Some Prep Tips for Amazon Non-tech Interview (not completed yet)
Hi guys! This is my first ever Reddit post.
I want to share my tips for interviewing a L4 Non-tech role (sales family). (Mainly need to write thoughts down to help with my pre-interview anxiety lol
I haven't had any chances interviewing for any giant tech before. I felt so overwhelmed after HR screen and starting some real prep for the upcoming HM screen call. At this point, I would hope to be as thorough as possible to prep for LP based STAR BQ questions. With so much information and discussion online, and very different suggestions on how many stories I should prepare, I nearly had a breakdown two days ago.
But here I go, I postponed my HM screen for a few days. Once I really started to reflect on all achievements and data points, I think I manage to find a way to make the prep more efficiently.
Here's a sum:
1- Learn those LPs. For a L4 role, I can rule out around 3 non relevant LP.
2- I tried focus on 1 LP to write a story with a narrative focus on that LP's angle. Drafted the story word for word. Then took a whole night to clearly memorise everything. That was when I crashed - with this story in my head, when I try to practise with real questions, I have near 0 flexibility in modifying them. I felt I can never be fully prepared.
3- The next day, I decided that for HM screen, I shouldn't be so overwhelmed like this. I needed to have a focus. I decided to pull memory from the biggest project I've done, and pull as many as possible data points from the projects. Instead of organising the story in a STAR way, I use a structure that follows a natural logic of the development of the story. (understand it as a loose version of STAR). Key is too pull as many details as possible, and insert all data points you can remember.
I will repeat the above process for around 5 stories, one of them would be a big one (multi-layered, a big project with mini projects involved), try to cover as many LP angles as possible. So those would be the master stories. I then open another document, do a more concise version of the master stories, strictly organise by bullet points, but with all data. Basically all key info you don't want to miss out and all data.
only review and memorise this bullet point document. And make sure when you go over it in your head, include all data relevant.
then practise question bank directly, with the bullet point documents at hand. Pull relevant sections from the bullet points to construct STAR. Allow myself 30 secs before starting to answer.
In this way, I won't feel too overwhelmed for a HM screen as writing down 15-20 STAR feels unmanageable for me as I have a habit for exploring things in depth and always fear of missing details. I understand this approach is not that popular among other prep tips but I found my confidence in myself following this.
I can't say how efficient this 'cheat' will turn out. But from some mocks with myself and my boyfriend I think it works better than overloading with so many stories and dedicated drafts.
Hope I have some good news later to update! Good luck to all!