The process was utter chaos.

A recruiter reached out, informing me I was eligible for the Boomerang Program (for ex-Amazonians to return without an interview). After I expressed interest, they stated it required approval. Later, they said it wasn't approved as I had left the company too long ago. I found it unprofessional that they seemed unaware of basic hiring rules.

They then asked me to complete an Online Assessment. I requested time to prepare. They were pushy, calling every other day to check in, which felt invasive. A couple of weeks later, they informed me I DIDN'T need to do the OA because it was for junior engineers, and I was a senior. Again, why were the basic processes unknown?

They referred me to another recruiter. Meanwhile, I was receiving outreach from numerous other Amazon recruiters. It felt as though the process was uncentralized, with everyone competing for leads.

The second recruiter could not match me to a role with my tech stack. I was surprised, as I didn't believe a company as large as Amazon would have no openings for my specialty, which is a common one. I suspected the recruiters had their own hiring areas and were unwilling to refer me outside their scope. I decided to proceed anyway, treating it as practice for other interviews.

I had a chat with the hiring manager. It was the least prepared chat I've ever had. They spent most of the time on small talk and oversharing their opinions. They did not organize their thoughts well or effectively sell the team.

My next step was a technical interview. Without any notice, the interviewer did not show up. That was when I decided enough was enough and chose not to proceed further.

The entire interview process was a disaster. Every single step was painful. I can't imagine it could have been much worse.