Amazon Careers: Everything You Need to Know
About Amazon
Amazon careers span a wide range of categories: software, hardware, business development, sales, design, product, facilities, HR, marketing, and more. Founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, Amazon began as an online bookseller and then branched out to include many more products. Today, there are over 600,000 Amazon employees worldwide, and the company headquarters are in Seattle. There are about 45,000 employees in this location, and there will be a second headquarters opening, which eventually will have tens of thousands of employees.
Over the years, Amazon has made many acquisitions — most recently, the largest one was Whole Foods. One criticism aimed at the huge multinational company was that it never turned a profit, but that has changed in recent years.
Amazon Interview Process
The first place to look is on the Amazon careers page, or the very similar one on LinkedIn. Once you identify some candidates, you can reach out to your personal and professional networks to see if you can get a referral. You might also be able to contact an Amazon recruiter on LinkedIn. If those options aren’t available, you might try asking for a referral on Blind, as this user did.
Another tip is to ask yourself if you like what Amazon does or want a job. If you use Amazon and like it, you could mention it if you get an interview to help your chances because some applicants don’t have this personal connection.
Blind Insights about Amazon Interview Process:
“1. The interview process was pretty smooth, and I liked speaking with everyone. There were three phone screens (recruiter, HM, and a coding tech) followed by the loop!
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- Loop: This was my first time interviewing at Amazon. There were 5 rounds involving 6 people in total. The BR interview had two people.
- One of the rounds was a coder-pad type SQL interview.”(Amazon L6 Interview Process and Offer!)
“The first step is an initial recruiter email that sends you the HackerRank online assessment, the next and final step is a 4-panel interview that is four hours long (3 software engineer interviews and 1 manager). Between the 1st and 2nd interview, I got a survey for team preference.” (Amazon interview processed more here)
How to prepare for Amazon interviews
A deep understanding of Amazon’s leadership principles is vital for the interview process. Preparing your past experiences and using the STAR framework to structure your answer is suggested by most successful candidates.
Tips from professionals on Blind
“Three things that helped me 1. Be concise in your first 3-4 minutes. Of course, cover everything in the STAR format with a special emphasis on your actions and results (I quantified everything)
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- Have at least 15 stories prepared. I mapped the stories to various Leadership Principles
- Know exactly what they are looking for in an LP (15 Leadership Principles). I found a book on ‘amazon’ by Jennifer scupi very useful. There are a lot of online videos as well.” (Amazon L6 Interview Process and Offer!)
“I wrote out ~7-9 stories (1 paragraph each) so that I could articulate my thoughts more easily when I had to answer the 15 Leadership Principles) questions. worked pretty well for me!” (Amazon Interview Prep)
“Your best option is to be natural in answering your questions. They will all behavioral mostly. It’s all “Tell me about a time….”. If you use LPs( 15 Leadership Principles) for your answers naturally, it’s fine but don’t go out of your way to do it since we notice that, especially if you know the playbook and LPs assigned to us we are questioning on” (Amazon LP(15 Leadership Principles))
Read more for the discussions on Blind about Amazon Leadership Principles.
Amazon Culture
Amazon calls its culture innovative and peculiar — it emphasizes risk-taking and includes failure. Principles are at the core. They are customer obsession, ownership, invent and simplicity. Are right, a lot, learn and curious, hire and develop the best, insist on the highest standards, and think big. How you see Amazon as a prospective employee might sort of binary — you like it, or you don’t. Simply put, Amazon careers are not for everyone.
