A friend submitted my resume as a referral. A recruiter emailed me and setup a phone screen with someone in a similar role to assess my experience. The questions were all behavioral questions. That is, 'Tell me about a time when...' and they tied into the Amazon leadership principals (LP).
They determined based on that phone screen that I was not sufficiently experienced for the position I applied for. Fair enough. I have no experience managing teams that develop cloud-based software.
So then I had another phone screen with another 'peer' to a lower level SDM role. That person determined I wasn't experienced enough for the lower role so I got bumped down again, but this time the role would be in a totally different team where I have no experience or interest. Of note is that the person who screened me didn't even know what position I was interviewing for, which surprised me.
The recruiter tried to push me to interview for position even though I wasn't interested. I eventually withdrew my application.
Overall I'd say their process is so regimented and scripted that success depends on who interviews you. If the person who does the first screen is more personable and will go a little off script your chances are probably greater of making it to the in person round.
The recruiter I worked with was not good. We never had an initial call for her to get to know me or what I was interested in. In my opinion this negatively impacted my experience and the outcome. Early on I told her I was interested in a different position that was a perfect match for my skills and experience but she said she could not submit me for that job because I already had an application for something else. At one point I asked what the vacation policy was and she said she couldn't tell me but that 'it is the same for everyone'. Huh?
Overall, the experience was fairly negative (mainly due to the experience with the recruiter) and I won't apply to Amazon again.
