Applied for a CSM role via internal department referral on a Monday. I was contacted by a recruiter via email on Tuesday and was asked for my availability for a phone interview. I suggested several multi-hour windows when I could be available through the remainder of the week and was told that no one on the team was available at those times. After a little bit of back and forth a phone interview was scheduled for the following Thursday afternoon. I was given a list of reading materials and the name of the person I would be speaking with during the interview. Precisely at the arranged interview time I was contacted by someone from the team although it was a different person than I had been told I'd be speaking with. The phone interview was very conversational and I felt at ease. We covered my background, professional philosophies, as well as successes and failures in my last role, I asked a lot of questions about the culture of the team as well as its long term goals. The interview was scheduled to last up to an hour and we used every second; I felt it was very successful. The interviewer stated that they were moving fast on this role and that I should expect feedback very quickly. The following morning I received an email from Amazon recruiting inviting me to an on-site interview along with a large questionnaire asking for specific information such as salary requirements, professional referral contact information, etc. I was in Southern California at the time so they referred me to their internal travel desk to arrange travel to Seattle. I responded to their questionnaire within 24 hours and informed them I was available to fly up and interview immediately at any time. I didn't hear from them for 9 days, which was surprising considering how every other contact had been within hours of each other. The 9 days did occur over a holiday with a compressed (3 day) week, but it still felt strange. Finally, I was contacted by the hiring manager who informed me they were "very excited" about meeting me but had hired someone else who was "ahead of me" in the interview process. I can only assume the travel desk's inability to arrange my travel during a holiday week, essentially freezing my application for a full week, left the door open for a local applicant to come in and interview while I was waiting. I was told in implicit terms that there might be more roles similar to what I was applying for opening up on the team and that I should definitely apply when they do. Overall the process was painless, although strangely inconsistent. Getting the turn down personally from the Hiring Manager directly was a really nice gesture and overall I feel very good about the whole experience.