Standard Interview Process (1 Recruiter, 1 Hiring Manager, 1 Final Loop (5 Rounds)) - Each round was for 60 min.
In my case, it was (4 Recruiter, 4 Hiring Manager, 1 Final Loop (5 Rounds)) - Each round was for 60 min.
I never expected to have such a disappointing experience with Amazon, a company that claims to be the world’s most customer-centric organization and is proud of its leadership principles. This process not only wasted four months of my time and effort but also forced me to decline three pending offers from other companies.
Wasted Timeline: 23rd November 2024 – 17th March 2025 (Total 9 interview Rounds, excluding the number of recruiter phone screening calls)
4 Hiring Manager Rounds for 4 different entities at Amazon (AWS, D2AS, WMSF, Alloy Greenland & Kindle), 1 Final Loop (5 Interview Rounds in 1 day), 4 different recruiters involved and multiple calls with them)
Initial Contact (23rd Nov 2024):
I applied through referral for multiple TPM positions between August and November 2024 but received no responses. Unexpectedly, I got an interview invitation for a Sr. Technical Program Manager, AWS Vetting role (which I never applied for and still cannot find in my application portal). The invitation had no recruiter contact or point of contact.
First Interview Attempt (4th Dec(No show), 7the Dec (Setup with wrong interviewer) & 9th Dec (1st Hiring M Call) after cancellations and reschedules):
I had no clue where this position came from, I never applied for it, and no recruiter information or POC information was mentioned in the email. I scheduled and joined the call with the hiring manager on December 4th, but the manager never showed up. After some effort, I contacted Amazon and learned the hiring manager had an emergency. The interview was rescheduled, but incorrectly set up with an L4 QA Analyst for an L6 TPM role, causing another delay. The correct interview finally happened on December 9th and went very well as I was prepared with all the important leadership principles, a relevant project example with a detailed STAR format, so I was confident that I would move forward. However, I received no updates for two weeks and could not track the status, as the position never appeared in my application portal. I considered that I was not selected.
Second Position Attempt: (Recruiter reach: 3rd Jan, Recruiter call: 7th Jan, HM Call: 15th (2nd Hiring M Call)):
I still continued applying for other positions. After almost a month On January 3rd, a recruiter reached out for a Sr. TPM – D2AS position I applied. During our call, I explained my earlier December experience, and he assured me I was not rejected from the previous role and my excellent interview feedback is noted in portal. The reason I did not receive it is that the position was filled, and no recruiter was assigned to my application. He took the charge and moved me forward in the process. Despite having already cleared a hiring manager round in December, I was asked to do another, which I also passed. I provided availability for final interviews, but the position was filled before my interviews could be scheduled.
Third Position Attempt: (Reach: 5th Feb, Hiring M Call: 8th Feb (3rd Hiring M Call), Final Loop scheduled call for 21st Feb cancelled):
After two weeks, the recruiter offered a Sr. TPM – WMSF team role. Again, I passed the hiring manager interview, provided availability, but the position was closed before the final loop could be scheduled.
Fourth Position Attempt: (Reach: 13th Feb, Hiring M Call: 20th Feb, Final Loop availability provided but position filled before it scheduled):
I was referred to the Sr. TPM – GPU Orchestration Service team. After an informal call with the hiring manager and recruiter (a rapid interview), I cleared the hiring manager round and was scheduled for final interviews, but again, it was canceled a day before because the position was filled.
Fifth Position Attempt: (Reach: 26th Feb, Final Loop Conducted: 11th March (5 Rounds Interview)):
I was offered to a Sr. TPM – Kindle team role. I requested to skip the hiring manager round, having already cleared four rounds earlier in different departments, and proceeded to the final loop. All five interviews were completed in one day, despite delays (2nd interviewer joined 35 min late. Even after joining very late, he had the courtesy to ask me if I could allow him to go over the time and let him complete the interview. To accommodate him I respected his request and skipped my lunch and he took my system design interview for 1 hr 10 min. I only had 15 15-minute gap to relax for my 3 important rounds with the hiring manager, which affected my performance in the subsequent rounds.
Throughout this process, I cleared four hiring manager interviews across four different domains, collaborated with four recruiters, and completed 5 final round interviews after months of preparation. Despite positive feedback from my Amazon colleagues (L6 (Bar Raiser), L7, and L8) who conducted mock interviews with me to prepare well for final loop, they strongly believe that I should have been considered for the role. If not at L6, then at least at L5, I have cleared it and deserve it, but I was not even offered for the L5 role as well.
I successfully cleared four hiring manager interviews instead of the standard single hiring manager interview in Amazon’s process. This itself demonstrates that I am a highly qualified candidate capable of passing interviews across multiple departments, including AWS, D2AS, WMSF and Greenland GenAI/ML. If I had been able to clear three rounds of interviews for completely different positions at Amazon, it would have spoken volumes about how well I must have performed in the final loop.
This entire experience was extremely disappointing. The lack of transparency, repeated scheduling errors, and unclear evaluation criteria do not align with Amazon’s stated values as the Earth's most customer-centric company. It is especially disheartening to be overlooked after demonstrating strong performance in multiple hiring manager rounds and investing significant time and effort in the process.
