Amazon Interview - Sr TPM Tips

Guys.. will be interviewing at Amazon for a Sr. Technical Program Manager position soon. Would love some detailed advise on preparations for the phone interview. Pls note: my background is in semiconductors/HW and even though I feel over the years I'm now working as a glorified program manager, I don't yet have a good picture of what the expectations, working style, responsibilities and desired skillset are for a PM in Amazon. Appreciate any tips especially from fellow blind Amazon buddies 🙂🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼

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Oath Atinlay2 Jul 24, 2019

“Pls” work on your English.

Cypress QKHF06 OP Jul 24, 2019

Tip#1 noted :)

Cypress QKHF06 OP Jul 25, 2019

Thanks for the share. Really helpful insight. I should call you Hector cause you just saved my Troy :)

Amazon TCtothaMAX Jul 26, 2019

Rejected.

Amazon beebott Jul 26, 2019

Can you work a spreadsheet with a row for each feature deliverable, manager name, and date? Can you name and shame up the management chain the manager who is yellow or red? Can you repeat this simple phrase "Yes, but what is your path to green?” to those reporting yellow/red no matter how impossible the odds of green are? If yes to all, you are hired.

Amazon аlv Jul 27, 2019

Also don’t forget to insist on daily 1hr status report meetings with all the engineers involved but don’t budget time for them.

Cypress QKHF06 OP Jul 27, 2019

Haha loving the tough love

Amazon pollished Jul 26, 2019

Is ur interview on Monday and ur name starts with S?

Cypress QKHF06 OP Jul 27, 2019

No and no.. :)

Amazon b10azx4 Jul 27, 2019

I interviewed for the same position last September and got an offer. My advice for the phone interview is to take some time and focus on the Leadership Principles, then prepare STAR answers to common questions: tell me about a time when you had too few resources, had to work with ambiguity, had a difficult time with a colleague, etc. Then, have a narrative about how you organize work, your philosophy, how you report status. In all cases be factual. Less: I feel this because and more I know this is true because the results were... The on-site is pretty much the same, but 4 or 5 times in a row. My advice there is prepare more than one example of each. Try not to repeat examples, the interviewers will compare. What I did is I went back 3 years, made a list of my projects then listed the issues overcome in each project and how they were overcome. With this list I started drilling through the Leadership Principles to find which stories that fit a given principle. After about an hour of this I could just casually speak about any given leadership principle in a STAR format. Speak aloud to yourself. It helps. I prepped for the phone interview for 3 hours. Finally, for the on site you may be asked to do some system design at a very high level. For example, you might be asked “How would you create a video sharing site?” There are a lot of tutorials online to help with that, but be concerned about showing input, logic, storage and output along with data flows. Be prepared to speak to storage schemes like NoSQL, RBDMS, how sharding works... that stuff. I prepped for the on-site for 2 hours a day for 3 days. Day to day, I’ve found what TPMs end up doing is looking around corners preemptively resolving issues, negotiating for resources, escalating issues, and reporting. So much reporting. About 50% of your week will be meetings 40% will be reading status updates from the teams you depend on and writing status updates for your program and putting out fires you couldn’t predict. 10% sprint planning, managing your career and “other” My first project at Amazon was underwater before I started. I ended up putting in 10-12 hour days each day for 6 months. After that 8-9 hour days were enough, but they are full minute to minute, sandwich at the desk days. Good luck on the phone interview!

Amazon b10azx4 Jul 27, 2019

And if it is for Alexa Smarthome, Alexa Video or Alexa NLU... well, buyer beware.

Amazon rsMM06 Jul 27, 2019

Have two stories for EVERY leadership principle.