Hi Blind community, As the title indicates I'm a FAANG virgin. I have my first Amazon interview on Monday!!! (Which I'm excited, nervous, a wreck & stressing over it). Can you please give me some pointers? What should I say and not say? How's this team? Other teams I'll be working with? How do I negotiate salary? I know a lot of people say focus a lot on behavioral questions that highlight the Amazon LPS but what does that exactly entails? Idk if this is considered FinTech but the project is mainly for an accounting/finance function & I'll be working with a lot of different corporate ops teams. Position: Program Manager Team: Compliance Operations Team Location: LA TC: Unknown. I don't even know what level this is & what is the TC range. Current TC $135K (this is all base; no sign on, bonus or RSUs). Is $175K too high to ask? What base should I ask? Any help/advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you all for taking the time to read and respond and give guidance...including Trolls who keep it exciting and distracting a stressed out Blinder 😫
LPs are your bible.
Look on the website levels.fyi for salaries that people have reported. If the program manager role isn’t on there, look for product manager. Product manager salaries are slightly higher but not by much. Also, the amount Amazon is likely to offer could be based partly on what amazon thinks you are making in your current role and your years of experience, so factor that in. Ask for something a bit higher than what you hope to land to give yourself some negotiating room
Thank you very much for the info and insight! I really appreciate it!
I love the title - FAANG virgin 😂
It's true 😉 I'm hoping to be a FAANGer soon 😂
Biggest advice is don’t get too excited. Managing expectations is critical to maintaining your own mental stability and health. Job interviews are a funny thing. The more you want the job, the more you won’t get it. That physical gut-wrenching feeling you get when you receive that rejection email is horrible. It will ruin your confidence and you’ll fuck up all your other interviews. Equanimity is key.
I completely agree with you! I actually have done this in the past and has screwed me. Thank you for the reminder!
This is very true. When I was a new grad, my first FAANG interview was with FB and for whatever reason I was very desperate. On the on-site, I botched 2 pretty easy questions just because I was nervous and it snowballed. When Amazon came along, I already had a pretty good offer from another company and I wasn't as desperate, but Amazon still interested me. I did some prep but with the mentality of "who cares, on to the next one if I fail". I was much more relaxed and performed better on my interview, eventually leading to the offer.
FAANG is overrated. Just another company
Completely agree with you! However, they have raised the bar
important to come up with 2 stories for each LP.. that's what ur offer depends on
Thank you!
I had prepared 3-4 examples per Leadership Principle. In the interview they went deeper on each of the examples I gave. Also they are not interested in cliched/politically correct answers. In addition they may ask about any conflicts you had at work place and how you handled or stood upto to others respectfully. One interviewer went too deep on technical questions- his mode was asking why as a chain reaction to each answer. I didn’t get the position but 3 months later another recruiter reached out to me saying that I was identified as a strong candidate and asked about my availability. By that time I had already signed an offer with Apple.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. One question I have now is how do they start the interview? Do they just say "tell us about all of your experiences" or do they ask about each LP and then you have to respond?
They don’t just say “tell me about all your experiences”. Nor do they ask each LP and tell you to give an example. Each question may be imbued with one or more LP themes, and it is up to you to correlate it back and give examples. Although it highly depends on the interviewer and sometimes it may be as plainly disguised as “tell me about a time when you showed bias for action”. At the end of the interview they will see whether you have demonstrated Amazonian qualities and potential overall.
When I looped (non technical) it was immediate and to the point. No fluff no warm up. You have 30-40 min per loop so no time to “get to know you”
^ this. Tho sometimes they start with “tell me about yourself” to build a rapport and ease you into it. But some interviews I got are straight up questioning no time for introductions.
Yes it's 45min that includes 5 min of introduction about the project. My question is how do they start the interview? Do I just talk the whole time and go over all the points or do they ask and I have to answer? This project is semi-non-technical & I've done this project a few times in other companies (all public companies) so I know I can do the job but everyone makes such a big deal about FAANG & Amazon's LP that makes me nervous. I also have another interview with them coming up and I just don't want to get rejected for all future jobs
Health & Wellness
7h
720
How can I find success dating in NYC
Tech Industry
Yesterday
1191
Do you really think Amazon is that bad
India
Yesterday
1813
Slavery has REVERSED! the US is the slave!!! Check out this dude who pays a personal trainer in India
Tech Industry
Yesterday
212
How you doing overall?
Tech Industry
Yesterday
906
Best LCOL or MCOL city?
You are already thinking of asking for money before your first interview? 😀
This is exactly what he should be thinking about because the recruiter may ask for expected compensation
That's one of the questions they had pre-interview and I left it as "open to negotiate" so just wanted to know what to say if it comes up during the interview (most likely at the end)