Describe a situation where you had to make a decision without data.

What You Need to Know
How to Answer
Entry Level Example

"Be resourceful, and navigate through ambiguity." Jeff Bezos has said that he's aimed to recruit candidates who strengthen the organization. "We want to fight entropy. The bar has to continuously go up. I ask people to visualize the company five years from now. At that point, each of us should look around and say, The standards are so high now, boy, I'm glad I got in when I did!" When Amazon interviews candidates, they are known to examine how each candidate would enhance their culture and raise the bar. They assess how each individual measures up to their leadership principles and how well their answers align with their corporate philosophy.

One of their leadership principles is 'Bias for Action,' which states, "Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk-taking." So think about your career and where you have demonstrated that you already embrace this principle. The more you can exemplify that you are already guided by these and embody these qualities, the more successful your interview will be.

"In a past position, a client with a project we hadn't started yet suddenly needed it fast-tracked, and we needed a mock-up by the end of the day. The supervisor who had all the client data wasn't going to be in for an hour, and our team needed to know whether we should start on the project now without the necessary data on hand or wait until that supervisor came in and risk missing the deadline. So I made the call to get started now. I knew the basics of the presentation and the type of charts and spreadsheets we needed to create, so I tasked the team with building the foundation for everything. This way, when this supervisor came in, they only had to populate the data. We got moving, and when everything was finally built out, it took three hours before our supervisor arrived. They were super impressed and distributed the data. The team populated it, and we sent off the mock-up to the client hours early."

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How to Answer: Describe a situation where you had to make a decision without data.

Advice and answer examples written specifically for an Amazon job interview.

14. Describe a situation where you had to make a decision without data.

What You Need to Know

"Be resourceful, and navigate through ambiguity." Jeff Bezos has said that he's aimed to recruit candidates who strengthen the organization. "We want to fight entropy. The bar has to continuously go up. I ask people to visualize the company five years from now. At that point, each of us should look around and say, The standards are so high now, boy, I'm glad I got in when I did!" When Amazon interviews candidates, they are known to examine how each candidate would enhance their culture and raise the bar. They assess how each individual measures up to their leadership principles and how well their answers align with their corporate philosophy.

Written by Kevin Downey on January 25th, 2023

How to Answer

One of their leadership principles is 'Bias for Action,' which states, "Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study. We value calculated risk-taking." So think about your career and where you have demonstrated that you already embrace this principle. The more you can exemplify that you are already guided by these and embody these qualities, the more successful your interview will be.

Written by Kevin Downey on January 25th, 2023

Entry Level Example

"In a past position, a client with a project we hadn't started yet suddenly needed it fast-tracked, and we needed a mock-up by the end of the day. The supervisor who had all the client data wasn't going to be in for an hour, and our team needed to know whether we should start on the project now without the necessary data on hand or wait until that supervisor came in and risk missing the deadline. So I made the call to get started now. I knew the basics of the presentation and the type of charts and spreadsheets we needed to create, so I tasked the team with building the foundation for everything. This way, when this supervisor came in, they only had to populate the data. We got moving, and when everything was finally built out, it took three hours before our supervisor arrived. They were super impressed and distributed the data. The team populated it, and we sent off the mock-up to the client hours early."

Written by Kevin Downey on January 25th, 2023

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