Amazon Writing Exercise - 3 Top Mistakes Candidates Are Making — Transcript

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1. 0:00who would have thought that my most
2. 0:02popular video over the last couple
3. 0:03months was about the amazon writing
4. 0:05sample when i went about investigating
5. 0:07how all of the other youtubers that are
6. 0:09on youtube that hold themselves out as
7. 0:10amazon experts talked about the writing
8. 0:12sample i was well quite frankly a bit
9. 0:14surprised that no one had offered up the
10. 0:15idea that i offered up as to how to
11. 0:17approach the writing sample also
12. 0:19surprising to me were the number of
13. 0:20people who reached out to me asking me
14. 0:21for this document the faq outline where
15. 0:24is it can they get it so the document
16. 0:25does exist people reach out all the time
17. 0:27and i applaud them for their extra
18. 0:28efforts whether it's an email or what's
19. 0:29happened and for those people i really
20. 0:31want to help i really do and it's all
21. 0:32part of a clever marketing funnel to get
22. 0:34you into the top and
23. 0:35spend my time answering emails about
24. 0:37where this document is and sending it
25. 0:39off to you but hey i've helped a lot of
26. 0:40people and it feels really really good
27. 0:41if you're getting value
28. 0:43tell the algorithm just click the like
29. 0:44button i'd love it click subscribe i'd
30. 0:46be super excited about it unsurprisingly
31. 0:48i've also had a fair number of people
32. 0:50reach out to me and they send me their
33. 0:51documents
34. 0:52asking for help and i will tell you i
35. 0:55keep seeing the same mistakes over and
36. 0:57over again so that's what we're going to
37. 0:59cover what are the top three things i'm
38. 1:00seeing in these writing samples that are
39. 1:03non-starters don't do these if you're
40. 1:04going to be turning in an amazon writing
41. 1:05assessment number one
42. 1:08this is a business document
43. 1:09people are writing this as it's way too
44. 1:12casual
45. 1:13the number one thing i see over and over
46. 1:14again is forgetting possessive pronouns
47. 1:16so they'll write something along the
48. 1:17lines of
49. 1:19uh we had a server problem and the
50. 1:22server fell over decided it was time to
51. 1:24look at the logs went through the logs
52. 1:26met with the team right all of these
53. 1:28kind of action verbs without having a
54. 1:31possessive pronoun attached to it so i'm
55. 1:33left as the reader going well who did
56. 1:34this
57. 1:35we talk this way it's normal to talk
58. 1:38that way and it's sometimes it's easy to
59. 1:39pick up but when you're talking but when
60. 1:40you're reading that it's actually really
61. 1:42hard to figure out what's going on
62. 1:43especially if you're someone outside of
63. 1:45the organization you're reading a
64. 1:46document the first time you have no idea
65. 1:47who anybody involved in any of this is
66. 1:50and you're trying to stitch together the
67. 1:51narrative based on what's being given to
68. 1:53you that casual tone it's just it's
69. 1:55really hard really really hard
70. 1:58to read through
71. 1:59this is not a book report it's not a
72. 2:02book report stop treating it like it's a
73. 2:04book report what do i mean by that
74. 2:07basically when you write
75. 2:08and then this happened and then this
76. 2:10happened and then this happened and then
77. 2:11this happened and it you've lost the
78. 2:13reader right you've lost through here
79. 2:16in my previous video i talked about
80. 2:17using the faq format to drive linearity
81. 2:20and your storytelling but most
82. 2:21importantly is answering the questions
83. 2:23that really really really matter when
84. 2:25you're trying to convey
85. 2:27what happened
86. 2:29when you take the book report kind of
87. 2:31model of and then this happened and this
88. 2:32happened and this happened
89. 2:34as the reader i don't know what's
90. 2:35important
91. 2:36but two you're not actually filling in
92. 2:38the blanks for me why did that first
93. 2:40thing happen why didn't you have
94. 2:41telemetry involved to help you identify
95. 2:43this before became a problem how did you
96. 2:45become aware of this problem why was
97. 2:46this deemed to be a problem how did you
98. 2:47prioritize the work to deal with that
99. 2:48problem but before you even get on to
100. 2:50the second and then this happened right
101. 2:52so
102. 2:52when you're writing out a book report
103. 2:54and a bad one at that when you kind of
104. 2:56do that and then and then and then and
105. 2:57then and then you're not filling in the
106. 2:59gaps with sufficient detail that to me
107. 3:01as the reader i look at go okay i
108. 3:03understand what happened here right
109. 3:04because that's ultimately what has to
110. 3:06happen when when i read the document as
111. 3:07a reader if i'm an amazon employee
112. 3:08reading this document i need to read it
113. 3:10and understand what happened
114. 3:12why you made the decisions you made and
115. 3:14then assess whether or not they were the
116. 3:16right decisions i don't need to be an
117. 3:17expert in your job to assess whether or
118. 3:19not you made the right decisions if you
119. 3:20present the right information to me but
120. 3:22when you occlude the story with just
121. 3:25stuff right and then and then and then
122. 3:27and then right i don't know what's
123. 3:28important and worse you probably left
124. 3:31out a lot of information that would have
125. 3:32been really helpful to me as the reader
126. 3:35it's it's there likely in your head
127. 3:37because in many of these cases when i
128. 3:38talk to the people about it it's there
129. 3:40they just assume well wouldn't that
