4 Values an Amazon Hiring Supervisor Appears to be like for in Tech Interviews

This as-told-to essay is predicated on a dialog with Sai Chiligireddy, an engineering supervisor at Amazon’s Seattle workplace. It has been edited for size and readability. Enterprise Insider has verified his employment historical past.

I joined Amazon almost eight years in the past as a software program engineer and, after 5 years on the firm, rose to an engineering administration place.

Throughout my time on the firm’s Vancouver and Seattle workplaces, I’ve carried out over 100 technical interviews. I’ve additionally been a hiring supervisor and made the ultimate name for brand spanking new hires on my workforce after going by the total means of telephone screenings, on-site assessments, and technical rounds.

In my expertise, Amazon evaluates candidates on two fundamental areas: core technical competencies and Amazon management rules, a set of 16 values vital to the corporate, akin to “bias for motion” and “disagree and commit.”

There are 4 questions I ask myself each time I am within the room with a candidate:

1. Can I collaborate with them in the event that they be a part of my workforce?

The overarching query I at all times take into account is whether or not that is somebody I can collaborate with. I attempt to gauge if somebody is an efficient communicator — do they share their concepts clearly and justify their selections?

In technical interviews, I like when individuals clarify why they selected a sure answer and why they suppose it is a good match for what we’re fixing. When the answer or strategy a candidate takes is suboptimal — however they can justify their alternative — we’re OK with it.

2. Do they perceive the larger image?

The second factor I am on the lookout for is somebody who clearly understands why their answer matches into the general enterprise drawback or group.

I as soon as interviewed a candidate who solely had one 12 months of expertise however had a transparent understanding of the corporate’s product and the way their work matches into the targets of the general group. He was capable of clearly clarify what their product is used for and what enterprise worth it had.

It blew my thoughts and made me rethink how I view my very own day-to-day duties. I began my purely technical duties and enthusiastic about what worth my work delivers for purchasers.

3. Are they perfectionists?

One other worth candidates I like have in widespread is that they do not intention for an ideal answer immediately. They deal with beginning and actively bettering the answer and avoiding pointless complexities. They’re additionally open to suggestions and are prepared to vary their strategy to new use circumstances or constraints.

I are typically a perfectionist, and that is one other worth I’ve discovered from conducting interviews.

4. Are they ready?

Candidates that stand out to me come ready. They’ve gone by so much of mock interviews and have recreated an interview surroundings for themselves. This helps them change into accustomed to the strain of fixing an issue in 30 to 45 minutes.

It is simple to inform when a candidate hasn’t practiced for a technical interview, whether or not it’s writing code in a doc with none auto-filling options or writing code on a board like we used to require pre-pandemic. If you have not touched a marker in a few years, it is troublesome to put in writing on a whiteboard.

Additionally they come ready to speak about management abilities. Lots of people who do nicely have achieved their homework. They put together notes by way of what our management rules are and one to 2 examples of how they’ve honed these rules previously.

Additionally they carry questions for the hiring supervisor. I really like when individuals ask about what kind of tasks we work on, what challenges we face, and what can their profession journey appear like as soon as they be a part of the corporate.