Interviewing at Amazon

The Star Method General Interview Tips

Amazon is a data and metric driven company. •  esearch Amazon and have a compelling
R
You should keep your focus on the question asked reason for “why Amazon?”
and make sure your answer is tangible. The STAR
•  eview the Amazon leadership principles.
R
method is a structured manner of responding to a
Whether you are an individual contributor
behavioural interview question by discussing the
or the manager of a large team, you are an
specific situation, task, action, and result of the
Amazon leader. Every Amazonian is guided
situation you are describing.
by these principles.

Situation: Describe the situation that you were •  sk clarifying questions to understand the
A
in or the task that you needed to accomplish. question being presented. This is critical for
You must describe a specific event or situation, success as we wouldn’t want you to spend
not a generalised description of what you have time going down one path only to realise the
done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail interviewer was asking something else entirely.
for the interviewer to understand. You should •  mazon is a very data-driven company. Provide
A
be both thorough and concise at the same time. examples using metrics/data. There’s nothing
better than bolstering a success story with a
Task: What goal were you working towards? great data point.

Action: Describe the actions you took to address •  repare questions to ask at the end of each
P
the situation with an appropriate amount of detail, interview. Try to think beyond typical questions
being sure to keep the focus on you. What specific such as “how do you like working here?”.
steps did you take and what was your particular Interviewers appreciate questions that can
contribution? Be careful that you don’t describe promote discussions and interaction.
what the team or group did when talking about a
project, but what you actually did. Use the word
“I,” not “we” when describing actions.

Result: Describe the outcome of your actions and

don’t be shy about taking credit for your behaviour. DIVERSITY
What happened? How did the event end? As a diverse and equal opportunity employer, Amazon is
What did you accomplish? What did you learn? committed to a diverse workforce and is also committed to
Make sure your answer contains multiple positive a barrier-free employment process. Please do let us know if
any adjustments are needed. We will try our best to accom-
results. Make sure that you follow all parts of
modate. You can learn more about diversity at Amazon here.
the STAR method. Be as specific as possible at all
times, without rambling or including too much Find your fit with Amazon and apply today.
information. Keep in mind that some examples that
Search Career Opportunities
have a negative result (such as “lost the game”) can
highlight your strengths in the face of adversity.

“Our passion for pioneering will drive us to explore narrow passages, and, unavoidably, many will
turn out to be blind alleys. But–with a bit of good fortune–there will also be a few that open up
into broad avenues.”
- Jeff Bezos
Leadership Principles
Our Leadership Principles aren’t just a pretty inspirational wall hanging. These principles work hard, just
like we do. Amazonians use them, every day, whether they’re discussing ideas for new projects, deciding
on the best solution for a customer’s problem, or interviewing candidates. It’s just one of the things that
makes Amazon peculiar.

Customer Obsession Hire and Develop the Best

Leaders start with the customer and work Leaders raise the performance bar with every
backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional
customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to talent, and willingly move them throughout the
competitors, they obsess over customers. organization. Leaders develop leaders and take
seriously their role in coaching others. We work
Ownership on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms
for development like Career Choice.
Leaders are owners. They think long term and
don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term Insist on the Highest Standards
results. They act on behalf of the entire company,
beyond just their own team. They never say Leaders have relentlessly high standards - many
“that’s not my job”. people may think these standards are unreasonably
high. Leaders are continually raising the bar and
Invent and Simplify driving their teams to deliver high quality products,
services and processes. Leaders ensure that defects
Leaders expect and require innovation and invention do not get sent down the line and that problems
from their teams and always find ways to simplify. are fixed so they stay fixed.
They are externally aware, look for new ideas from
everywhere, and are not limited by “not invented Think Big
here.” As we do new things, we accept that we may
be misunderstood for long periods of time. Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Leaders
create and communicate a bold direction that
Are Right, A Lot inspires results. They think differently and look
around corners for ways to serve customers.
Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment
and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives
Bias for Action
and work to challenge their prejudices/assumptions.
Speed matters in business. Many decisions and
Learn and Be Curious actions are reversible and do not need extensive
study. We value calculated risk taking.
Leaders are never done learning and always seek
to improve themselves. They are curious about new
possibilities and act to explore them.

