Tell me about the most interesting project you worked on this year and the biggest lesson you learned from it.
Jeff Bezos described Amazon's work culture as the best place to fail. He expects his pioneers to take risks, and he vows to back them on it, even sometimes when he disagrees. As he puts it, "After you've discussed an idea, you have to make a decision and move forward, and the whole team needs to commit to that. When I really feel strong about something, and the team disagrees with me, I have a phrase that I like to use which is helpful, which is, 'I want you to gamble with me on this.'"
"In my previous role, we worked on multiple projects with fingerprint recognition software. One of the most interesting projects was a fingerprint-based ATM system. It was a test project for a large banking institution. In addition to learning a great deal about fingerprint recognition, I also learned a lot about the critical relationship between software and security."
"I find the majority of the projects that I have been working on this past year to be very interesting. If I had to choose one, I would choose to work on the Uber app. Since I am still in my internship, I didn't have any major contributions; however, I learned a lot about on-demand apps and building a friendly user interface."
"In college, I worked on a project for a major company whose algorithm was a spaghetti algorithm that needed extensive service and repair. Of course, they weren't willing to replace their app due to the size and scope of their company. So they recruited talent from Penn and found me, and I formed a team of five. It was a lot of fun digging into their app and repairing and untangling it. I learned a lot, but most importantly, I learned the right way and the wrong way to build an app that has the potential of getting big."
Discuss with the interviewer one of your recent projects which felt of particular significance. Explain why this project was so impactful and describe the result of your efforts. What did you learn from the experience, and what was your biggest takeaway from that particular project in how it impacted you personally and professionally?
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Anonymous Answer
One of the most exciting group projects I had was on ML. I had to work on two large datasets, do an explanatory analysis, and perform Supervised and Unsupervised learning methods to derive exciting results. This project was exciting because we didn't have any guidelines, only the datasets. The biggest thing I learned from it is to be curious; then, you can dive deeper into the problem or challenge and discover new things that you have never imagined. You don't have to get instructions to do a task. You have to jump into it.
Rachelle's Feedback
Curiosity is an essential quality that rarely gets enough attention in an interview. I love that you brought it up. Good response, overall.
Anonymous Answer
The most interesting project I've worked on this year was implanting the call center solution to cut down the cost in this COVID-19 crisis. My task was to find a cloud-based call center solution. Our management team didn't provide the exact budget for that. I had to be frugal since we needed to cut down the cost. I've done a demo with different companies, and I was curious about all the processes and technology. The biggest thing I learned from it is we can maintain our quality with enough effort even in a frugal situation.
Rachelle's Feedback
This project sounds like a considerable challenge! Do you have any measurable results that you could share with the interviewer? For instance, were you able to cut down costs by X amount of ? If so, how long did this take you, and how challenging was it to implement changes? I like that you mention 'frugal' since this is another of Amazon's 14 Leadership Principles: "Frugality: Accomplish more with less. Constraints breed resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, and invention. There are no extra points for growing headcount, budget size, or fixed expense."
Anonymous Answer
Earlier this year, I have worked on building a one-pager on Diversity & Inclusion topic designed for hiring managers in my current company. My task was to gather concise but meaningful information about unconscious bias on recruitment processes and job descriptions in a one-pager. This one-pager has been presented to senior management at my current company (and approved) and is now being used by hiring managers across the organization as a matter of improving Diversity & Inclusion through recruitment.
Amanda's Feedback
You've answered the first half of this question well! You can take it a step further by sharing what you learned by completing this project. This could include specific information about diversity and inclusion or skills you developed while working on the project.
Anonymous Answer
I can't really discuss my more recent projects from work due to confidentiality reasons. But at home, over the Covid-19 down times, we built a chicken coop in our back yard.
Amanda's Feedback
While you may be unable to discuss recent projects due to confidentiality concerns, you can still use this question to your advantage by focusing on a relevant work project that may be a little older rather than a more unrelated home project. Using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) can help you create a concise but thorough answer. Make sure your response demonstrates your ability to set project priorities, make decisions, hit deadlines, and delegate tasks (if you've been in a leadership role). End your answer by explaining something you learned from it that has helped you work better going forward.
Anonymous Answer
This year a group of colleagues approached me and asked me to lead a team for a hackathon run by the Singapore regulator. The reason they came to me was that they recognized me as a thought leader in the hackathon topic of "fairness". It was a diverse team of data scientists ranging from recent graduates to highly experienced team leaders. What I quickly realized was that just because I had a great idea in my head, it didn't mean that others would buy into complex abstract concepts. I had to "invent and simplify", and quickly prototype some of my ideas to show them what I was thinking. They needed to see something tangible that was a stepping stone from what they already understood. Once they started seeing my prototypes their engagement levels stepped up, and they were providing helpful feedback and generating ideas.
Marcie's Feedback
Wow. First, this is definitely an interesting project to cite. (Why did these colleagues want to join a hackathon run by someone in Singapore in the first place?) Mentioning that you're recognized as a thought leader is great too. Second, it sounds like you quickly learned a valuable lesson and were able to adapt on the spot. This is an excellent response.
Anonymous Answer
I have worked on a ton of interesting projects. One recent project was a learning curve for me where I still get to learn and be curious. I started a customer-based marketing program combining sales, technical sales, business developers, marketing, industry marketing, and business planners together to create a strategic plan driving multimillion-dollar sales deals based on tipping points and customer needs.
Marcie's Feedback
Wow! That sounds impressive. Can you give more specifics about the strategic plan you and the others created and exactly how it drove sales? The more details you can give, the more memorable your answer will be to the interviewer. And don't forget to answer the second part of the question by discussing what your biggest takeaway was from the project. Nice job!
Anonymous Answer
I worked on a project where I deployed clusters to customer sites throughout the world. The deployments occurred across continents, cultures, and time zones under a tight time schedule in which we were deploying a cluster a week. Due to the tight timeline, we needed to keep coordinated and document any exceptions occurring during the process. I created an Excel spreadsheet that cross-tabulated the individual configuration items against each cluster installation so that the customer had an easy way to track and revisit outstanding issues encountered as the project rolled out. Although we became more efficient with each cluster deployment, there was always one issue or another to be dealt with. Despite the complications, because we remained organized and transparent, we had the full confidence of the client and we finished the deployments on schedule. The client technical contact nicknamed us the deployment dream team. I learned that communication is vital to the successful completion of a project because no matter how prepared you might think you are, things will go wrong and you need to be ready to capture those data points and then learn from them appropriately. This is what we did, and the deployments were a big success.
Marcie's Feedback
Awesome! This definitely sounds like an interesting project and one that went extremely well. Also, the lesson you carried away from it about the importance of communication is one that the interviewer will appreciate. Great job and way to be very thorough and detailed in your answer!
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