Why does AMZN ask 'tell me an instance'. No better ways to find out how a person will behave? People will fake rt ?
Amazons star method sucks...its not really useful when hiring managers pull bull shut scenarios out of their asses that have nothing to do with your background
The star method is not unique to Amazon, nor did it start at Amazon.. so it's not Amazon's star method
Star method is old as time. But this post is about Amazon. And they way they use it sucks
You will be surprised how many people screw up these interviews even though the format is well known and predictable
Top tier blind comment
easiest interviews. just tell them what they want to hear
Point is not about what they ask..if people fake, how can interviewers judge correctly?
They don't care ... you can lie all you want. Once you come in they give you shit load of work. If you don't do it perfectly they PIP you out very quickly. Revolving door. Easy come easy go.
To an extent a good interviewer will try to dive deep into the example like asking what was your role, what was the impact blah blah .. but I agree , it’s not very foolproof ..
Well the leetcode based interviews also aren't great
A good interviewer doesn't stop asking questions after "tell me about a time". A good interviewer questions claims and asks how you verified success and why you made decisions
Having taken 250+ interviews, I can say that it's pretty easy to catch the fakers. Usually more than one interviewers gets the strong hunch, they bring it up during debrief and the lies are exposed quickly. Sure a small minority might get through but they would have to prepare several scenarios in good depth to fake well. It's usually easier to be honest.
What if you've never experienced a time when...
Say so and we move on to a different situation. It's pretty common. The red flag is when you have not run into any or most of them for most of the interviews. That or lack of ability to go deeper into the situation is signal that person doesn't have enough experience for the level. At best we treat it as lack of data which is usually not something in candidates favor. The expectations are of course different depending on years of experience.
I love “tell me about a time when you were not able to deliver on a commitment” and variations of that question. That shows you how people try to present themselves (as a person who never makes mistakes or someone who can admit to them) and also allows you to identify if/how they grow from their mistakes.
Tell me about a time where you were able to assess a candidate in a 50 minute interview.