We love to receive feedback.

We invite you to share your feedback regarding your recruiting experience with us directly
and via www.amazon.jobs. You will find the link to submit feedback at the end of each page.
Leadership Principles continued...

Frugality Have Backbone;

Disagree and Commit
Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed
resourcefulness, self-sufficiency and invention. Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge
There are no extra points for growing headcount, decisions when they disagree, even when doing
budget size or fixed expense. so is uncomfortable or exhausting. Leaders
have conviction and are tenacious. They do not
Earn Trust compromise for the sake of social cohesion. Once
a decision is determined, they commit wholly.
Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat
others respectfully. They are vocally self-critical,
Deliver Results
even when doing so is awkward or embarrassing.
Leaders do not believe their or their team’s Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business
body odour smells of perfume. They benchmark and deliver them with the right quality and in a
themselves and their teams against the best. timely fashion. Despite setbacks, they rise to the
occasion and never settle.
Dive Deep
Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the
details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when
metrics and anecdote differ. No task is beneath them.

About Amazon
Company History

Amazon’s mission is to be Earth’s most customer-centric company where people can Amazon has teams across the world working on behalf of its customers at fulfilment
find and discover anything they want to buy online. Amazon’s evolution from website centres, which provide fast, reliable shipping directly from Amazon’s retail websites, as
to e-commerce and publishing partner to development platform is driven by the well as customer service centres, which provide 24/7 support. In addition, Amazon’s
pioneering spirit that is part of the company’s DNA. The world’s brightest technology technology teams are located in Seattle and in international development centres
minds come to Amazon to research and develop new technologies that improve the designed to tap into the world’s best technical talent.
lives of our customers: shoppers, sellers, content creators, and developers around the
world. That’s what being Earth’s most customer-centric company is all about, and it’s In 2000, Amazon began to offer its best-of-breed e-commerce platform to other
still Day One at Amazon. retailers and to individual sellers. Today, hundreds of thousands of world-class
retail brands and individual sellers increase their sales and reach new customers by
Amazon’s headquarters are based in the US, in Seattle, with additional offices, leveraging the power of the Amazon.com e-commerce platform. Partners work with
fulfilment centres, customer service centres, data centres, and development centres Amazon Services to power their e-commerce offerings from end-to-end, including
located across the globe. More than 268,000 employees worldwide keep the wheels technology services, merchandising, customer service, and order fulfilment. Other
turning at Amazon, with global corporate office locations in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, branded merchants leverage Amazon.com as an incremental sales channel for their
Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Singapore, new merchandise. Over two million third-party sellers participate on Amazon where
Slovakia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. they offer new, used and collectible selections at fixed prices to Amazon customers
from around the world.
Founded in 1994, Amazon completed its initial public offering in May 1997 and is
traded on the NASDAQ under AMZN. Amazon’s 2016 Q1 net sales increased 31% to Amazon Web Services (AWS – aws.amazon.com) provides Amazon’s developer
$30.4 billion in the second quarter, compared with $23.2 billion in 2015 Q2. customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services, based on Amazon’s own
back-end technology platform, which developers can use to enable virtually any type
Technological innovation drives the growth of Amazon Marketplaces to offer customers of business. Some examples of the services offered by Amazon Web Services are as
more types of products, more conveniently and at lower prices. Since 1995, Amazon follows: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, Amazon Simple Storage Service, Amazon
has significantly expanded its product selection, international retail websites, and SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Queue Service, Amazon Flexible Payments Service, Amazon
worldwide network of fulfilment and customer service centres. Today, Amazon retail Mechanical Turk, Amazon CloudFront.
websites offer everything from toys and video games to MP3 downloads and a
collection of original, award-winning TV shows. Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus,
passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking.
The company entered the e-book hardware industry in 2007 with the release of the Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalised recommendations, Prime, Fulfilment
original Kindle reader. The Kindle product family has grown to now include the Fire by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo
tablet series and Kindle Paperwhite, the world’s most advanced e-reader. In 2015, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more
Amazon introduced four new tablets, including Fire, which has the best display on information, visit www.amazon.com/about.
any tablet under $50.