not mean that you should waive your responsibilities to make the customers happy.
Also, if you’d like to learn more, you might benefit from reading our “Amazon Leadership Principles” post and preparing yourself for the interview experience.
Amazon Interview Preparation: The Interview Process
Getting prepared for your interview is very important. This will not only let you get familiar with the processes you are going to undergo but also increase your self-confidence during the hiring process.
Who would you like to hire?
A potential candidate with very high self-confidence, who is capable of undertaking his or her responsibilities independently, or a candidate who is shy and does not sure about what to do next?
Thus, we wanted to compile the Amazon interview process to provide you with a better insight into what you are going to go through. In general, there are six main steps that you will have to go through before getting hired.
1. Application
Your resume, references, and cover letter are some of the most important ones to prepare for this step. Keep in mind that it will be your first contact point with Amazon. So, you need to make sure that your resume perfectly matches the job description and position you are applying for.
2. Resume Screening
Basically, you will have no control over this process after preparing a solid resume and submitting it during your application. From typos to formats and to fonts, you have to pay attention to every single detail to make sure that the tech giant will call you back.
During this process, your resume will be screened by the recruiters together with your references and cover letter. If you are selected, you will be called for the first interview meeting, i.e., a phone interview.
3. Phone Interview
Phone interviews often take about 45 minutes to an hour. An internal recruiter or human resources employee will be interviewing you. In general, this interview is designed to get to know you better.
So, you’ll be given some questions about your career history, and most of the time, they will be arranged chronologically. Phone interviews are usually formal and conducted for informational purposes.
4. Video Interview
A video interview may be held by the hiring manager or the manager of the department you may be working for. If you come this far, your chances of getting hired are increased, but you still need to overcome some challenges.
You need to get prepared in advance for information related to Amazon. The company itself, its culture, vision, and mission are some of the must-know facts.
Besides, you will be asked position-based technical questions if you are interviewing for a technical role, and all candidates regardless of the role will get asked questions related to the Amazon Leadership Principles. Make sure that you provide innovative answers to increase your likelihood to pass this interview as well, using the S.T.A.R. format.
5. Loop Interview
Loop interviews are the back-to-back interviews you are going to attend. The number of interviews varies depending on the position and level of the role, and they can be somewhere between four and seven back-to-back interviews. Your hiring manager will also be one of the interviewers in the loop session.
The content of the questions also varies and ranges from position-based questions to questions related to different teams. Interview loops are separate interviews and the final step before the offer so take every interview seriously.
Basically, you will be interviewed about all aspects of your position by different people. One of the main purposes of loop interviews is to check your cultural fit to the team and the organization as well, so make sure you get prepared for those questions as well.
6. The Offer
Well, if you reach this last step, then you deserve congratulations. This means you take our interview tips seriously and prepared yourself accordingly.
As we mentioned above, there are many steps involved in the Amazon interview process. Some of them require more effort than others.
At the offer stage, you are one step away from officially working for Amazon and being the new recruit of your department or team. The hiring manager may ask about your current or expected salary.
Later, human resources will send you a written offer and then ask you to give them a response in a few days. Keep in mind that if you believe you need to negotiate the offer, you need to do it before the meeting.
The offer amount and the total compensation package will depend on the role and level you have applied for (bear in mind that, sometimes Amazon may open a role as a senior role (e.g. L6 senior manager), but will offer a L5 position depending on your experience and your success during the interviews).
Also if you want to learn about the Amazon hiring process then read our blog post about this topic.
Amazon Interview Preparation: 3 Tips for to make the Process Easier
As you see, interviews can be quite challenging, especially if you are applying for global companies such as Amazon. With years of experience and some of the best employees in the industry, you need to be ready for long-lasting and challenging rounds of interviews.
However, there are some things that you can keep in mind for making the preparation processes easier for yourself. Here are three tips we highly encourage you to adopt.
Practice all the Leadership Principles Questions
Whether it will be a phone, video, in-person, group, or loop interview, you are going to be asked plenty of Amazon Leadership Questions. This is the nature of all interviews, and these questions may vary depending on the position you have applied for.
It will be a good idea to practice these questions and get prepared for them. Don’t forget that you must use the S.T.A.R. method while providing answers during the Amazon interviews.
If you need more information about this method, you can read our complete guide at the STAR method post.
Plan Your Interviews
Although this may seem a bit tricky and unclear, you can plan your interviews in advance. You should know what you want to discuss with each interviewer and how you would like to present yourself during the interview.
This way, you can prepare for the interview ahead of time and make sure you deliver the best possible performance.
We have already provided detailed information regarding the overall concept of each interview type in previous sections. Depending on these overall concepts, you can figure out what you may encounter during the interview sessions.
Get Professional Guidance
Although you may be interviewed by Amazon for the first time, keep in mind that the interviewers are doing this nearly every day for years. Thus, seeking professional help can be in your favor, especially if you really want to get the job.
Interviewjoy helps candidates to get the best preparation they can by connecting them with candidates that had the same experience before. You can benefit from the experience of former Amazonians and let them be your interview coach & or study their interview prep materials to get prepared in the best way possible!
Amazon Interview Preparation: Final Words
Amazon interview preparation can significantly increase your chances to get the job you have applied for. Unlike the interview processes of many other companies, your chances of getting a job at Amazon are getting lower every day due to the increasing demand.
As you can prepare on your own with our detailed guides, you can always seek professional assistance.
Since 2016, Interviewjoy helped thousands of candidates to get offers from Amazon with its highly-rated interview prep services created by recent candidates & Amazonians. Make sure to check out our best-selling services to find a relevant service for your interviews.
Alright! We covered the most important part of the Amazon interview preparation process in this article. If you’re looking forward to getting hired by Amazon, then follow the steps mentioned above.
You will definitely find them helpful!
