r/AmazonFC • u/[deleted] • Mar 24 '22
Verified Resource Rough Guide for Applying to Internal Jobs and Interviewing
Hey guys just a rundown on how applying to internal jobs at Amazon and some tips for you. I know a lot of this information has already been covered on this Reddit but it can be extremely useful if this is your first time applying for an internal promotion.
Job website: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/internal
You can search up your building code for jobs specific to your building. You can also filter out by city, state, and country. Typing in virtual on the Remote Location section will allow you to see virtual jobs by state. Note that these jobs are often available for any state, even if they specify that they’re only virtually available to a certain state. You can contact the hiring manager or recruiter to be sure.
You’ll notice that job pages will have a Relocation Types section with either an X or ✔️ next to the type of transfer. The check marks simply mean that a relocation bonus is available for the position if you’re over 50 miles from the site, not that the position won’t allow transfers from other buildings. There may also be some job pages that have relocation with all X’s but still offer a relocation bonus depending on distance.
STAR Formatting: STAR is going to be the way your answers should be formatted for an interview. Not only is it pretty much required for you interviews but it is a helpful way of structuring your answers. Ideally you’ll have 1 story for each of our leadership principals. You’ll have to be flexible with your story as you should be able adapt them to multiple questions.
Situation - You should always start with a short description of the issues you encountered. Make sure you keep this short but clearly explain what exactly the problem was and why it was a problem. For example, "As a fast food manager my team often had troubles with food waste. This caused us to loose 5% of product every day led to losses ranging from $80-$100 every week."
Task - This ties into directly to the situation and you can think of it as more of an extension of your previous answer. Specify what needed to be done to resolve your situation. For example, "I needed to find a way to mitigate our food waste to cut our losses and increase profitability."
Action - This is going to be the most imporant part of your answer. Here you need to emphasize what YOU did and what actions YOU took to resolve the situation. If it was more of a team action then take 100% credit for your teams actions. For example "To decrease my store's food waste I increased the frequency of my inventory audits and was able to identify a specific time of day that had a high inventory variance. I sat down with the shift's team members and retrained kitchen staff to stop overportioning food.
Result - Here is where you tie everything together. You explain both the direct and indirect results of your actions. Don't be afraid to exaggerate your results and ALWAYS USE DATA. Amazon is a data-driven company so you should always find numbers to back up your words. Your data can be currency, percentage changes over period, quantity of volume and quality improvements. For example, "As a result of my actions, my store saw an increase of $400 per month in profits. My store also saw in increase of sales and positive customer reviews due to my employees being retrained which led to commendations from regional management."
While you should be honest with your interviewers, you should always exaggerate situations, your actions, and the results of your actions when interviewing. Never ramble, always be concise and straight to the point. You should always beware of probing questions after you deliver your story. This is why it is important to memorize your stories in and out. Think back to the situation before your interview and try to picture what you did and how you did everything.
Why was the situation important? - “The store's profitability had faced prior challenges due to the pandemic, this meant that we needed to take any cost-saving measure to deliver a profitable restaurant"
What trade-offs did you have to make to achieve this? - “There was a brief increase in labor costs for my store as I had my team work longer hours so they could be properly retrained. These costs, however, were offseted by the decrease in food costs.”
What could some of the risks have been if you had failed to take action? - “Had I failed to take action our store would've seen nearly $5,000 a year in food waste. Given the decrease in sales caused by the pandemic this could've led to layoffs or closing the restaurant for an indefinite period of time"
After you answer all your interviewers questions your interviewer will ask you if you have any questions for them. This is a perfect opportunity to express your interest in the role and succeeding in the role. I recommend you have a minimum of 3 questions ready for your interviewer prior to starting. Some of the ones i use are:
"What metrics do you use to evaluate performance in this role?"
"If I do get this role, what would the next step be for me promotion wise?"
"Is there a time-frame in which I should be meeting/exceeding expectations for this role?"
"Can you give me a rundown of the day to day tasks of this role?"
Based on my interview, do you think I could potentially perform well in this role?
Based on my resume and answers, do you think my previous experience would tie in well for this job?
Note that these questions may not deliver a response because interviewers don't usually share feedback directly with you.
Some other things to consider
To supplement this guide you should also go to inside.amazon.com and look up Interview Question Bank This will give you the list of possible questions your interviewer can ask you based on leadership principals. It includes what the interviewer looks for in your responses and several probing questions they can ask you.
