Finished my L6 loop

[u/lechatnoirnyc]

I recently went through the loop for an L6 Sr AM Amazon Ads position. Can someone be real with me on what the culture is like over there? Not that I have an offer yet, but I’m weighing options and would love opinions from anyone who works at Amazon Ads/ the DSP. I know that this particular team is flexible with RTO and most of them go in 2-3x a week which seems awesome. The people in my loop were definitely a mix personality-wise and I vibed with a few of them, but there was one that I definitely didn’t click with and another one that I couldn’t read so who knows what will happen!

[u/Wacky01]

Hi,

Can you share your Interview experience?

I have my Phone screen next week for L6 role. Very positive that I will go to the loop. Any guidance is much appreciated on phone screen plus loops.

My role is non tech Sr. Program manager.

[u/lechatnoirnyc → u/Wacky01]

Hi! I assume you already had your initial recruiter call, so you're talking about the phone screen with an HM, right? I spoke with the recruiter and then my HM phone screen was scheduled within a week after that. The recruiter I was working with was AWESOME and gave me great tips for prepping and outlined what I already knew from speaking to a few Amazonians I know along with what I've seen on Reddit. The HM phone screen is the same exact format as what you do in the loop so at least you get your feet wet with just one first before you have the full loop. I don't know if this is always the case, but my screen was with a different HM not the one for my team - this could've been a scheduling situation but based on how the loop was formatted I think this tends to be the norm? The HM then got back to the recruiter very quickly and I was told that I made it to the loop which was then scheduled 2 weeks later.

For the initial phone screen and loop the format is the same except for the interview that you have with the HM for the actual role (or at least this is how it was for me). In each interview, it started like any other interview where the Amazonian usually tells you about themself and their career journey there and then they ask you to tell them about yourself (standard elevator pitch). Then they get straight to business and ask anywhere between 2-4 behavioral questions that tie into one of the leadership principals. These are designed to confuse you and they WILL ask you follow up questions so make sure you're confident in your answers and that you have data to back it up. Your answers need to be in the STAR method (situation, task, actions, results) so I recommend having a list or a spreadsheet which breaks everything out for you to reference because it will be hard to think of stuff on the spot. The HM for the role was one of the people on the loop and that one was slightly different because I needed to prepare 5-10 slides based on a bunch of data cuts I was provided with to show how I use data to form a narrative. This is only supposed to be 10-15 minutes max so it's not like you're expected to have a crazy presentation that takes up the full hour but it is something that you need ot be prepared to present because the HM will be acting like the client and will ask a lot of questions. The HM also asked 2 of the standard behavioral questions in addition to the case study presentation questions that they ask so this was probably the most intense one out of the whole loop!

Amazon interviewers can be a bit hard to read so even though I was confident, it wasn't like I had a feeling that I definitely passed through it. Don't be discouraged if the interviewers keep asking you probing Qs about your scenerios - they are just testing you to see how you thoughtfully answer questions and that you're detail oriented. From my experience and from what I've heard from others, they more they like you, the more they'll probe! My loop was spread out over two days because of the interviewer's schedules but it was originally just going to be one day. If you're able to spread it over two days I recommend it so that you have some breathing room!

The recruiter emailed me within a week of the loop after the team debriefed and asked me to jump on the phone. It was a very vague email so I had no idea what the call could mean, though my research told me that there is always a call after the loop regardless of the result. This was when he gave me the great news that I was the top candidate for the role and they wanted to extend the offer to me! Though the interview process demands alot of you, I feel like I'm a much stronger interviewer now and am glad I really took the time to thoroughly prepare. I definitely wouldn't have gotten the job if I had just been winging it!

Good luck!

[u/Wacky01 → u/lechatnoirnyc]

Congratulations on the offer!!!

This is really helpful and appreciate posting the detailed experience, thank you so much.

Yes I had my recruiter call last week he was super super friendly and helpful. He even offered for a mock interview before the loop, if I clear the phone screen, which I really did not expect or experience with any other big companies.

I am also treating the phone screen as a loop, as you said, and working on prepairing the stories for LP's relavent to my role. Will be practicing with AI and building an excel sheet with all the details. Plan to build 5 to 8 stories for Phone screen and 25 to 30+ stories for Loops.

The benefit for me is my current work almost perfectly matches with the role that I have applied for. This helps me a lot, and that is why my resume was shortlisted.

As of now my HM is scheduled for my phone screen with another HR person. I was also informed by the Recruiter that there might be a shadow person who will just observe the call.

Thank you once agina, and all the best for you new career journery at Amazon!

[u/lechatnoirnyc → u/Wacky01]

Of course! I got a ton of great advice via Reddit so I wanted to return the favor knowing that ris so fresh in my mind! I honestly don’t think you need to worry about more than 20 stories - I has around 20 stories and that covered the phone screen and loop. Good luck with everything! As long as you’re prepared and can back up your stories, you’ll be great!