Amazon

I worked 40-50 hr/wk - maybe 60-65 around the two main deadlines. The team was very flexible on where and when I worked.

Stock vests on a backloaded schedule: 5%, 10%, 40%, 40% 401K is average with a 5% match

1st Year: 2 weeks vacation + 6 personal days 2nd Year on: 3 weeks vacation + 6 personal days

ability to learn fast and be a self-starter, ability to work cross-function

The recruiting process consisted of one writing sample and two rounds of interviews The first round was two back-to-back thirty minute behavioral interviews, and the second round was two back-to-back forty-five minute interviews, one behavioral and one case.

I would recommend learning about the Amazon Leadership Principles, and incorporating those into your responses. I also think it's beneficial to do case prep. The case portion of the interview was more relaxed than what you would find with a consulting interview, as it was primarily just walking through the things one might thing about when addressing a specific question, instead of digging into any quantitative data or asking for more data. That said, consulting case prep will more than prepare you for any case questions you might get from Amazon.

Try and find somebody who works for Amazon or try and find a sample document from Amazon. The writing style is highly valued, and you need to get familiar with the direct nature of their writing to make a good impression with your writing sample. Amazon didn't seem to put much stock into extracurriculars, and the vast majority of people at Carlson at least received an interview.

Amazon looks for people who aren't afraid to give and get very direct feedback, and who can validate their thinking with data. This should show itself in your interview in two ways. The first is that you need to ensure that your STAR stories are tight, and have a quantitative value at the end of them (i.e. ...and by doing this I generated an additional 10% of revenue Y/Y). You also need to be comfortable pushing back on assertions. In the interview, your interviewers are going to push on your assumptions. Make sure that you can give a direct and logical explanation as to why you said what you did in both the behavioral and case interviews.

Amazon was very unorganized in the interviewing process. I would recommend that they ensure that they don't miss any deadlines, and that if they need to push interviews back, that they do so with some advanced warning. More than once I had an interview rescheduled the day after it was originally supposed to take place. Amazon does have brand value in the name, but had I made my internship decision based purely on the interview process, I would've selected another internship.

The best things: Intelligent people, real projects, data driven work, culture rejecting rhetoric, ability to move globally The worst things: Lack of established process to help you succeed, remuneration, progression is unclear and difficult