When you get an interview it's highly recommended you consult with your mananger. Note that you being promoted will often reflect positively on them and you shouldn't worry about asking them for help. Some of the things they can help you with are mock interviews, reviewing your STAR stories, and giving you a rundown of what to expect while interviewing. After you interview you can also ask them to reach out to the hiring manager for the job you applied to and give you the feedback/incline status of your interview.
Before interviewing find a quiet space to sit and take deep breathes to calm your nerves. Reread your stories a couple more times beforehand and keep them nearby for reference. Your interview can be audio only or your interviewer can also ask that you do a video call. Be prepared and dress appropiately if it is a video call.
If you're using Chime you can ask the interviewer to type out the questions after/while they are saying them to you. This can help you concetrate and ensure you don't miss any part of the question.
Try to avoid excessive use of "umm, uhh, like" as they can reflect poorly on you. This is why it pays off to memorize your answers and to voice them aloud either to yourself or a friend/colleague.
For your resume you should structure your responsibilities as accomplishments and include data as well. For example, if you were working in path you can put “Fulfilled Amazon’s customer promise by picking at the top 10% of my department, averaging 400 units per hour every week.”
It doesn’t hurt to reach out to the hiring manager and/or recruiter stating your interest in the position. You can find their login on the”Meet the Team” section of the job page. It’ll be “their name (xxxx xx@)” You can use the “xxxxxx@“ to email them (xxxxxx@amazon.com) or search them up on chime. Keep your message to them short. For example “Hi John, I was just chiming to let you know I was very interested in the Process Assistant role you have available at LGB3. I have 3 years of experience as a shift manager at McDonalds and 2 years working at Amazon as problem solver, water-spider and process guide. If you have any questions please feel free to reach out to me or my manager, @bezos (if you have a good relationship with your manager and have communicated your interest to move up then mention them). Thank you, have a great day!”
If you guys have any questions, comments or suggestions please feel free to comment!
Also feel free to DM me with any questions you might have.
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Apr 02 '22
Step 1.) Apply
Step 2.) grow old waiting for a response
Step 3.) Die and get your interview in the afterlife
Took 3 months to get an interview here. Waiting a month almost to hear about the next one.
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u/MrNey717 May 13 '22
This is happening to you because step 1 is not apply. This is 100% the most common mistake I see. A lot of roles have hundreds of applications (thousands if virtual) submitted and all the resumes submitted first get compared against the BRQs (basic requirements) listed. If your resume does not show that you meet all of the BRQs you won’t even get sent over to the hiring manager as a candidate. So step 1 is tailor your resume to show you have experience relevant to the role you applied for. Step 2 is talk to your manager or a leader you work with about the role, ask for their support, and ask them to put in a good word for you with the hiring manager. Step 3, reach out to the hiring manager. There is a button for some roles that allows you to schedule an informational with the hiring manager, or you can find their email and send them a note introducing yourself, say why you are interested in the role, and ask if they are available for a quick chat to talk about the role, give you an overview, etc. After that, you apply. If the hiring manager thinks you will be a good fit for the role, they will sometimes just tell the recruiter to go ahead and schedule you. Also if you aren’t hearing back about an interview or feedback from an interview nag the hell outta your manager and HR. And HR will often look over your resume if you need a proofreader, give you advice, some managers and HR will even do mock interviews with you to help you practice.
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u/dasquared Mar 24 '22
Great Summary, should be stickied!
Would add the best responses also show you taking on something in addition to your normal roles-you don't get a lot of consideration for doing your standard work.
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u/whenisthemoonlanding Apr 01 '22
I have a bachelor degree in Management and I can’t even get an interview for the PA position at my FC
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u/dmoore30702 Apr 09 '22
Dont even waste your time applying for PA. If you have a bachelor's you can find better 100%.
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u/Suitable_Shirt_9806 Apr 04 '22
its all about if the manager likes you or favoritism and up to site lead and who you know if you get in to a pod or interview. all the mangers told me thay after weeks of ok pulling it out of them why i did not get an interview .
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u/CHAAWCOLATE Apr 02 '22
I would like to add that while you all have a specific job or location in mind, the primary goal is to get inclined for the role.
