Interview: Amazon Recruiter (Things you should know before applying)

no it's not a machine that goes through it this is an actual person that will physically look through your resume to see if there is a fit for the role let's jump right into the questions so thomas can you tell me a little bit about yourself yeah absolutely well first foremost thanks for having me here young a little bit about myself i am a full life cycle recruiter here at amazon a little bit about my history here at amazon i actually started here about four and a half years ago i started as a recruiting coordinator i did that for about a year and a half and then i actually transferred into a role what is called a sorcerer role i did that for about a year and a half again and recently transitioned into a full life cycle recruited here at amazon the team that i currently support is our hard lines team to give you a bigger picture of what that looks like is we fall underneath the consumer organization specifically under the consumer org it's the retail team and then the hard lines category within that retail org yeah that's a little bit about kind of my history here at amazon as a full website goal we could can you tell me a little bit more about like what you do yeah absolutely again if i could break down in coordinator here at amazon your main responsibility is throughout the interview process is mostly doing the handling the scheduling so handling the logistical part of the interview process so that's really what a recruiting coordinator does here at amazon our source here at amazon what they specifically do is they are reaching out to candidates uh to see if they are interested in pursuing any opportunities here at amazon really kind of matching them with the roles seeing um you know if there is interest on both ends um as a full life cycle recruiter which i'm doing now you are not only doing what the sorcerer is doing but you are also walking the candidate through the process as well so i am also doing a recruiting phone screen with them i am all doing a prep call with them before they interview with amazon and throughout the entire process as well i'm kind of checking in multiple times kind of making sure that they everything is going okay one of the main things about a full lifecycle recruiter as well is that i will be handling uh the closing part of it as well so you and i me and the candidate will also be talking about the offer can you share a little bit about the hiring process of amazon yeah absolutely so there's a few steps for the entirety of the interview process here in amazon so initially you would start off speaking with a recruiter typically a recruiter will have a recruiter on screen with you just to get a gauge of kind of what your interests are kind of you know where your interest lies where you see yourself where your skill sets are so after having that initial phone call with a recruiter there's really three other steps that you're going to go through two phone screens one phone screen will typically be with somebody that's doing the job now or possibly somebody that's a colleague of yours should you you know end up accepting the role the other phone screen would then be with the hiring manager depending on the team uh it goes either way right you could you could talk to the manager first and then the calling second or it could go vice versa okay uh should those two conversations go well during these times right now that portion of the interview is obviously happening during through video conference but at that stage of the point you are going to be interviewing or meeting with about four to five different individuals from the team after that the team gets together makes their decision um and that's kind of the entirety of the process so if you think about it in totality you're looking at two phone screens one on-site interview uh with the team uh and a couple probably conversations with the recruited throughout the process how does how does resumes get screened i know a lot of the audience are probably interested in that part as well because as a candidate you feel like your resumes are you know ending up in like a huge black hole so just wanted to know like how it's screened is there any mechanism or a system that kind of automatically screens them or is it like real people who actually read them all yeah that's a great question so um just to kind of give you a bigger context of kind of what it looks like after you hit apply online right so once you apply to a role what it goes is each one of the recruiters whatever recruiter is assigned to that specific role each and every day we get an alert in our system that shows hey these are the new applicants so we do look at those every day um no it's not a machine that goes through it this is an actual person that will physically look through your resume to see if there is a fit for the role so that's one way of kind of applying to the roles here at amazon another way is obviously a lot of candidates probably have recruiters reaching out to them that is because these recruiters um are already doing a screen of your resume prior to reaching out so me personally speaking when i reach out to candidates i have already taken a look at the resume whether it's on linkedin or whether it's in our in our database here at amazon i'm already reaching out with the interest knowing that there could be a potential match now after after that stage is completed it goes through another set of eyes which is always the hiring manager the hiring manager will always review the candidate's resume prior to kicking off the process so you're really going to have two different sets of eyes on your resumes even before you start the process and so that's kind of the initial stages of okay hey is this person a match with this role um so those are kind of the the steps that are being taken interesting i thought it was just like a robot who's you know like just screening all these resumes um that's really good to know yeah a lot of one question that i get a lot from candidates is hey are there keywords that that i should be adding into my resume so that it gets pulled out from whatever system is going through um not so much here at amazon um you know because individually each person is looking at the resume um there isn't one or two specific words that you could put in that'll that'll yeah make your resume stand out more than the other sure it's the overall resume itself that the that the recruiter and the team is going to be looking at got it so i guess more of a follow-up question um so does a referral work yeah a great question so referrals work absolutely they work um one of the biggest source of candidates that we get here at amazon is going to come through referrals i don't have the percentage on top of mine right now but the the amount of hires we get is through employee referrals to be honest with you and so referrals is highly recommended whether it's whether it's through candidates or actual employees um it's it's