Amazon Interview Questions
Prepare for 54 Amazon interview questions covering Leadership Principles and bar-raising scenarios.
Question 27 of 54
Tell me about a time you helped a coworker accomplish an important goal.
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Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
Jeff Bezos' philosophy on teamwork falls under three basic principles; "Be stubborn on vision, and flexible on the details." "Have backbone; disagree and commit." And then there is his famous 'The Two Pizza Rule.' He states that no working group or meeting should be larger than the number of people two pizzas can feed. The smaller the group, the greater the collaboration and coordination.
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"I enjoy seeing my coworkers succeed and will help them whenever possible. One way I support my coworkers is to help them stay organized by suggesting new tools I have discovered. I had one coworker with a brand-new smartphone, and she wasn't sure how it could be utilized to improve her day. I spent my lunch hour helping her set it up. She was golden after that!"
Rachelle Enns is an interview coach and job search expert. She works with candidates to perform their best in employment, medical, and post-secondary admission interviews.
"When a new hire starts, I have become the de-facto go-to for job shadowing. I always make sure to introduce myself to new hires immediately. I schedule a time for them to sit down with me and shadow what I do. I want to see everyone succeed, and since there is no real training program in our company, I feel I need to be the change-maker in the organization."
Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
"In university, I helped a friend form their first team for a major project. They weren't sure how to assign tasks or command with confidence. I challenged them to create a brain dump list of all of their teammates' qualifications and special talents. I helped them identify who would thrive most and who could learn the most in the shortest period and helped them delegate through effective communication. These were all concepts that they never applied practically. They appreciated my coaching abilities, which helped me, in turn, realize coaching was a talent of mine."
Kevin Downey has an extensive background in business management, recruiting, branding and marketing. He's volunteered his career coaching services at job fairs, lecturing on interview techniques and crafting winning resumes and cover letters.
A large part of leadership is coaching or mentoring others on your team. This sense of collaboration shows that you value the success of the team as a whole over their own personal goals. "Leaders ask themselves: Are my fellow employees growing? Are they empowered? Are they ready for what's next? Leaders have a vision for and commitment to their employees' personal success, whether that be at Amazon or elsewhere." It is imperative to be goal-oriented and determined, but even more critical is to support your teams. Describe what you do, outside of your own goals, to ensure that everyone on your team is successful.
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Anonymous Answer
In my previous job, I had some projects on my own. When a new colleague joined our team, she took on some of my projects because I was assigned new tasks. Even though she had more experience in years than me, I knew the projects inside and out, so I offered my help. The plan was to train her for two weeks, but we did it in only one! I eventually learned new things from her too. I'm happy that we helped each other to accomplish our goals.
Rachelle's Feedback
This example shows the interviewer that you are a team player, coachable, and also able to coach others. Good work!
Anonymous Answer
I really enjoy helping others. In my current role, my co-worker and I were working on different assignments. In the middle of the assignment, she got sick, and she had to take sick leave for two days. I completed my assignments before the due date, so I helped her accomplish her task by her due date. And she was able to send that assignment to the client on time. I feel so good when I can help anyone to accomplish something.
Rachelle's Feedback
It must have felt very good to help your coworker when they had to take unexpected sick leave. This is a nice story-based example :)
Anonymous Answer
Before leaving for my maternity leave, we had a new joiner in the team with whom I spent 1-month coaching, training, and doing the handover of my recruitment portfolio. Some of the processes were quite complex, so I recorded several videos which could help this new joiner to clarify possible future questions - in case I would be off. I also shared those videos with my other colleagues, who were happy to use them for possible future hires too.
Amanda's Feedback
Wonderful! You've done a great job using an applicable example. Make your response even better by sharing how your videos enabled your coworkers to achieve a specific goal, such as hiring 25 candidates within 30 days to complete 5 recruiting projects.
Anonymous Answer
I helped a colleague unblock a project with a local bank. Some of the bank employees were blocking progress. My colleague came to me because I had helped him previously, even though it wasn't my job. Then I had to build trust with the bank employees, by listening as they described their problems, honestly accepting responsibility, and then committing to actions that would delight them. That project subsequently won an industry award, and a senior executive at the bank publicly thanked me for my contributions.
Marcie's Feedback
This is a great example; just make sure not to repeat examples during an actual interview - instead, make sure you have multiple examples prepared and at the ready so you never have to cite any more than once. What was your colleague trying to get done at the bank? The more specifics you can offer, the more meaningful your answer will be to the interviewer.
Anonymous Answer
In North America DS has about 6.5k employees. Of them, 50 are what we call 3DX Champions. I am a 3DX champion. It means that we passed very difficult exams and are experts at using our platform tools. Very often I help my coworkers showcase their work on the platform to their customers, colleagues, or managers. I spend a good portion of my week helping others look good in their role.
Marcie's Feedback
Nice! That sounds like a challenging title to obtain given there are only 50 3DX Champions out of 6.5k employees. Awesome! What kinds of platforms have you mastered? And how exactly do you help your coworkers showcase their work on these platforms? Do you code for them? Offering more details will further strengthen your response. Also, if you can provide a specific example of one colleague you helped, that will make your answer even more powerful. Don't forget to talk about what the end result is for your coworker (i.e., what does your helping them showcase their work do for them?) Great job!
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