I applied through other source. The process took 4 weeks. I interviewed at Amazon (Kennewick, WA) in Jun 2011
Interview
This company moves fast which is great. The process is a combo of phone interviews then on site. It is all behavioral style. The on site is 4 panels of 3, which were a mix of CSM's and Ops Mgrs. Then you meet with the site mgr then HR gives you a tour. The on site process is where they miss. I was interested in the job until that stage. There was an arrogance as they drilled you with the same types of questions over and over. There was no effort on their part to sell the job or company to you. The attitude was "hey, you are lucky you got this far with the great us." Few were engaging. The people seemed to like each other.
Right before the interview, the recruiter e mailed me a group of articles and financials from the company. The impression was that this will be part of the interview. This may be to throw you off. I spent too much time trying to anticipate the questions - none were asked around these attachments. I should have spent more time going over the probable behavioral questions. I advise Amazon to skip the 4th panel and allow the candidate to shadow a CSM instead for an hour. Then the candidate can get a better feel for the job and find a reason to want it. The customer service center locations are not very attractive, so they need to do more selling to get you to want to take the job. The inteview process needs to be a 2 way street. I didn't like the total compensation talk either - that means the salary is likely too low but they cover it with a bonus when you sign on and a year later. Who cares - bills are due monthly and they continue in year two.
4 rounds of behavioral interview. Need to prepare at least 4-5 successful projects to answer all questions that applied with different leadership principles.
Two are within the team and two are bar-raisers.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Q: How do you use data to solve a problem?
Q: Tell me about a time that you dealt with a hostile customer.
It was a couple of individual interviews but then when you got further along, it turned into all day interviews with multiple people. You basically had to be available for an entire day (regardless of what you said your availability for interviews was) and then they would change the time day of with minimal notice.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Explain how you apply the Amazon Leadership principles to your current job.
I applied online. I interviewed at Amazon (London, England)
Interview
Quick, professional and thorough. Focus in the STAR method. First call with the recruiter was incredible helpful. Second call with the area manager was tough, as you have to follow the STAR method in every single question
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell me about a change you implemented that didn't work out as it should
Customer Service Manager applicants have rated the interview process at Amazon with 3.5 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 56% positive. To compare, the company-average is 57.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Customer Service Manager roles take an average of 21 days to get hired, when considering 36 user submitted interviews for this role. To compare, the hiring process at Amazon overall takes an average of 28 days.
Common stages of the interview process at Amazon as a Customer Service Manager according to 36 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 29%
One on one interview: 23%
Group panel interview: 19%
Background check: 10%
Skills test: 6%
IQ intelligence test: 3%
Personality test: 3%
Drug test: 2%
Presentation: 2%
Other: 1%
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