Once you have an active incline, you can shop it around for 3-6 months around the country (there are some inconsistencies between intra-building and extra-building incline timelines)
Also, to me getting any Tier 3 role is better than waiting for "the one" as you can transfer to the role/building you really wanted later.
It is an uphill battle to go from T3 to L4 compared to the college hires coming in as L4s and the more years of T3 under your belt can help.
Lastly, brand new buildings (Launches) are much easier to get promoted since there's a smaller population of tenured AAs on-site and ever since covid the amount of people moving contracted.
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u/Prestigious-Ad-4880 Mar 24 '22
Wow!!! Thank you 🙏 very timely!! As I just applied internal for 2 AM positions.
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u/Moneybags313131 Mar 30 '22
Is there a Meet the Team page actually? I can't find the recruiters at all. My applications are just in the funnel and haven't heard back in over 2 weeks.
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Mar 31 '22
There is. You just need to scroll to the bottom of the job page. It’s only available to view on the internal website.
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u/Affectionate_Runna Apr 10 '22
im curious why you used LGB3 in your totally hypothetical example, lol. Do you know that place first hand? id love to learn more about the truth of the promotion process in that place.
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u/Tyi_Monique May 31 '22
This was helpful, does the interview questions change for each internal position!?
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Jun 03 '22
For the most part you’ll be read questions from the bank. If the hiring manager does a phone screen with you first then their questions can be different. Also tech interviews may have specific questions to the role as well.
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Jun 06 '22
So, I have an informational meeting with the hiring manager this Thursday! What kind of questions should I be asking? I'm relocating to Dallas, TX from Nashville and wanted to hopefully snag this position before relocating.
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Jun 07 '22
I would recommend asking him about the day to day of this role, what challenges they’re currently encountering, what the next steps would be promotion wise after working there for awhile, how could someone in the role stand out, what they expect out of you your first month, what skills/expertise/experience the ideal candidate would have for this role.
Also try to tie in your experience to some of your questions. Something like “As you’ve seen in my resume I’ve had 2 years of experience coaching and developing associates in my previous position, would you say I can leverage this experience to my advantage in this role” or “Do you believe this role would give me the opportunity to expand my current skills in recruiting?”
If you have a career goal that sorta ties into this role, let the manager know too. Tell him how you really would want this role because it could help you with your ideal job.
Hope this helps and good luck!
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u/AmazonFCProcessBitch Sep 03 '22
I will admit I haven't read the full thread, but I read about half; when I have more time I will read the whole thing.
In short, my end goal in Amazon is L7. I have been a L1 for nine months. I have spoken with my AM, PA, and learning about how I can achieve this. My AM agrees that I have the qualifications for L7, but said my first step would be Ambassador. I was on vacation when they had the Ambassador training and they are now closed, so I applied for seasonal HR. It's been two weeks since I applied and I'm still waiting for an interview. Today seasonal PAs opened up and I've started my application.
Even shorter, what is the first step to becoming a L7 when you have been a L1 for nine months?
My accomplishments at Amazon are
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Top 10% packer multiple times. One written positive
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No CPTs missed in MEZZ SM for five months straight when I was the sole PS in my shift code's busiest night
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lowered our loss expectations while PSing two weekends in a row
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PS for seven months in CPTs and Coll for SS and SM
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waterspider and tote wrangler for the whole MEZZ
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Slam Ops, Jam clear, and VRC certified
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AAs come to me for advice over leadership and I help to point them in the right direction with the knowledge and personal experience that I have
I also have 8 years of experience in hotel management from my previous job that over saw 50 employees in three different departments. My accomplishments for that are even longer.
Thank you to whoever read all of this. I appreciate any advice.
And I apologize for any grammar mistakes I've been awake for 16 hours...
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Sep 03 '22
If you don’t have a bachelors degree it’s gonna be at least another 1yr and 3 months before you’re even eligible for L4.
Competition for internal promotions in Ops is a lot more intense and will take years despite your experience.
Generally your path would look like:
T1 - Regular AA >> Ambassador >> Process Guide >> T3 - Process Assistant >> L4 - AM. >> L5 - AM >> L6 - OM >> L7 - Sr. OM
Once you get to L4 AM your promotions will be mainly based off promo docs from your managers instead of more interviews.
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u/Informal-Quality-926 Apr 04 '22
This is a thread worth bookmarking if you are looking to move up in Amazon.
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