Step 1: Resume Screen

First, you’ll need to convince recruiters that you have a strong enough profile to be invited to the first round of Amazon interviews. Here, you will either submit your application through Amazon’s jobs portal, or you will have been contacted directly via email or LinkedIn by an Amazon recruiter. In either case, you will need a strong resume to impress them.

This is an extremely competitive step, as ~90% of candidates don’t make it past the resume stage. To help you put together a targeted resume that stands out from the crowd, follow the tips below.

Tips on crafting a resume:

• Study the job description: The work experience that you display on your resume should relate directly to the role qualifications you’re applying for.
• Be specific: Use data to back up your claims. How many people were on the team that you managed? How were your successes measured? Quantify as much as you can.
• Emphasize leadership: Amazon values emergent leadership. Highlight roles and positions where you took the lead and managed others, if applicable.
• Keep it to one page: Be concise. Recruiters often don’t have the time to study a resume in-depth, especially if it spans multiple pages.

The tips above include abbreviated information from our tech resume guides. For more detailed steps as well as examples to follow, take a look at one of our articles below:

• How to write a tech resume (including examples from Amazon candidates)
• How to write a software engineering resume (including examples from Amazon candidates)
• How to write a product manager resume (including examples from a successful Google candidate)
• How to write a TPM/PgM resume (including examples from a successful Google candidate)
• How to write an engineering manager resume (including an example from a successful Amazon candidate)

The guides above are great starting points for you to make a competitive resume, for free. However, if you want personalized feedback and tips from those who know Amazon’s hiring process firsthand, you’ll need to get input from ex-Amazon recruiters themselves.

Step 2: Recruiter Call

Once your resume has been approved, an Amazon recruiter will schedule a roughly 30-minute call with you. They will discuss how the overall interview process will work. If you have any specific questions (e.g., timeline, location, clarification about the job description), now is the time to ask.

Usually, this call does not include technical questions, although some highly technical roles, like software engineers, may receive a few low-level screening questions that test general technical knowledge. Otherwise, the recruiter will ask typical behavioral and resume questions like “Why Amazon?”, “Walk me through your resume,” and “Tell me about yourself.”

Overall, the Amazon interview process will include a higher emphasis on behavioral interview questions than at other companies like Meta or Google. This is because the company is looking for candidates who align with their 16 leadership principles. If you’re going to ace the rest of Amazon’s interview process, you need to be well acquainted with these principles. Let’s take a look at this in more detail.

2.1 Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles

Below are Amazon’s leadership principles, so you can start thinking of examples from your past experience that align with them. For more help crafting answers to Amazon questions around their leadership principles, use our guide to Amazon behavioral interviews.

Amazon’s 16 Leadership Principles:

• Customer Obsession: "Leaders start with the customer and work backwards. They work vigorously to earn and keep customer trust. Although leaders pay attention to competitors, they obsess over customers.”
• Ownership: "Leaders are owners. They think long term and don’t sacrifice long-term value for short-term results. They act on behalf of the entire company, beyond just their own team. They never say ‘that’s not my job.’”
• Invent and Simplify: "Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify. They are externally aware, look for new ideas from everywhere, and are not limited by ‘not invented here.’ Because we do new things, we accept that we may be misunderstood for long periods of time.”
• Are Right, A Lot: "Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.”
• Learn and Be Curious: "Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.”
• Hire and Develop the Best: "Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion. They recognize exceptional talent, and willingly move them throughout the organization. Leaders develop leaders and take seriously their role in coaching others. We work on behalf of our people to invent mechanisms for development like Career Choice.”

1. Tell me about yourself.

2. What are your strengths and weaknesses?

3. Tell me about an experience when you faced difficulty at work while working on a project.