Insights from Amazon Professionals on Blind
“I see some managers brag about putting extra hours in leadership meetings. That is nothing to brag about. With good time management, managing expectations, and not setting unrealistic deadlines, you can have a good work-life balance as a manager and your employee. There are occasional fires, but that is more manageable. I do all this, and my engineer still quits, so don’t listen to my advice. ?.” (What is Work-life balance look like for managers in Amazon)
“50-60 hours consistently tons of pressure. Been at Amazon 4 years now. L6 SDM.”(What is WLB look like for managers in Amazon)
“Most old organizations (S3, SQS, DDB) are super big, and they move pretty slow. Most of the work you do will be ops ( replacing dependencies, manually repair clusters, etc.) and reviews (design review is just a small part of this, most reviews are going to be related to operation). There are plenty of people who have been stuck in L5 for many years and waiting to be promoted to L6. Lots of politics around the promotion and how to get top tier review score.”(Amazon AWS culture)
Other voice about Amazon PIP (performance improvement program):
” I was a top performer at Amazon. Still got piped (performance improvement program), one of the worst companies to work for. After I left Amazon, I make more money, more peace, more WLB. I won’t even join Amazon again, even for 1M base. A happy life is worth more than any shit. And definitely, Amazon is one of the shittiest companies in the world. Save your ass if you can.”(PIP culture at Amazon)
Depending on what role you have, who your manager is, and what part of this huge company you are working in, your amazon career might be very intense, or it might be balanced and endurable. Amazon is a top tech company, so you may be able to move to Google, Facebook, Apple, or the like with some ease. Having this opportunity is quite an advantage. At the same time, some people don’t want to work in a giant corporation doing some stressful work for a paycheck. A very large salary and some stock can be the ‘golden handcuffs’ for some professionals. If you don’t know your interests, passions, and dreams working for an enormous corporation might not be for you. Amazon careers might appeal to people who are competitive, fast-moving, aggressive, and vigorously ambitious.
How diverse is Amazon?
Globally, about 40% of the employees are female, with 26% of manager roles occupied by women. In the US, 14% of employees are Hispanic, 14% are Asian, 22% are Black, and 42% are White.
Amazon Salary?
The median annual Amazon salary is $141,000, and for software engineers, it is $144,000, according to Blind salary tool.
Insights from Blind
“Most likely L5. TC would be $140-160k for the new hire.
L6 is possible if you kill it in the interview and the hiring manager likes you a lot. TC would then be ~190k.
You can also try asking the recruiter what level you’re interviewing for right now.
BI engineer= L4/L5
Sr.BI engineer= L6” (Amazon Salary Expectation)
“You can go for L5, and if you make it, then ask the recruiter for L6 reinterview. Usually, you’ll have one or two additional interviews with the senior engineers.
I know a few guys who managed to do it that way.
L5 TC is about 220k -260k
L6 TC is around 300k – 320k” (Amazon Salary Expectation)
Read more for the discussions on Blind about Amazon Salary.
How are the perks?
Of the very prominent tech companies, Amazon may have the fewest perks. Some professionals don’t care because they would rather prioritize doing work they like and make money. Others want some softer amenities and a workplace that is cozier. If you lean that way, Amazon might not be the best choice for you. The perks are relatively limited.
“$50 Phone bill reimbursement, 30% off most Bose products, 20-30% off preferred hotels on Concur for personal use Business pricing on shipping Free bananas” (Perks in Amazon apart from TC)
“10% amazon discount up to 100 dollars discount yearly – real luxurious, I know haha but in all seriousness matching 3% 401k, decent medical/dental.” (Amazon employee perks?)
Living cost in Seattle and bay area
Seattle is one of the most expensive housing markets in the US because of tech companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and many others. The median home price in Seattle is $600,000 – $726,000. The average apartment rent is $2,136, according to RentJungle. There are less expensive rental options like renting a room in a home. Some people, though not many, live in RVs or vans to save money because they don’t pay rent. Many people don’t want to consider renting or buying a mobile home, but these options are typically quite a bit more affordable.
Amazon careers are located in Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, China, England, Belgium, France, and many other countries. You aren’t limited to working in Seattle or HQ II in Virginia if you are interested in working for Amazon.
Check out Blind Blogs about other companies’ career:
Facebook Careers: What You Need to Know
Airbnb Careers: What You Need to Know
Apple Careers: What You Need to Know
Uber Careers: What You Need to Know
