Delving into Behavioral Interviews: Lessons from Amazon's Approach
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Amazon's unique interview process sets it apart from traditional hiring methods. The company's approach is built around its 16 Leadership Principles and the STAR method, a structured strategy for evaluating candidates based on real-world experiences.
During the interview process, candidates are encouraged to frame their answers using the STAR method, which involves describing the Situation, the Task assigned, the Action taken, and the Result achieved. This approach provides clear, outcome-focused examples that demonstrate alignment with Amazon's culture and leadership principles.
Amazon's interviewers use questions grounded in these Leadership Principles, such as Customer Obsession, Ownership, Deliver Results, and Bias for Action, to assess how candidates have handled work situations, challenges, or failures in the past. By doing so, they aim to gauge cultural fit, problem-solving and decision-making abilities under pressure, collaboration, leadership, and continuous learning mindset, as well as how candidates handle complexity, failure, and disagreement.
The behavioral interview approach at Amazon is more focused and rigorous than traditional methods. It reduces guesswork, increases predictive validity for future job performance, and uncovers deeper insights into a candidate’s working style and values. Traditional interviews often rely more on open-ended questions without the explicit framework that ties responses to company-specific principles, potentially making assessments less systematic.
Displaying curiosity, detailing action steps, and emphasizing specific contributions made can set candidates apart during the interview process. Reflecting on past challenges and experiences can shed light on aspects of a candidate's career that they haven't fully appreciated. Engaging in mock interviews can help refine storytelling techniques, while practicing speaking responses aloud can enhance comfort and provide valuable feedback.
Common behavioral questions to prepare for include questions about problem-solving, teamwork, and adaptability. Candidates should use interview time to learn about the company culture or vision, and remember that the interview is a two-way street, allowing candidates to evaluate company fit as well.
Amazon seeks candidates who genuinely embody their six core Leadership Principles: Customer Obsession, Invent and Simplify, Are Right, A Lot, Hire and Develop the Best, Deliver Results, and Think Big. The company's interview process focuses on exploring candidates' past experiences and navigated situations, rather than isolating skills.
In summary, Amazon's behavioral interview process is a principle-driven, structured approach that leverages past experiences via the STAR technique for focused evaluation. This method has proven to be more effective than many traditional interview styles that lack such a principled behavioral framework.
- Candidates preparing for interviews at Amazon should consider focusing on their past experiences in fashion events, using photography to showcase their beauty industry work, and discussing how they have delivered results in their career development.
- Engaging in mock interviews and practicing storytelling techniques can help candidates refine their responses, demonstrating their ability to handle complexity, failure, and disagreement - key aspects evaluated in Amazon's interview process.
- After job-searching and securing an interview at Amazon, candidates should be prepared for questions about their problem-solving skills, teamwork, and adaptability, and take the opportunity to ask about the company's education-and-self-development programs and its commitment to continuous learning.
- To set themselves apart during the interview process, candidates should emphasize specific contributions made to past events, fashion projects, or self-development initiatives, and discuss how these experiences align with Amazon's Leadership Principles, such as Customer Obsession, Deliver Results, and Think Big.