something that we encourage something that we you know we always ask for candidates um you know to see if they have any colleagues or anybody in their network that might be a fit for the role so we're always looking for referrals and we're always encouraging candidates to refer candidates you mentioned something about the phone screening will you please share what you usually ask during your phone screening with the candidate i wouldn't really call it a phone screen i would really call it a get to know session right at least the initial call that i have with the candidate um it's more so so the types of questions that i'll ask on that initial call is is me more than anything wanting to learn a little bit about them right so tell me about yourself right um you know tell me about what you've been doing the past couple years um what do you think are some of the skill sets that really stand out for you that you think are transferable to amazon um what do you where do you see yourself in five years um you know what what are you looking for an ic role are you looking for a people manager role so these are the kind of questions that i will initially start with um because again what i'm trying to accomplish on that initial call is okay do i have a match for you for a candidate right in terms of what your interests are and so after that initial phone call then obviously you're going to go through a more intense phone call with the business right you have two phone screens with the business um to get a little bit more in depth about those phone screens here at amazon um it's really going to boil down to two different types of questions that are going to be kind of covered during these phone interviews right one is going to be a case study type question and then the other is going to be a behavioral type question okay uh case study type question so this is like a business situational type question right sure something that you may very well face in your day to day here at amazon should you accept the role um and they're going to want to see how you maneuver around it right if we were to plop you into that situation how are you going to react how are you going to solve the issue what actions are you going to take so that's one of the types of questions that they're going to ask the other types of questions that they're going to ask are going to be these behavioral type questions right so questions like tell me about a time when can you give me an example of when right so really relying on your past experiences uh in your past example so these are those are going to be the two main questions or types of questions that are going to be asked during the phone interview process but again to go back to my my initial call with the candidate that's more of a get to know session nothing that you need to prepare for uh more of a kind of a hey do you have questions for me let me help answer any questions for you like have you ever rejected a person after like initial get to know session yeah great question so i wouldn't maybe reject is not the right word yeah sorry i think no no that's okay i think i think what there are times where we take a step back and reevaluate what we're looking at right it's not uncommon like a lot of a lot of the conversations i'll jump on um maybe the maybe the role that i was initially uh kind of attaching them to maybe it's not the right fit after i had that call right so what we do then is take a step back obviously here at amazon we have lots of different roles lots of different teams right for everybody right and so um at that point in time then we just kind of regroup we kind of see what options are what were are out there um what are you interested in do any of these other roles interest you more whether it's on my team whether it's on another another recruiter's team or whether whether it's in a totally different organization here at amazon we we work all across the board so you know i can easily reach out to another team if if my team isn't the right fit any do's and don'ts do's and don'ts in terms of just kind of the whole interview process in general yeah okay um a couple come to mind um for dues here at amazon we love data analytics metrics right we really thrive on that and so any time you can add data or metrics to your resume is good but any time that you go through the phone interview process the interview process and you're able to speak to numbers you're able to speak to data you're able to speak to metrics that is going to be a huge benefit for you throughout the process our team really loves to hear just in general specific numbers metrics to support to support um whatever project you're on whatever program you're on whatever client or vendor you're working with that's something i really emphasize when i have these conversations with candidates right another thing that i really encourage is leadership principles i cannot emphasize enough the leadership principles here at america uh we have 14 of them here at amazon we really truly live and breathe by these leadership principles really ingrained in our dna just everything that we do here on amazon so with that said no i don't encourage you to so you don't have to write customer obsession or dive deep or biased for action in your resume but i would speak to them i would have um you know stuff that support those leadership principles in your resume but not only that but really speak to those as you are going through the interview process um those are two things that really stand out to me in terms of uh things that you would be a benefit um a couple things that i don't recommend uh first one don't speak in we always speak an eye the team is looking to look to looking it to see what you did what were your accomplishments what was your effect on the project what was your responsibilities throughout the entire process i know it's very common i'm guilty of this as well to speak in wii we did this my team did this my group did this but really try to get used to saying i we really want to know what you did what your responsibilities were another thing i like to recommend trying not to do as you go through the interview process is communication style and what i mean by that is try not to be long-winded uh with your answers or don't be overly verbose um i think a lot of people tend to think you know maybe let me throw everything out then right and hopefully something will stick with them right something i don't recommend doing here at amazon um you know you want to be concise with your answers you want to be short and sweet there's nothing wrong with that right and so that's something that i also recommend um and very highlight as they go through the interview process as well got it um did a question for my interview we ever changed your decision like or not you but like the other people's decision so i like to start whenever i have these conversations with candidates i want to always emphasize that hey i'm a partner with you throughout this process i am no point in