How To Ace The Why Amazon Question Like No One Else Will
Summary
TLDRThe video provides guidance on how to answer the 'Why Amazon?' question during both phone screens and panel interviews at Amazon. It emphasizes the importance of tailoring your response to your personal motivations and the specific business unit you are applying for. The video also outlines key universal aspects of Amazon, such as leadership principles, unique ways of working, and the expectation of raising the bar. For phone screens, concise answers are recommended, while for panel interviews, the focus should shift towards a brief synthesis, moving quickly into leadership principle discussions.
Takeaways
- 🔍 The question 'Why Amazon?' is crucial for interviews at Amazon and should be tailored to the individual's truth and motivations.
- 📞 For phone screens, the question aims to gauge a candidate's motivation and fit for Amazon, focusing on whether they will be a long-term asset to the company.
- 🏢 The complexity of 'Why Amazon?' arises from the company's vast业务范围 and diverse business units, each with unique characteristics and stages of maturity.
- 📝 Amazon's leadership principles are a universal truth across the company, serving as the DNA that unites all Amazonians.
- 📈 Amazon's unique ways of working, including document writing and flat organizational structure, are key to its operations and should be considered in a candidate's answer.
- 💪 The concept of a constantly raising bar is inherent to Amazon's culture, where the goal is continuous improvement and growth.
- 🌱 Businesses within Amazon can be in states of 'build,' 'scale,' or 'optimize,' and understanding which state a unit is in can help tailor a candidate's answer.
- 👥 It's essential to research the specific team you're interviewing with to understand its history, goals, and challenges.
- 🗣️ During phone screens, keep the answer to 'Why Amazon?' concise, aiming for 6-10 sentences to allow time for other questions.
- 🏁 In panel interviews, the 'Why Amazon?' question is more of a warm-up, as the decision to hire is based on leadership principles and potential for growth, not just motivation.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of asking 'Why Amazon?' during an interview?
-The main purpose of asking 'Why Amazon?' is to understand the candidate's motivation for joining Amazon, whether they have the right reasons, and if they are likely to be a good long-term employee.
Why is it important to have a personalized answer for 'Why Amazon?'
-It's important to have a personalized answer because there is no one-size-fits-all response. The answer should reflect the candidate's truth and genuine reasons for wanting to join Amazon.
What are the differences in answering 'Why Amazon?' between a phone screen and a panel interview?
-In a phone screen, the question is used to gauge the candidate's motivation and reasons for joining Amazon. In a panel interview, the question serves more as a warm-up and is not the primary factor in the hiring decision, as the candidate's motivation should have been established earlier.
What are the three universal truths about Amazon that a candidate should consider in their answer?
-The three universal truths are the leadership principles that serve as the DNA of Amazon, the unique ways of working including document writing and meeting structures, and the constant raising of the bar, ensuring continuous growth and improvement.
Why is it suggested to keep the same answer for 'Why Amazon?' if asked in multiple phone screens?
-Keeping the same answer ensures consistency and shows that the candidate has a clear and well-thought-out motivation for joining Amazon, which is important for the interviewers to assess.
What does Amazon look for in a candidate's understanding of its business diversity?
-Amazon looks for candidates who understand that it operates in many different sectors and that each business within Amazon could be a standalone entity, and that the candidate can articulate why they are interested in a specific unit or team within this diverse landscape.
How should a candidate prepare to answer 'Why Amazon?' for a panel interview?
-A candidate should synthesize their previous answer from the phone screen into a concise 2-3 sentence response and then quickly move on to discussing the leadership principles, as the panel interview focuses more on these aspects.
What is the significance of the leadership principles in Amazon's culture?
-The leadership principles are the DNA of Amazon, ensuring that all Amazonians speak the same language and understand each other's expectations, which is crucial for effective communication and collaboration.
How does the structure and hierarchy, or lack thereof, in Amazon influence its operations?
-Amazon's flat structure and minimal bureaucracy allow for agile decision-making, which is fundamental to its unique ways of working and contributes to its ability to innovate and respond quickly to market changes.
What should a candidate do to understand the team they are interviewing for?
-A candidate should do their homework on the team, speak to their recruiter for insights, understand the team's history, goals, and key challenges, and consider how they align with the team's needs and direction.
How can a candidate effectively communicate their answer to 'Why Amazon?' during a phone screen?
-A candidate should aim for a concise and clear response, ideally within 6 to 10 sentences, to encapsulate their motivation and reasons for joining Amazon without overwhelming the interviewer.
