Product Manager applicants have rated the interview process at Amazon with 3.4 out of 5 (where 5 is the highest level of difficulty) and assessed their interview experience as 47% positive. To compare, the company-average is 57.5% positive. This is according to Glassdoor user ratings.
Candidates applying for Product Manager roles take an average of 27 days to get hired, when considering 500 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 Product Manager according to 500 Glassdoor interviews include:
Phone interview: 30%
One on one interview: 22%
Group panel interview: 11%
Skills test: 11%
Presentation: 7%
Personality test: 6%
Background check: 5%
Drug test: 3%
IQ intelligence test: 2%
Other: 2%
Here are the most commonly searched roles for interview reports -
I applied through a recruiter. The process took 1 day. I interviewed at Amazon in May 2010
Interview
I was interviewed on the phone for a product manager in the merchant technologies group. The interviewer was good to talk with and he first described the position, and then asked me about my work. He seemed to indicate that this was a very strategic position. The interviewer was Sr Manager. I talked about my work, and he asked me to describe one product I worked on in detail, he asked me questions on
1. why we did the product,
2. how did I size the market
3. what was process I went through to determine if it was a viable product to go and build
4. Did i have to correct any assumption we made
5. What metrics did we go measure for success
6. And if I had the opportunity to go back and change something, what I would change.
I guess I answered pretty well on all the above (std questions to expect) I had interviewed before with Amazon with no success, so I wanted to go for the 'close' and so I asked the interviewer if I did fine? and asked him if I should add more or explain something that he might have further questions on etc.
Also before finishing up I asked the next steps and he said he will write up his notes and if he thought everything was fine and positive he would let the recruiter schedule the next call in couple of days time.
So to 'close' I asked him if he thought I did fine and if the all was positive. He said yes and seemed to indicate that I should expect a second call in few days.
He asked me if I would like a product manager position or program manager - I replied product manager and not a program manager and he said ok
I left the call feeling good and then within abt 1/2 hr I received a standard rejection letter from the recruiter
stating - "After thoughtful consideration, the team has decided to pursue other candidates at this time"
This was totally unexpected and perplexing outcome.
So I asked the recruiter to provide feedback - but she said for legal reasons she cannot! :(
Hindsight - there are 2 things that could have broken it for me
1. The interviewer wanted some metrics, and I gave him generic metrics and was probably not very specific on what and the data
2. He was probably looking for a program manager and with me saying that I am interested in product management, he probably looked the other way
Hope this experience helps others trying to interview there
Phone screen. That was the only step I completed outside of the application online. Basic questions about past work, specific questions about projects I have worked on in past jobs
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Tell us about one time you led a project across multiple teams
There were 4 rounds (3 behavioral and 1 technical) with a strong emphasis around the STAR method. Recruiter was very helpful in providing expectations and interview prep materials. I would look up the leadership principles and map your examples to these principles.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
Questions are mapped to the leadership principles. Tell me about a time where you had to make a decision without receiving all the necessary information. How did you approach this?
First I passed the assessment its not an easy one, next step is phone screen 1 hour interview, my recruiter shared helpful information; connect 12 LP's to your work examples using a STAR method, 2-3 examples per LP.