Dissecting: Are Right, A Lot (Instinct)
I am currently preparing for Amazon interviews. As part of my interview process, I will share with you how I approach studying. This is part of a series of “dissecting” Amazon leadership principles.
This is important because Amazon is the Gold Standard of product management behavioral interviews. If you can land Amazon interviews, you can land all other behavioral.
There are two key reasons Amazon interviews are tough:
You can’t repeat your stories.
Interviewers WILL poke to see if you really did what you said you did.
Because of this, you need to prepare 25+ stories, and they ALL need to withstand poking.
My Methodology
You will see I work to flesh out my stories at the highest level using the following rough framework:
The Challenge/Mistake
The Decision
The Situation
The Learning
This that in mind, let’s dive into Are Right, A Lot
From Amazon
Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts. They seek diverse perspectives and work to disconfirm their beliefs.
Sample Questions:
Tell me about a time when you had to work with incomplete data or information.
Tell me about a time when you were wrong.
Tell me about a time when you had to use your judgment to solve a problem.
Tell me about a time when you incorporated a diverse set of perspectives into solving a problem.
Tell me about a time when you had your beliefs challenged and how you responded.
Big Picture Thinking
Most prompts will benefit from you connecting the dots for the interviewer and pointing out your experience and learnings
You need to be self-aware
You need examples of both being right or being wrong
Focus on your learnings
Be ready for: what would you have done differently.
Listing of Top Tens
For this exercise, I found myself needing to push past 1 or 2 examples to unblock myself. So, I wrote 2 other pieces to support this dive: 10 Difficult Decisions and 10 Career Missteps. Hopefully these lists will help you come up with your own failures.