Outlines
🤔 Understanding Amazon's Interview Process
The script discusses the importance of personalizing answers to interview questions at Amazon, emphasizing that there is no single correct answer. It highlights the differences in answering strategies between phone screens and panel interviews. The speaker suggests considering Amazon's leadership principles, unique ways of working, and the concept of a constantly raising bar as universal truths across the company. The script also touches on the diversity of Amazon's business units and the importance of understanding why you would want to join a specific unit or team.
📈 Amazon's Business Maturity and Team Dynamics
This paragraph delves into the different stages of business maturity within Amazon: the build state for new businesses, the scaling state for established ones, and the optimization state for mature businesses. It advises candidates to identify the state of the business unit they are interviewing for and why they find it appealing. Additionally, the paragraph stresses the importance of researching the specific team, including its history, goals, and challenges, to tailor the interviewee's answer to the 'Why Amazon?' question. The speaker also differentiates the phone screen and panel interview processes, noting that the panel is more focused on leadership principles and long-term potential rather than motivation.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Phone Screen
💡Panel
💡Leadership Principles
💡Ways of Working
💡Bar Raising
💡Maturity of Businesses
💡Build State
💡Scale
💡Optimization
💡Team
💡Competency Questions
Highlights
The content discusses strategies for answering the 'Why Amazon?' question in interviews.
There is no single right answer; the best answer is based on personal truth and motivation.
Different approaches are needed for phone screen and panel interviews.
Phone screens aim to understand the candidate's motivation for joining Amazon.
The question 'Why Amazon?' can encompass the company's units, teams, and leadership principles.
Amazon's leadership principles are the DNA of the company and a common language among employees.
Amazon's unique ways of working include document writing, meeting structures, and a flat organizational hierarchy.
The concept of a constantly raising bar is a key part of Amazon's culture, expecting continuous improvement.
Amazon's businesses can be in different maturity states: build, scale, or optimize.
Candidates should identify the maturity state of the unit they are interviewing for and why it appeals to them.
Understanding the team's history, goals, and challenges is crucial for a tailored answer.
During phone screens, aim for a concise answer of 6 to 10 sentences to cover motivation.
Panel interviews focus on leadership principles and long-term potential rather than motivation.
At panel, the 'Why Amazon?' question serves as a warm-up rather than a decision-making factor.
For panel interviews, synthesize the phone screen answer into 2 to 3 sentences to facilitate a quick transition to leadership principle questions.
The importance of building rapport with the interviewer during the 'Why Amazon?' question in panel interviews.
The session concludes with the hope that the information provided is helpful for interview preparation.
Transcripts
okay so today's content is all about the
question that you may be asked either a
phone screen or a panel panel being the
final stage of interview at amazon
why amazon i'm going to try and talk you
through how you might come up with the
best answer for you it really is
important that it's the best answer for
you there is no one single right answer
it's got to be about your truth and
therefore i can't tell you the right
answer but i'm going to talk to you
about the factors that you would want to
consider when you're thinking about what
your answer is going to be
the also the other thing you want to
bear in mind is that how you answer this
question has to be quite different
between phone screen and panel and i'll
explain to you that as we go along but
we're going to start out with phone
screen and i have some notes with me
because this is quite complicated so i
apologize if i'm looking down
all right so phone screen
so some teams have one phone screen some
teams have two phone screens you might
be asked
both phone screens the same question
i'd encourage you to have the same
answer that you answer in both should
you have those two phone screens
so what they're trying to understand
when they do this is really your
motivation for joining amazon this is
pretty self-explanatory stuff i'm going
to go into now so are you joining for
the right reasons and should you join
the organization are you going to stick
around are you going to be a good
long-term employee and that's what
they're searching for in the initial
phone screen
but when they ask the question why
amazon the truth is it's a lot more
complicated in terms of a question right
that's just a shortcut to a couple of
different things those things are going
to be kind of why amazon but very
specifically why this unit
and maybe even why this team
and the reason why that is is
amazon if you step back and think about
it is
so many different things right so many
different businesses within amazon
pharmaceuticals groceries video
streaming
retail
cloud services it's hugely hugely
diverse and the truth is any one of
those businesses could be a business
unto itself with jeff as the ceo so why
amazon is almost a nonsensical question
because amazon is just so many different
things simultaneously
there are however a couple of truths
that are true of every single unit
within amazon regardless of which unit
is or what country it's operating in so
i'm going to talk you through those and
i'm going to suggest you think about how
those things relate to you and how you
feel about those things in order to be
able to formulate your answer to why
amazon
so the first truism is the concept of
the leadership principles okay
they are absolutely the dna of amazon
and every single amazonian will be able
to talk to every single other amazonian
and we'll probably do it anyway
and talk about the individual leadership
principles and know exactly what each
other mean it's absolutely the glue that
holds everything together and ensures
that everybody is speaking the same
