I applied through a recruiter. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon
Interview
Spoke to two senior product management leads. Asked me a variety of questions. The bias towards data driven analysis was clear. Seems many of their PMs come from a "business" background of sales or another non PM background. This made it difficult for me to connect with the interviewer. Worse though was the manner in which I was spoken. Started friendly enough but didn't feel I was having a two way conversation - more being given the third degree. My answers were, at times, interrogated as if I was a guilty school boy telling lies to teacher. Seemed like my (extensive) experience didn't matter and that answers were invalid if it wasn't an exact match for how Amazon operates. I've worked in successful companies who thrive on constructive criticism to improve themselves but they wouldn't think of behaving in this manner in an interview. I'm all for challenging interviewees - in fact I welcome it - but not to the point of insolence. At one point I was answering a question only to be abruptly interrupted and instructed by the interviewer that there was an easy solution to a challenge I was addressing. I responded that their "correction" was invalid given the company I was working in, the budget and the time pressures. They took that on the chin and it's quite possible that my aggressive response may have heightened their interest in me. But I'll never know because my interest in them evaporated instantly. Who wants to work in a company that treats senior interviewees, or anyone for that matter, with such low regard? Literally I was told that my existing experience (15-20 years PM leadership roles) was of limited interest and that they would evaluate me on a few superficial example questions. I've run rings around the interviewers in terms of revenue generating product creation / management so to be spoken to in such a manner was unacceptable and frankly matched the tone highlighted in the NY times article. Given that I experienced similar attitude from the two interviewers I can only conclude it is down to the corporate culture. It's a hot job market.....Amazon should stop treating people like it's an honor to be interviewed by them, it's not. Sure they're a successful company but their non core offerings suck especially the UX. Because their product managers don't have a real grounding in "product" they overly depend on data as a crutch (certainly outside of the core amazon.com shopping experience) and didn't appear to value UX and product design. Their customers are not robots.....but neither are the candidates who interview with them. Time to start treating both a lot differently.
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 2 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon in Apr 2012
Interview
Cryptic. HR never called but emailed. When I would ask when the interview would be, HR would communicate when the interview would be the day of or a day before. If you are used to level, it was communicated that they do not really observe by level. So concentrate on the function of the job. They asked how I do my job, how I communicated (they use document not ppt), how I lead and influence people. The first interview was a case-style interview. The second interview was a feel good interview.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Hypothetically you are presenting creating a marketplace on amazon.com to Jeff Bezos. What are your arguments if he says it is a good idea? What are arguments if he says it is a bad idea?
I applied through an employee referral. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon (Seattle, WA) in Aug 2015
Interview
Just starting interview process. Took a long time to actually get connected to an internal recruiter. Had first phone screening call which went well. Hiring Manager is out for a few weeks and will be pursuing further conversation when he gets back.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Not really a lot questions yet, mostly told me about the entrepreneurial spirit of the company and the Amazon Principles.