An year at AWS — Interview process & beyond!
Like many other job seekers out there, I have always had a certain amount of euphoria associated with the idea of joining Amazon, Google, Apple and the likes. You aspire to be working for some of these largest companies which have revolutionized the world and made such a remarkable impact. I have always believed that the only ceiling to what you can achieve is your imagination, commitment and desire to excel. With that thought, I just applied for the role that I was interested in.
Within days, I had a recruiter reach out asking that we start a conversation. The conversations went great which led to a technical phone interview, where I was made to feel so comfortable and welcoming with the interviewer that I was given the freedom to disagree with him on a certain architectural design and explain the rationale behind it. My thought process wasn’t brushed off, but rather welcomed with an open mind. I genuinely don’t recall feeling like that in any of the interviews that I had given earlier, where you are always in some sort of an awe with a general expectation that the interviewer is always right. Within a day, I heard back that they would like to bring me on-site. The journey from doing the phone screen to getting onsite was another excellent experience where the recruiter was truly invested in my success. I was coached, guided on what should I prep on and the folks were on standby to provide any additional help that I needed. I hold people with responsiveness and open communications at a very high pedestal, and this was extremely refreshing.
Managing my work charter at the time, putting in late nights at Peet’s Coffee after my work and on the weekends to study for the interview became the theme for the next few weeks as I worked to brush up my skills and possibly, expand my knowledge base. I was determined to succeed. The onsite experience was yet another surreal experience. For the technical interviews, you are quizzed on the domains you feel comfortable in, than what the interviewer feels like. This is an important distinction as the culture here is focus on your strengths and help you succeed; than harp on your weaknesses. As human being, we all have weaknesses but the notion of using your strengths to overcome your weaknesses was just such a refreshing change for me. For the non-technical questions, you are asked abstract open-ended questions and they want to see how you approach the problem rather than arrive at the final result. You are judged against the 14 Amazon leadership principles. There is an emphasis on understanding how you value teamwork. Did you learn — from your past mistakes, conflicts with your colleagues — or not? Do you like to take initiative? Are you a giver? By the end of my interviews, I was exhausted. I felt like every single muscle in my brain was put to work during those 5 hours. I didn’t know if I would make it or not, but it felt extremely refreshing to have been challenged and quizzed by some of the very best for you to get a reality check on where you stand.
Just a day after the interview, I get a call from the recruiter. I vividly recall the day seeing ‘AMAZON’ on the caller-id on my phone, but I couldn’t answer as I was in a meeting. The anxiety was killing me from the inside. I wanted to know the outcome of the interview, but it was also an extremely busy day for me at my then work place with back-to-back meetings for 6 hours and I just couldn’t skip any. I send a note to the recruiter if she was okay to communicate via email and she responds saying ‘I usually like to share great news over the phone. However if you are in suspense I can let you know that ..’ And, that’s it — I had made it! I was brimming with emotion. All those efforts and coffee’s had culminated into this beautiful future that I had envisioned earlier.
Fast forward few months ahead, I join AWS. In the last year or more that I have been here, I continue to be amazed at the scale and efficiency at which the company operates. The ‘Day 1’ mindset has been such a refreshing change where the entire organization doesn’t rest on it’s laurels. The employees have this unsatiated urge to fight challenges, embrace change and most importantly, be obsessed about our customer(s) — something that is so huge for me, personally. There is an enormous amount of backing from leadership in being fearless and doing the right thing. The company prides itself in being frugal. You wouldn’t see us spend on expensive carpets on the floor, or a fancy décor; but the constant push would always be to reduce the costs of the goods sold to the customer, we are truly customer-obsessed.
We have a culture where birthdays are remembered, work anniversaries are celebrated — the leaders take onus of commemorating these events for their direct reports. I recall an incident where I was helping a certain customer on a sensitive issue which ran into my dinner time. Next day, I had my manager reaching out to me thanking me for the time that I put in. If that was not enough, my skip-level manager reached out as well expressing her gratitude. She didn’t have to, but she did. It is certainly possible that they may not remember this, but it certainly left an everlasting impression on me — someone who was relatively new at AWS then, had just started taking on work felt so wonderfully included and appreciated. One of the other remarkable things that has stood out for me, is the accessibility to the leadership across teams and services (We have many!), and how receptive the leaders are to get on the phone with you and hear you out, only coz you tell them that you have a customer feedback, or can just offer some recommendations to make the product better! Given how busy everyone is, it is astonishing how do they do this at scale. Probably, one of the reasons what sets us apart.
Amazon also has a daily Q&A feedback program, Connections where we start our day by answering a question that pops up on our screen. The questions are typically work-related, with topics ranging from thoughts about our manager to the length of meetings, or the number of times we have received positive feedback in the past week. We have a People Science Team that studies the anonymous feedback and that data is further leveraged to make the work environment an even better place to be in.
If you like what you read and are obsessed over your customers, what you are waiting for. We are hiring! :-)