language so that's one truism
the second truism that's universal of
everything in amazon is ways of working
there are very peculiar as amazon likes
to uh define them peculiar being unique
not strange um peculiar ways of working
that are so
fundamental to amazon so the first is
really around document writing and
meetings and how those meetings operate
the second really is about how
flat the structure is in amazon the
absence of kind of the complexity of
hierarchy in a um
attempt to minimize bureaucracy allowing
agile decision making so those are the
second that's the second thing that's
really true of wherever you are in terms
of an amazon business
and then the third thing that's always
going to be true of any amazon business
is this idea of the bar constantly
raising so the interview process is all
about making sure that everybody that
joins the organization raises the bar
they are better than
50
of the people at that current level at
that point in time because the goal is
that the entire organization is always
improving year after year so the bar
naturally raises as new people join the
organization and they are stronger but
the reality of that means that anybody
that's in the existing organization has
to also constantly be learning
constantly be growing constantly be
developing themselves so that is also
true of everywhere you are in amazon it
is always on a pathway of growth and
improvement wherever you are whoever you
are it's expected that you will
consistently be raising your own bar
okay so those are the three things that
are consistent about amazon regardless
of where you are but at that point it
starts to deviate because as i mentioned
at the beginning the businesses that
exist in amazon are hugely diverse
across different sectors and also in
terms of maturity
so the other thing that i think is
useful to anchor your answer in is in
the concept of the maturity of those
businesses
there are effectively three different
states that you'll find businesses in in
amazon
the first is kind of the build states
brand new businesses that are just
starting out in new sectors to amazon
where the task is to really build
something from scratch so that's that's
the first one
the second one then is about scaling so
businesses that are built they have
their basic structures in place they
have their teams in place they have
their product being shipped they have
their processes in place
now the task is to really scale that so
using processes the leadership principle
of invent and simplify to really make
sure that build that business kind of
explodes out the gate and is on that
steep growth trajectory so that's the
second type of business the third type
of business is optimization so those are
the businesses that are really mature
well established in amazon and really
the goal is to
optimize it to that nth degree to
squeeze out every single inefficiency to
get every single piece of value out of
it so those are three different states
that any business is likely to be in in
amazon so when you're thinking about
your why amazon question why for you
it's definitely worth identifying which
of those three states the unit that you
are interviewing for is in and then why
you as a candidate would find that
really appealing
okay so then the next thing to think
about is the team itself so you should
really do your homework about that team
speak to your recruiter you and your
recruiter have absolutely the same
agenda which is for you to get hired
they are absolutely in your corner on
this
so they will tell you anything they
possibly can as regards the team so find
out about the team history find about
the team and where they want to go find
out about their key challenges really
seek to understand the team that you're
going to be interviewing for and then
again think about yourself and why you
would want to
enter that team
okay
so
that's the kind of the key areas that i
think you should focus on when it comes
to phone screen
my only proviso is there is a lot of
information there right there's a lot to
cover and really the decisions are made
to hire or not hire a candidate based on
their performance in the competency
questions which is where we they explore
the leadership principles
so although you want to cover that
ground you probably want to cover it
relatively quickly so i'd recommend
aiming for maybe only six to 10
sentences to cover off that information
be clear be concise try and encapsulate
all of that but the goal really is to
land it land it concisely and then move
on so that the interviewer can cover the
leadership principles
okay
so that's on the phone screen piece
panel is slightly different and the
reason why panel is slightly different
is that there is in fact a policy in
place where an interviewer's assumed
view of your motivation for joining
amazon isn't meant to
define the higher or no higher
decision by the time you get to panel
the decision around are you coming to
interview for good reasons that will
mean that you want to stay long-term
should be done and dusted you shouldn't
have made it to panel if someone doesn't
think that's the case so at panel the
decision making is all around are you
raising the bar on the leadership
principles and are you going to have a
long-term potential career at amazon
because you've got plenty of growth
still in your capabilities
so
if you get asked this question is really
much more along the lines of a warm-up
question than it is about identifying
whether someone wants to hire you or not
hire you so treat it as such
i would take a view of you've already
kind of planned the answer because you
gave that answer in the phone screen
synthesize it up to maybe only two or
three sentences and get yourself into
the leadership principle questions as
quickly as possible a decision to hire
and not how you will not be made a panel
based on your answer to why amazon but
it's a nice warm-up question it's a way
of just kind of building that rapport
between you and your interviewer so
synthesize up what you'd already created
for phone screen two three sentences
done and dusted and move on to the
leadership principle questions that your
interviewer will then be asking you
okay
so that's it for today i hope that was
helpful and i will see you next time
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