Amazon Interview Questions

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You can also use this opportunity to tell the interviewer anything about yourself that they have not raised during the interview but which you feel is important to your application:

Don't feel you have to wait until this point to ask questions - if the chance to ask a question seems to arise naturally in the course of the interview, take it! Remember that a traditional interview is a conversation - with a purpose.

Examples of questions you can ask the interviewer

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These are just a few ideas - you should certainly not attempt to ask them all and indeed it's best to formulate your own questions tailored to your circumstances and the job you are being interviewed for! Make sure you have researched the employer carefully, so that you are not asking for information which you should be expected to know already.

- Is there a fixed period of training for graduates?

- I see it is possible to switch job functions - how often does this happen?

- Do you send your managers on external training courses?

- Where would I be based - is this job function located only in ...?

- How easy is it for new graduates to find accommodation in this area?

- How often is a graduate's performance appraised?

- What is a typical career path in this job function?

- Can you give me more details of your training programme?

- Will I be working in a team? If so, what is the make-up of these teams?

- What is the turnover of graduates in this company?

- What are the possibilities of using my languages?

- What are the travel/mobility requirements of this job?

- How would you see this company developing over the next five years?

- How would you describe the atmosphere in this company?

- What is your personal experience of working for this organisation?

3. Describe a situation in which you led a team.

This is an example of a competency-based question. Many graduate positions involve people management, where you will be expected to plan, organise and guide the work of others as well as motivating them to complete tasks. The interviewer needs to assess how well you relate to other people, what role you take in a group and whether you are able to focus on goals and targets.

Outline the situation, your role and the task of the group overall. Describe any problems which arose and how they were tackled. Say what the result was and what you learned from it. Examples could include putting on a drama or music production; a group project at university; a business game or Young Enterprise scheme or being team leader in a fast-food restaurant.

This, and other skills which the employer considers essential for effective performance in the job, should have been highlighted in the job description or graduate brochure - so always be prepared to give examples of situations where you have demonstrated these qualities! While your example should indicate the nature of the team and the task, you need to focus on your own role as leader and on the personal qualities that led you to take on/be nominated for this role and which helped you to succeed in it. Leadership involves many skills: planning, decision-making, persuading, motivating, listening, co-ordinating - but not dictating!

See our Leadership Styles page for more help with this

4. Describe a situation where you worked in a team

Another competency-based question. Most jobs will involve a degree of teamwork. The interviewer needs to assess how well you relate other people, what role you take in a group and whether you are able to focus on goals and targets.

Outline the situation, your particular role and the task of the group overall. Describe any problems which arose and how they were tackled. Say what the result was and what you learned from it.

Examples could include putting on a drama or music production; a group project at university; a business game or "Young Enterprise" scheme or working in a fast-food restaurant.

See our Teamworking page for more help with this

5. What do you expect to be doing in 5 years time?

Try to avoid vague or general answers such as “I would hope to grow with the responsibility I am offered and to develop my skills as far as I am able” or “I would expect to be in a management role by then”.

Be specific, but flexible: recruiters want to know you know what you want. Hiring, training and developing staff costs a lot of money, something like £7,000 to recruit a new graduate, so they want to make sure that you are committed to staying with the organisation. "I'd like to gradually take more and more responsibility and perhaps by then be a brand manager for a major product."

Talk about your interest in the industry in which the company with operates. Emphasise the value you can bring to the organisation and what you can do for it.

You need to show that you are ambitious but also your goals must be realistic - saying you expect to be a senior manager after two years is unlikely to go down well! Use the employer's website or LinkedIn profiles to gain an idea of the career paths followed by past graduates. You may be able to supplement this by showing your knowledge of professional bodies and the steps you will need to take to gain their qualifications, e.g. in areas such as marketing or HR.

This question allows you to demonstrate that you have done your research on the career routes open to you within the organisation and so you should try to be more specific - not necessarily tying yourself down to a particular route, but showing that you have at least a general idea of where you want to go.

Talk about responsibilities you would like to have and expected achievements rather than how much you would expect to be earning in five year time as this will make an employer think you're more interested in the material benefits than the career itself. Talk about your career development: skills you'd like to acquire

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