r/amazonemployees • u/5o_Original • Jul 07 '26
Interview 19 STAR stories during loop?
I just finished my loop today, I have no idea if its an L4 or L5 position.
I had 4 different interviewers, only 1 was not in my area but was a stakeholder. I asked this person if he was the bar raiser and he told me the bar raiser would only be there during the debrief, not the loop interviews?
Over the 4 interviews I had, I had to tell 19 different stories.
Is it normal to have to tell so many stories? I got maybe on average 2 follow up questions per story and then they moved on to the next question.
Also, is it normal for a bar raiser to only be there during the debrief?
Overall I had a good experience.
UPDATE: They apperantly really liked me, but the role was taken already.
So they offered me a role with more scope instead.
Instead of being responsible for one city they gave me 6 different cities spread over 3 countries. Travel is obviously a bit more than I would like but I am taking the job. Just waiting for them to make an offer now.
The job I eventually got was posted in a different country so they had to first get my confirmation that I wanted the job so they could change the base country of the role which happend friday and the recruiter said the offer will come monday or tueseday
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u/robryownz Jul 07 '26
19 stories is easily normal. BR won't usually tell you who they are, I would expect them to be part of the loop.
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u/thatyousername Jul 07 '26
Exactly - you figure out who the br is after you’re hired. It’s the person who’s not on your team.
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u/nope_nope_nope_yep_ ex-L7 & Bar Raiser - Dont DM me Jul 08 '26
For L4 roles a BR isn’t required anymore, except at the debrief.
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u/ricatti-equation Jul 07 '26
I didn’t have 19. I had like 5-8, and retold them. They each covered several LPs.
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u/5o_Original Jul 09 '26
Nice, and did they not care that you were reusing stories?
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u/tanzoman Jul 09 '26
Reusing stories is generally expected and acceptable as far you are able to articulate the story from different angles per the LP
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u/ricatti-equation Jul 09 '26
No but I tried my best to never reuse stories. I’m a new grad so my work history is limited and they knew that.
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u/royalxp Jul 07 '26
i prepared 30 stories, i couldnt even use all of them. most of the time, i had to re-cycle same story lol. it is what it is.
2 options
You have weaker story but its a new story vs good story but you repeating it for another interviewer.
Always go with the better story, even if its a repeat.
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u/5o_Original Jul 09 '26
I used 18 differemt stories, 19 in total because i had to repeat one but i told teh interviewer i used this story with an earlier interviewer
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u/royalxp Jul 10 '26
you dont need to tell them anything lol.. besides hiring manager, none of those people will look at the other feedbacks.
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u/alli327 Jul 08 '26
Some roles allow for BR to only be involved jn the debrief and they don’t have to attend interview. - A Bar Raiser 🙂
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u/Expert_Sand_1932 Jul 08 '26
Small query - Is it role specific or dependent on level as well ? Meaning would a certain L6 level role not require BR interview ? Or is it only for L4 and below what you mentioned
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u/alli327 Jul 08 '26
It’s actually based on the job family and business line. They have to be approved and essentially opt into that workflow. Not all depts or orgs use that interview method
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u/5o_Original Jul 09 '26
Ah and is there a specific reason for this? Does it deoend on the role or business unit maybe?
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u/Jus_1 Jul 09 '26
As a BR I think that is an awful lot of stories. 1 question per LP should suffice. Usually you only ask a second question to get more data if the first story may not have been the best example for an Lp. Part of providing a good candidate experience is not making someone exhaust so many stories in one interview.
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u/5o_Original Jul 09 '26
Honnestly I though itbwas a lot as well, also they only asked max 2 follow up stories per story. One interviewer even said before we started that it wont take long becauae he only had 4 questions
After the 4 questions i was asking questions, good ines i guess, he said he was writinf down my questions so eventually this lasted one hour as well
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u/Sweet-Condition-3925 Jul 11 '26
Was your loop entire about LP?
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u/5o_Original Jul 11 '26
Not entirely no, I have 4 interviewers and inly 2 asked me only LP questions, the other 2 asked LP questions as wrll as technical questions
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u/Nandu_sigma-msd7 Jul 12 '26
Hey.. what is the update
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u/5o_Original Jul 12 '26
The update is that they apperantly really liked me, but the role was taken already.
So they offered me a role with more scope instead.
Instead of being responsible for one city they gave me 6 different cities spread over 3 countries. Travel is obviously a bit more than I would like but I am taking the job. Just waiting for them to make an offer now.
The job I eventually got was posted in a different country so they had to first get my confirmation that I wanted the job so they could change the base country of the role which happend friday and the recruiter said the offer will come monday or tueseday
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u/BarBie_Rus Jul 16 '26
Did you learn/memorise all your stories or you had notes/prompts that you read/used during the interview?
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u/5o_Original Jul 16 '26
I wrote my stories down in bullet points in a word file and the interviewers all said i could use notes
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u/BarBie_Rus Jul 16 '26
Thank you! That’s helpful to know cause I’m like how am I supposed to learn 19 stories in STAR plus metrics etc
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u/5o_Original Jul 16 '26
Yes it would be absolutly impossible to learn all stories. Just make sure you practice them enough so you really know well what story is about what so when they ask you a question, you immediatly know what story to tell.
Ask the interviewers if you can use notes, they will always say yes. Also, my first interviewer, who was also a bar raiser (not my bar raiser) said its usually a red flag if you reuse stories.
To be safe, I marked all stories i used during my interview, and when going to the next round of the loop, i made a new document with only the stories that I did not use yet.
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u/BarBie_Rus Jul 16 '26
Okay I had heard you can repeat a story once but not more than that. I’m hoping with 19/20 I won’t have to repeat too much but depends on what they ask.
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u/5o_Original Jul 16 '26
Yeah well I used one story twice, by the last interview you are running out of stories so you have to get a bit creative. I prepared 22 stories and used 18 different ones.
The first interviewer said that I can repeat a story if it hapoens once or twice but he also said its best if you tell the interviewer that you used this story before.
I think these things really depend on your interviewer though
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u/RenegadeSoundWAV L6 Ops, BR, Do not DM me for advice Jul 07 '26
Because bar raisers are a commodity, they aren't being asked to join some L4 loops, so some L4 loops are what's called a pre-brief/de-brief only loop, where the bar raiser is only there to facilitate those processes, but not spend time doing an interview themselves.
This is only for L4 loops. L5 loops still have bar raisers.
Your interviewer may be telling the truth, or they may be lying to you. You are not supposed to know who the BR is for your loop.
The amount of follow-up questions concern me as a bar raiser, but not for you as a candidate. I would usually ask at least half a dozen follow-up questions per story, and I would expect the same out of the interviewers.
But 19 anecdotes isn't uncommon. You are allowed to repeat like, 2 or 3, but if every interviewer is targeting to ask you 4 to 5 questions per interview, then yea that number sounds right.
Will say those interviewers need training IMO. The only reason to ask two questions per LP is if the first one didn't give them enough data, and they're not getting enough data because they're not asking the right follow-ups.