<aside> <img src="/icons/row_gray.svg" alt="/icons/row_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Amazon Interview Prep

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<aside> <img src="/icons/city_gray.svg" alt="/icons/city_gray.svg" width="40px" /> My Resume

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<aside> <img src="/icons/flash_gray.svg" alt="/icons/flash_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Job Description

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<aside> <img src="/icons/map-pin_gray.svg" alt="/icons/map-pin_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Sharpe Recruiting Ventures

📕  If you’re interested in learning more, please feel free to reach out to [email protected]. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn here.

🏢  Sharpe Recruiting Ventures is a technology recruitment firm that specializes in all things product and engineering.

🔖  My Notion Templates

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<aside> <img src="/icons/location_gray.svg" alt="/icons/location_gray.svg" width="40px" /> How to use this document: ****1. Review the Leadership Principals 2. Get comfortable with the STAR Format 3. Familiarize yourself with Common Question Categories 4. Build out an array of Personal Success Stories in the STAR format based on the former (or current) Employer, the related Question Category, and associated Leadership Principal. 4. Review Common Behavioral Questions and match the relevant Success Stories with the Common Question Categories 5. Finally, take some time to develop questions for the interviewers and review the relevant Amazon material.

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Leadership Principals

<aside> <img src="/icons/flag_gray.svg" alt="/icons/flag_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Amazon's leadership principles are a set of guidelines that define the way Amazon employees, especially leaders and managers, should act within the company.

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• Customer Obsession
• Ownership
• Invent & Simplify
• Are Right, A Lot
• Learn and Be Curious
• Hire and Develop the Best
• Insist on the Highest Standards
• Think Big
• Bias for Action
• Frugality
• Earn Trust
• Dive Deep
• Have backbone; Disagree & Commit
• Deliver Results
• Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer
• Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility

STAR Format

<aside> <img src="/icons/flag_gray.svg" alt="/icons/flag_gray.svg" width="40px" /> The Amazon STAR format is a structured way of responding to behavioral interview questions. It is used by Amazon and many other organizations to evaluate candidates' experiences and behaviors in specific situations. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

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• Situation: Open with a brief description of the Situation and context of the success story (who, what, where, when, how).
• Task: Explain the Task you had to complete highlighting any specific challenges or constraint (eg deadlines, costs, other issues).
• Action: Describe the specific Actions that you took to complete the task. These should highlight desirable traits without needing to state them (initiative, intelligence, dedication, leadership, understanding, etc.)
• Result: Close with the result of your efforts. Include figures to quantify the result if possible.

Common Question Categories

<aside> <img src="/icons/flag_gray.svg" alt="/icons/flag_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Amazon interviews typically focus on assessing whether candidates fit the company's culture and leadership principles. The questions fall into various categories, each targeting different aspects of a your experience and skills. Below are some common category questions.

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1. Teamwork Oriented
2. Problem Solving
3. Initiative/Leadership
4. Interpersonal Skills
5. Challenge/Stress/Pressure

Personal Success Stories

<aside> <img src="/icons/flag_gray.svg" alt="/icons/flag_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Build an array of success stories that can be used across multiple Question Categories and Leadership Principles.

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• Success Story #1
• Success Story #2
• Success Story #3
• Success Story #4
• Success Story #5
• Success Story #6
• Success Story #7
• Success Story #8
• Success Story #9
• Success Story #10

Sample Behavioral Questions

<aside> <img src="/icons/flag_gray.svg" alt="/icons/flag_gray.svg" width="40px" /> To effectively answer Amazon’s behavioral questions, ones should use the STAR format while considering the question category and corresponding leadership principal(s).

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• Tell me about a time you went above and beyond for a customer (internal or external)?
• Tell me about a time when you worked on a big project and you hit an unexpected roadblock?
• Tell me about a time when you couldn't meet expectations for a customer?
• Tell me about a time you had to teach yourself something new to do your job well.
• Describe a situation where you disagreed with a supervisor.
• Tell me about a time when you had a conflict at work.
• Tell me about a time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem.
• Give me an example of a time when you motivated others.
• Could you tell me about a time when you were bored on the job? OR Tell me about a time when you were bored on the job and what you did to make the job more interesting.
• Tell me about a time when you had to sell through a Partner organization

Sample Functional & Technical Questions

<aside> <img src="/icons/flag_gray.svg" alt="/icons/flag_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Draw upon your functional and technical experience. Be specific and use examples while remaining concise and structured.

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• What is the job of a [Insert Role]?
• How does your experience match the role? Tell me about your current role and your experience? (Try to make it related to the [Insert Role] role)
• What is AWS? What do you know about AWS?
• Can you tell me about one or two of the AWS services outside of foundational (EC2, S3, Databases)?
• Why are you interested in this role? Why amazon and why now?
• What’s your experience with the partner ecosystem, both Technology and Consulting?

Sample Interview Structure

<aside> <img src="/icons/flag_gray.svg" alt="/icons/flag_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Interview structures may vary, but should be stipulated upfront by the Amazon recruiting team.

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• First Interview
• Second Interview
• Writing Sample
• Final Loop

Questions to ask Interviewer

<aside> <img src="/icons/location_gray.svg" alt="/icons/location_gray.svg" width="40px" /> Outline a set of questions that you may want to ask the interviewer. Naturally, it’s best to follow your curiosity, but is always helpful to have questions to draw from.

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• Question #1
• Question #2
• Question #3

Helpful Links

Leadership Principals

Leadership Principles

Behavioral Prep

Top 50 Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers

AWS Partner Network

Become an AWS Partner | AWS Partner Network

AWS Analyst Report

AWS Analyst Reports

AWS Products

Cloud Computing Services - Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Customer Success Stories

Customer Success Stories: Case Studies, Videos, Podcasts, Innovator stories