3 Possible Outcomes Of Your Amazon Interview| Ex-Bar Raiser

I get a lot of Candidates contact me after they have the results of their Amazon interview Panel/Loop/Onsite decision (well call it Panel from now on). They’re too embarrassed to ask their Recruiter, so they come to me. So I thought it would be helpful to explain this.

There are effectively 3 possible outcomes to your Amazon Interview Panel

Inclined
Not inclined no recycle
Not inclined recycle

Outcome #1- Inclined

Congratulations!! You got the job.

Outcome # 2- Not inclined no recycle

The Amazon Interview Panel has decided based on the evidence, that you’re not near raising the bar. They’ve concluded you need more time to work on your career and gather more and stronger examples of the Amazon Leadership Principles.

You’ll have a moratorium against reapplying to the Amazon interview process earlier than between 6-12months.

There is no official “black list”. No one is ever technically banned from applying to Amazon again. However as a Bar Raiser I have had instances where a Candidate has been interviewed on multiple occasions over multiple years and failed to raise the bar, each time.

On those occasions, I’ve felt the evidence suggested the Candidate was unlikely to raise the bar in future interviews and letting them continue to be interviewed would be a waste of their and Amazon’s time. I’d ask the Recruiter to put a note on the Candidate’s record of a recommendation not to re-interview.

Outcome #3- Not inclined recycle

The Panel has concluded you aren’t raising the bar in the areas they need you to for this role. But that you’re a strong candidate and may do better in other roles. They reject you, but enable you to apply for other roles, whenever it suits you.

In rarer cases the Panel feels you’re a very strong candidate but just not quite hitting the mark for them. They feel strongly, with the right role you’d likely show yourself to be raising the bar. In those cases, rather than leaving you to your own devices, the Recruiter will put in some effort to connect you with other Recruiters and Hiring Managers trying to hire for other roles.

If they find one interested in you that Hiring Manager will want to at least meet with you and/or maybe take you through a full Amazon Interview Panel for their role. This does happen and Candidates do get hired this way.

The thing to remember here is that your first Recruiter’s job isn’t to find you an alternative role. Their job is to fill the role they’re working on. They’ll help you look for an alternative up to a point, but ultimately it’s going to be for you to own that.