At the beginning, Amazon is similar to general companies. The human resources department will first screen resumes and send them to the heads of various departments to select suitable people for interviews. The first stage of the interview is conducted one-on-one by the department recruitment manager, which takes about 40 minutes.

However, in the second stage, Amazon will call 5 managers from other departments to serve as interviewers, and each will have a one-on-one interview with the job seeker for about 50 minutes. In other words, an applicant will have up to 5 interviews at this stage, which may be spread over two to three days. This marathon interview is really tiring, but it is a necessary process for Amazon to confirm talents from multiple parties.

So, what should be discussed and what should be looked at in the interview? In addition to confirming basic abilities, the recruitment manager at the first stage focuses on finding out which "Our Leadership Principles" the interviewee possesses. This is the belief that Amazon requires employees to practice at any time, which includes 14 items, such as: customer first, ownership, innovation and simplification, curiosity and knowledge, advocacy of action, and getting to the bottom of things, etc.

The first interviewer will ask the second interviewer to further explore and confirm the characteristics he observed, such as whether a candidate has the ownership spirit of holding autonomy and actively promoting affairs. Therefore, the second interviewer often asks open-ended questions: Why do you have such an idea when this plan encounters difficulties? I hope to hear specifically how the job seeker mastered and promoted the work.

No matter which stage, the interviewer will always pay attention to two things:

1. Collect clear reasons for accepting this person

For Amazon, interviewers must examine based on facts and not be misled by subjective bias. Therefore, after each interview, the interviewer must enter the response to the questions required in advance in the Amazon system, such as confirming the following things or regarding this point, my observation is as follows. There is no need to record the observation of subjective impressions, such as a bright smile and good popularity.

2. Confirm that the excellent performance of this person can be transplanted and reproduced. If the successful model in other companies cannot be reproduced, there is no reason to accept him. Assuming that the reason for the applicant's previous success is that the transaction partner is a good manufacturer, then when Amazon encounters difficulties in expanding the transaction manufacturer, it may not be able to be solved smoothly.

When all the interviews are over, all interviewers will gather together to vote, and the employee will be hired only if all pass. If someone objects, his shortcomings will be discussed from two aspects: whether they can be corrected by training, and whether the people around him can make up for the shortcomings? If they still cannot be solved, they will not be hired.

Interestingly, there must be a person who raises the bar among the second-level interviewers. This does not mean that they are specifically here to sing against the candidate or other interviewers, but to raise the bar upwards. His function is to examine from a higher level: Can Amazon grow more after this person joins?

Because Amazon's business model often focuses on the future several years later, it must continue to raise Amazon's benchmark and find future talents that can help achieve its goals. If the interviewer can only maintain Amazon's status quo, then no matter how excellent the talent is, he must be rejected. The person who argues has special authority. Even if other interviewers agree to admit the candidate, as long as the person who argues says no, the candidate will not be admitted.