Amazon Interview Questions
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Question 1 of 54
What would you consider your technical specialty?
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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.
Examine your strengths and unique abilities, and be ready to highlight any areas you consider your specialty. Advertise your strengths and any specific skills listed on the company's job posting/job description in which you feel you excel. If there is a related area of interest where you'd like to expand your skills or where you would like to grow within the company, mention those as well. Most importantly, find how you already embrace Amazon's unique brand of innovation. As Jeff Bezos says, 'Many of the problems we face have no textbook solution, and so we happily invent new ones.'
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.
"Algorithms, data structures, object-oriented design, and databases have always been solid areas for me. I am interested in how innovation within software engineering improves our daily lives and overall business efficiency. I see you are looking for team members who are experts in these areas, which caught my eye when I first saw your job posting."
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 have been focusing my career on becoming a cloud integration specialist, although I also have cross-platform app development expertise."
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.
"I'd say my technical specialty is how versed I am in all programming languages. I would consider myself an expert in my field."
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Jaymie
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Anonymous Answer
I have worked in diverse environments and multi-industry in various roles. I recently graduated with an MBA, where I learned a great deal about managing teams. Maintaining a safe work environment in compliance with OSHA, quality control and leadership, and efficient team player are some of my solid areas. I see that you are looking for team members who are experts in these areas, which caught my eye when I first saw your job posting.
Rachelle's Feedback
This is a good answer, overall! It's great that you referred to the Amazon job posting, which is an essential component of answering interview questions with impact. If possible, add in some work accomplishments as they relate to each point. It's also essential to show AND tell :)
My specialties include maintaining a safe work environment complying with OSHA, quality control, and efficient team leadership. When it comes to OSHA compliance, I...(discuss a related work achievement). In the area of quality control, I have...(discuss a work-related result). I have led in diverse, multi-industry environments, which will allow me to (address specifically how this will help Amazon). Also, I recently graduated with an MBA, where I learned a great deal about managing teams in...(specifically?). I see that you are looking for a (job title) who brings expertise in these areas, which I can confidently deliver.
Anonymous Answer
I have a good understanding of object-oriented principles, databases, and the principles of writing clean and efficient code using patterns and best coding practices. These skills help a lot when managing and leading a technical team. These skills also help solve problems in day-to-day work.
Rachelle's Feedback
Very good! I like that you address your technical specialties with confidence, and you also connect the dots between these skills and how they will benefit Amazon, should they hire you.
Anonymous Answer
My areas of expertise are debugging, troubleshooting, implementing ad format solutions using HTML, CSS, and javaScript. I also taught myself Photoshop and Adobe Media Encoder to help with some touch-up work. I always learn something related to web technologies to work with the team to find a new creative way to improve clients' experience and team. I see that this role is looking for someone who can provide solutions and collaborate with internal and external teams using the technical skills I have.
Rachelle's Feedback
It sounds as though you are well-rounded and continually gaining new skills. Good for you! *Your edits are well done - it just adds a touch of 'qualifying' at the end, which is important.
Anonymous Answer
I would consider my technical specialties to lie in Excel, SQL, and Tableau. As a Business Analyst, these three skills can help to improve performance. I see that you are looking for a Business Analyst who has expertise in these areas, which caught my eye when I saw your job posting.
Rachelle's Feedback
Your answer is very clear, and you carve out some important skills. When you mention that these skills can help improve performance, I recommend providing more actionable detail. I have provided a starter for you below.
"I consider my technical specialties to be in Excel, SQL, and Tableau. As a Business Analyst, these three skills can improve business performance (in which specific ways). I see that Amazon is looking for a Business Analyst with expertise in these areas, which is what caught my eye when I first saw your job posting."
Anonymous Answer
I think my "specialty" is about not being a specialist. I generate the most value when I'm combining disparate knowledge about business, people, and technology. For example, I improved a bank's marketing campaigns by inventing a way to combine behavioral economics with machine learning prediction explainability techniques. Sales increased by more than 10%.
Marcie's Feedback
Awesome. It's great that you can take information from various sources and combine it into something meaningful. Can you talk in more detail about how exactly you combined behavioral economics with machine learning in this instance? What program(s) did you use? How did you come up with the idea to do this? How did it affect the marketing campaigns? Mentioning the sales increase is impactful and an interviewer will likely remember that. Excellent job!
Anonymous Answer
I have a unique skill set. I have worked in technical presales, industry process consulting, business development, and product sales, as well as, managerial roles for Technical Executives, Lightweight Engineering, and now Industrial Marketing. When Jessica approached me about the role I knew I would be a great fit for A&D based on my diverse skillset.
Marcie's Feedback
Nice! The interviewer will undoubtedly be impressed by your diverse skillset and background. Don't forget to directly respond to the question, though. What would you say is your technical specialty if you had to choose just one? And then make sure to explain why you're an expert in that area and how your expertise will help Amazon if they hire you. Excellent job!
Anonymous Answer
My technical specialty is the ability to focus, dive deep, and find solutions even if the solution lies outside of my immediate area of responsibility. I do this by not being afraid to look ignorant and by asking questions and following up with subject matter experts throughout the organization. For example, a colleague's customer was disappointed by a lack of Syslog auditing of admin login/logout events. I was not currently engaged so I assisted my colleague by taking on the issue and socializing it on Slack to see if any other consultants encountered the issue. Yes, they did. And one of them devised a workaround which unfortunately was not persistent due to various issues. I took his work-around to engineering and technical support raising awareness that the Syslog configuration settings conflicted between our two management plane products. Likewise, I highlighted that other high-profile customers were asking for a fix to this functionality. Due to my persistence, engineering raised a JIRA ticket to resolve the issue in the next version of the Prism Central console. In the meantime, Nutanix Support wrote an internal technical support article detailing the work-around so that consultants facing the same question in the future would have a solution to offer whilst a long-term solution was sought after. So, in summary, my technical specialty is applying my technical aptitude to champion customer issues and drive them until they are addressed by the appropriate people.
Marcie's Feedback
Nice! You have done an excellent job of explaining this strength of yours. Your example is thorough and detailed, which is great. Just be sure that the technical specialty you describe is actually a technical specialty (i.e., practical knowledge about a mechanical, scientific, or technological subject) and not a soft skill (problem-solving).
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