time am i evaluating you interviewing you or anything like that at the end of the day my job is to partner with you to make sure that i find you a great role here at amazon right so to answer your question i don't really don't think there's a bad question that could be asked okay um i'm in a position to to answer and clarify anything for you that'll um either clarify you know paint a clear picture just make the process easier for you um so i guess they answer your question no i haven't been in a situation where i've been asked something that will either change my mind or deter me from moving forward you know obviously at the end of the day i want to make sure if they are confused or have anything that i'm there to kind of paint that clear picture for right okay um and so yeah so that's kind of the approach that i take yeah in terms of questions i know sorry i don't know if that answered your question no that's that's that's uh that's really good um i guess this actually ties into good questions and bad questions but i guess in terms of your um answer there are no bad questions um it's just questions or no questions yeah and then you know some questions that i always encourage candidates to ask once they get on the phone with the candidate or with uh with somebody from the business is this um take advantage of it there's nothing more um that you could get out of even if you have a five ten minutes of opportunity to ask them questions take advantage of it right so ask them what you know ask them what their history here at amazon is like ask them what they like about amazon ask them what they don't like about amazon ask them what you know what their day-to-day looks like ask them you know you know just what kind of cool projects they're looking at looking at and so those are the types of questions that i encourage candidates to ask the business as they are kind of going through the interview process as well yeah great points um i think we have talked about this a little bit um can you tell us a little bit about the work-life balance at amazon i know there are a lot of myths going on i'm outside um on the internet and like there are just a lot of myth saying and oh it's you know you don't really have a work-life balance at amazon can you tell me a little bit about that absolutely that's a great question because that's actually one of uh one of the bigger questions that i get almost when i talk to candidates because i think i don't know i think amazon has this perception out there that they're driving you know their employees to the ground there's no work-life balance um you're only working right um let me speak from my my personal experience here at amazon i've been at amazon for about four and a half years i've throughout my entirety here at amazon i probably had about five different managers um each one of the managers that i've worked with has always emphasized work-life balance whether that's them reaching out to me um at the end of the month and saying hey thomas it looks like you have um you know some time left on your pto i want you to take that time off right yeah um so it's very not only is it encouraged but they really want you to take that work-life balance at the end of the day nobody here is micromanaging you right at the end of the day you're responsible your your responsibility is to do your job but at the same time make sure you take that time for yourself as well yes yeah i think right now in the time in the in the situation and the current society society that we live in i don't think it's more emphasized more enough um i think now is more of a time to take time for yourself take time for your family to make sure that you're you're you're mentally staying healthy as well as you are going through you know these covet situations or whatnot um but again um from my personal experience not only is it encouraged but it's really pushed and emphasized to take that time off great point not only that uh when i have these conversations with my hiring managers um one of the main things that they say as well is that hey if you need me to get on a phone with a candidate to explain to them what that's going to look like here on my team i'm happy to do that um you know i'm always willing to have that conversation with the candidates so hiring managers are always willing to jump on a call and make sure that they're aligned in terms of that as well and so um that's something that i offer candidates as well if they want to take advantage of yeah as well that's that's exactly how i feel about working here on amazon as well so i so i actually have one last question left um so any advice for those who are applying to amazon yeah my main advice to you is stay stay persistent uh it takes time um you know if you apply to a role you don't hear back in a week or two don't take that as you know they're not moving forward um you know there are as you can imagine hundreds and hundreds of candidates applying to each role right and so um stay patient stay persistent um is something i always like to tell candidates um but one thing i also like to do as well is connect with as many recruiters as you can um you know it's i don't see any negative in learning about different roles maybe it wasn't a role or a team that you're initially interested about but maybe it's something that you never even knew about never even considered because you might not have thought it was the right fit for what you know from your skill set or kind of what you've been doing in the past and so um advice is one advice is um stay open keep your mind open stay um open to different ideas different roles because again you know you may you may start with one role but it may lead you to another role and so stay persistent stay open-minded um take all the calls you can and you know always stay positive because again you know if i could recommend anything amazon is a great great great great place to work um and you know you know we're always looking for new uh new talent new people and so yeah yeah that's that's very good advice actually i applied to multiple roles persistency i think that is really the key and being open is obviously another one thank you so much thomas this was really really helpful and i'm pretty sure all the audience would be grateful for this information thank you absolutely thank you for uh having me and it was great sharing with you today thanks

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Keywords: amazon interview questions, amazon interview process, amazon interview prep, amazon recruiter, amazon interview experience, amazon recruiter jobs, amazon recruiter call, amazon hiring process, amazon interview tips, amazon leadership principles, 14 amazon leadership principles, amazon leadership principles interview questions and answers, amazon manager interview questions, amazon jobs, career school, amazon interview questions and answers, amazon interview

Id: V8vPgIxP4RA

Length: 19min 23sec (1163 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2020