130. 3:41person whoever's reading this when they
131. 3:42know this no they don't they don't know
132. 3:44it because they don't have your shared
133. 3:45experience they didn't live this you did
134. 3:48and so when you're writing about it it's
135. 3:49clear in your mind but it's not clear on
136. 3:50paper and that's the biggest takeaway it
137. 3:52has to be clear on paper not just in
138. 3:53your mind number three and and this is
139. 3:55really important
140. 3:57i still remember my ninth grade english
141. 3:58class uh professor holmes
142. 4:00he's passed on but he legendary for all
143. 4:03who had him
144. 4:04he taught me how to write and as a ninth
145. 4:06grader pimple-faced thirteen-year-old i
146. 4:08was like how important is this it turns
147. 4:09out super important because what i see
148. 4:11again and again is you know tied to
149. 4:14number two it's the book report kind of
150. 4:15and then and then and then is trying to
151. 4:17pack way too much stuff into a single
152. 4:19paragraph and it's not it doesn't even
153. 4:21make sense as to why it's all in one
154. 4:22paragraph look when you are writing a
155. 4:24business document
156. 4:25and you're trying to convey to me that
157. 4:26you made good decisions and you
158. 4:28understood what was going on around you
159. 4:29like
160. 4:31each paragraph should have a thesis or
161. 4:33kind of statement sentence
162. 4:35clarification sentence if you need it
163. 4:38supporting sentences to kind of make
164. 4:39clear what was going on what happened
165. 4:41and then finally a conclusion sentence
166. 4:42which is you know
167. 4:43so and then of course this was true
168. 4:45right that kind of thing that's good
169. 4:47writing
170. 4:48again and again i'm not seeing this and
171. 4:51there have been documents i've looked at
172. 4:52where i literally get to the middle of
173. 4:54the second page and there's a two-page
174. 4:55max i get to the middle of the second
175. 4:56page i don't even know what question
176. 4:57they're answering
177. 4:59are they talking about the most
178. 5:00innovative thing that they've ever done
179. 5:01or they're talking about the time they
180. 5:02made a judgment call when they didn't
181. 5:03have enough data i don't know
182. 5:05i have no idea
183. 5:07if you're not clear
184. 5:09as you're laying out your arguments and
185. 5:11everything that happened and why you
186. 5:13made decisions you're not demonstrating
187. 5:14that one you can communicate in a
188. 5:16business environment but two
189. 5:18you're not communicating that you have
190. 5:19repeatable business frameworks for
191. 5:21making decisions good decisions and
192. 5:24getting to the right answers on a
193. 5:25repeated basis that's really important
194. 5:28and it's surprising to me
195. 5:30how poor the structures and this all
196. 5:32kind of ties together because it is too
197. 5:33casual tone and there's not possessive
198. 5:35pronouns people are kind of writing the
199. 5:36way they talk and they're doing the book
200. 5:38but all of this boils down to do you
201. 5:40have good linear structure
202. 5:41and that's why i'm thinking so many
203. 5:43people found the first video so popular
204. 5:45which is look it's star format it's real
205. 5:47simple situation task action result
206. 5:49use the faq format the questions to lay
207. 5:52out these are the things that matter
208. 5:54who was the customer that was impacted
209. 5:56tell me the customer was how big a
210. 5:58customer was it right if it's a major
211. 6:00customer was represented 15 of our
212. 6:02revenues that's an important fact you'd
213. 6:04be surprised how many people we'll just
214. 6:05talk about well then i had this customer
215. 6:07problem and it was a big deal
216. 6:10how was it a big deal i don't know that
217. 6:11it was a big deal i'm the reader of the
218. 6:12document no idea i was a big deal why
219. 6:14was it a big deal was it a big deal
220. 6:16because it was a big customer was a big
221. 6:17deal because it impacted their business
222. 6:18was a big deal because i don't know so
223. 6:21you have to have to use good structure
224. 6:24in your paragraphs paragraph after
225. 6:26paragraph to walk me the reader through
226. 6:28a linear
227. 6:31narrative so that i understand what
228. 6:33happened because otherwise i'm left at
229. 6:35the end of the day i'm going i i don't
230. 6:36know this is bad writing
231. 6:38and it's not going to work and amazon is
232. 6:41a document culture
233. 6:43if you can't write you're just you're
234. 6:45not going to survive there bonus tip
235. 6:47uh
236. 6:48in the last one i talked about how
237. 6:50you have to use good paragraph structure
238. 6:52to kind of lay out your ideas
239. 6:55do not confuse what this is
240. 6:57it is a business document
241. 6:59meant to convey that you have the
242. 7:01ability to communicate in a business
243. 7:02setting
244. 7:03what it is not
245. 7:05what it absolutely is not is an essay
246. 7:07contest or a novelization of some work
247. 7:11event
248. 7:12right
249. 7:13if you're writing narrative that
250. 7:15involves you know literally quoting the
251. 7:18words out of someone's mouth and
252. 7:20referring to them by their names and
253. 7:21kind of telling your story that way it
254. 7:23is no longer a business document
255. 7:25you're writing a book you're writing a
256. 7:27novel you're writing a short story
257. 7:28that's not what this is this is a
258. 7:30document that is a business document
259. 7:32meant to lay out what happened why was
260. 7:35it important what did you do and what
261. 7:37can we all learn from it
262. 7:39that's it
263. 7:40do that
264. 7:41and you've written a good document do
265. 7:43that not
266. 7:45at your own peril