> Even my own interview, if I hadn't prepped a story for each of the LPs, I would've bombed.
Not denying this part. Candidates at most companies are openly advised about the Behavioral Interview format, and told to come prepared with a collection of stories. Even Google's previous head-of-HR tells all job-seekers to do exactly this (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/win-every-interview-6-steps-l...). This isn't unique to Amazon in any way, and Amazon might actually be better because they give you very strong hints as to what the questions will be, instead of expecting you to know this implicitly.
My previous comment was mostly responding to stuff like "ask very veiled questions and you're supposed to know that they're asking about an LP" and drinking the Amazon kool-aid.
> Regarding the LP interview format itself, it's just a vanilla Behavioral Interview.
Not when I interviewed with Amazon. Most companies don't tell you which questions you may be asked about. In my Amazon interview, the questions were directly from the LP. Not disguised as such. Not even rephrased. Example: "Tell me about a time you disconfirmed a belief." This may be a good thing in that it helps the candidate prepare, but it's a bad thing in that often the interviewers are just following a script.
I've never had a behavioral interview that was not a conversation. Only at Amazon was it a "drill". Rapid fire questions, with little to no scope for exploring a topic. It wasn't an interview, it was an interrogation, mostly phrased to put me on the defensive.
> Even Google's previous head-of-HR tells all job-seekers to do exactly this
I agree it's good to come prepared with a bunch of stories. However, the behavioral interview I had at Google was nothing like that at Amazon. It was actually a 2-way conversation.
> Most companies don't tell you which questions you may be asked about. In my Amazon interview, the questions were directly from the LP. Not disguised as such. Not even rephrased
The fact that Amazon told you what questions you'll be asked, whereas other companies don't, most people would say that is more interviewee-friendly. I certainly wouldn't see that as a negative.
Funny enough, the other commenter had the exact opposite experience as you. "I don't remember any interviewer at Amazon asking anything remotely straightforward about any of the LPs". Just goes to show that YMMV.
> Only at Amazon was it a "drill". Rapid fire questions, with little to no scope for exploring a topic. It wasn't an interview, it was an interrogation, mostly phrased to put me on the defensive.
Sounds like you had some bad interviewers. That certainly doesn't excuse Amazon for not better training their interviewers, but what you experienced is a bug not a feature.
I'm not sure what I can say other than, maybe I blacked out during my interviews, but I don't remember any interviewer at Amazon asking anything remotely straightforward about any of the LPs.
Maybe it was the group I interviewed with? I do know the position had been open for many months, so maybe they were just terrible interviewers.
Not denying this part. Candidates at most companies are openly advised about the Behavioral Interview format, and told to come prepared with a collection of stories. Even Google's previous head-of-HR tells all job-seekers to do exactly this (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/win-every-interview-6-steps-l...). This isn't unique to Amazon in any way, and Amazon might actually be better because they give you very strong hints as to what the questions will be, instead of expecting you to know this implicitly.
My previous comment was mostly responding to stuff like "ask very veiled questions and you're supposed to know that they're asking about an LP" and drinking the Amazon kool-aid.