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A senior Amazon recruiter offers his 3 best tips to preparing for your Amazon interview

3 min
Using the STAR interview format, learning best practices, and referencing real-life examples are key to success.

You’ve done the necessary research. You’ve applied for the dream job. You've successfully completed the online assessment and phone screen, and just discovered you are moving on to the final round of your Amazon interview. It is now time to prepare.

Fortunately, you are not alone in this journey. It’s pretty well-documented and publicised—thanks to former and current employees, and career coaches alike—that Amazon engages in behavioural-based interviewing through the STAR (situation, task, action, and result) method.

Our interviews are rooted in behavioural-based questions which ask about past situations or challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve handled them, using Amazon's Leadership Principles to guide the discussion. We avoid brain teasers as part of the interview process as it’s irrelevant and not indicative of your actual performance. We’re more concerned with the way you critically process and behave in certain situations, embody core competencies, and the experiences that have shaped you as a professional.

You can dream big at Amazon and build a career in anything from robotics and film production to the environment and trendsetting. And with 81 different job categories there really is something for everyone! Meet five Aussie Amazonians who love their jobs.

We aspire to make interviewing at Amazon as frustration-free as our shopping experience. Because of this, we’ve asked Cody Nelson, senior manager of recruiting, Worldwide Operations at Amazon, who has conducted hundreds of interviews over nearly a decade, for his best advice on how to ace your upcoming interview. Here are his tips.

Using the STAR interview format, learning best practices, and referencing real-life examples are key to success.

You’ve done the necessary research. You’ve applied for the dream job. You've successfully completed the online assessment and phone screen, and just discovered you are moving on to the final round of your Amazon interview. It is now time to prepare.

Fortunately, you are not alone in this journey. It’s pretty well-documented and publicised—thanks to former and current employees, and career coaches alike—that Amazon engages in behavioural-based interviewing through the STAR (situation, task, action, and result) method.

Our interviews are rooted in behavioural-based questions which ask about past situations or challenges you’ve faced and how you’ve handled them, using Amazon's Leadership Principles to guide the discussion. We avoid brain teasers as part of the interview process as it’s irrelevant and not indicative of your actual performance. We’re more concerned with the way you critically process and behave in certain situations, embody core competencies, and the experiences that have shaped you as a professional.

You can dream big at Amazon and build a career in anything from robotics and film production to the environment and trendsetting. And with 81 different job categories there really is something for everyone! Meet five Aussie Amazonians who love their jobs.

We aspire to make interviewing at Amazon as frustration-free as our shopping experience. Because of this, we’ve asked Cody Nelson, senior manager of recruiting, Worldwide Operations at Amazon, who has conducted hundreds of interviews over nearly a decade, for his best advice on how to ace your upcoming interview. Here are his tips.

  • 1.

    Always answer the interview questions using the STAR method.

    The STAR method is a structured manner of responding to a behavioural-based interview question. For our interviews we recommend candidates format their responses using the STAR method to answer behavioural-based interview questions, incorporating examples representative of Amazon’s Leadership Principles. Consider your successes and failures in relation to the Leadership Principles. Your examples should showcase your expertise and how you’ve taken risks, succeeded, failed, and grown.

    We value straightforward and clear communication. We use the STAR method as a framework for clear answers. It’s not something to memorise but rather a tool to communicate your strengths and experiences.

  • 2.

    Data points give the interviewer a better picture of the context, risks, and visibility of the example.

    Amazon is a data-driven company. When you answer interview questions, ensure your answer is well-structured, and provide examples using metrics or data if applicable. Reference recent situations whenever possible.

    For example, your interviewer might ask: “Provide an example of a time you exceeded customer expectations.”

    Below is how you might respond to this question using the STAR method and applying applicable data.

    Situation: I was a customer success manager at my previous company. In this role, I was in charge of successfully delivering software implementation to a $2 billion company, with 5,000 employees that operated in 36 countries.

    Task: The challenge and task ahead of that year was to successfully implement, onboard, and train roughly 500 users, in all 36 countries of this company to use our product. Success would be measured in a monthly satisfaction survey, as well as a joint report to their executive leadership board once a quarter.

    Action: This was not my first implementation, but the first of this scale. Knowing that, I formulated a plan to take these three actions. First, I created a customer feedback mechanism on a weekly basis. This was above and beyond because this was collected quarterly in the past. I also had the survey translated to 10 different languages, covering all 36 countries. Second, I wanted to make sure our users knew the “why” behind this change. I took the action of creating monthly office hours and twelve continued education sessions on the product. In fact, these sessions are now used as a standard practice for all future implementations, which there have been three of at this size. And third, a byproduct of the customer feedback actually revealed insights to other opportunities in their organisation. I delivered these insights to the executive board in a thorough report, and they were delighted to hear the strengths and opportunities of their organisation.

    Result: As a result, the implementation was successfully delivered with a customer feedback score of 9.5 out of 10. The highest our company had ever seen. This new insight report opened another avenue of business with this customer that helped lead to doubling our business revenue.

  • 3.

    Use “I” versus “we” statements when answering the interviewer’s questions.

    We want to hear what you specifically accomplished and how you were able to deliver results on behalf of your customers. Be ready to describe the specific steps you took and how you contributed. Let us know what you actually did.

How to further prepare for your Amazon interview

We believe in setting you up for success and hope this helps as you prepare for your upcoming interview. For more information, visit our Candidate Prep Guide for additional interviewing tips and check out the FAQs on Amazon.jobs.