I applied online though the Amazon careers website and a week later I had a phone interview with a recruiter who asked basic background questions. Such as to confirm work status, why did you apply for this position? Why Amazon Web Services? (AWS) And so on.
A week later I had a phone interview with the hiring manager who ask much more detailed questions in regards to my resume, experience and background. It was a very easy conversation and I was left with the impression that he would be a great manager to work for.
One week later I had a phone interview with a member of the team, the person who I would be replacing in fact, they were being promoted which is why the position became available and Amazon is also looking to expand the team as well. After about 10 minutes of technical questions they said my background was perfect. They actually said that. they then spent about 45 minutes selling me on the team, position and amazon.
Next I was invited onsite to the Seattle HQ to participate in the Amazon loop. Travel arraignments were made though an external vendor and everything has quick and easy. Took about 5 minutes to change my flight to a better one, very nice hotel and more than adequate reimbursement policy.
On Site:
First interview was with the person who I would be replacing in this role and since I had talked with them already, I was able to get really comfortable right from the get go which helped me a lot. All of the interviewers have questions they have to ask, I was never really ask the same questioned twice. During the first interview I discovered that the hiring manager had left abruptly. Which was Strange and disconcerting.
My Second interview was with the Director of the organization because there was no manager overseeing the team. It went well and they even ask me in a round about way if I would consider/have experience with managing a team, and I answered honestly that I did not have the experience to replace the hiring manager. I could tell they really liked my honesty and also me in general and since they were way above everyone in the selection process I felt really good after my second interview.
My Third interview was with two people, a lead sales person and a lead developer and both seemed to be impressed with my background and projects that I have worked on in the past that seems to correlated well with what they are doing at AWS.
My fourth interview was a "working lunch" with a team member. Traditionally the lunch portion is handled by the hiring manager but since there was not one, they filled in. Again mostly tell me about a time when... and so on.
My fifth and final interviewer was with the "Amazon bar raiser" Google that for more information.
Normally there was to be the six interviews with seven people if you are selected to go on to the bar raiser round, but again there was no hiring manager so I had five total interviews with six people.
The Bar raiser I had was an arrogant and very off putting person. That is the absolute nicest was to describe him. I handled it well and the only hard question I was asked was about a technological process That I had some experience with in my early career, I said I am familiar with it but no longer use it, and gave him the triple 5 answer why.5 reason why I don't as a developer , 5 reasons as a manager. and 5 reasons why it is not used widely anymore in the industry. From then on he was really a terrible interviewer. He did not answer most of my questions I put to him. I left my final interview very put off on Amazon as a whole.
Closing thoughts:
Everyone was very nice and kind and seemed like a great person to work with. Expect for the last person, and so I left the interview with a black cloud and frankly didn't care about the position anymore given my last interview and the totality of what I have learned about Amazon all though this process. .
What I Learned about Amazon and Amazon Web Services? (AWS).
