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1. 0:00about. Okay. So, today's video is about
2. 0:04the writing sample that you may or may
3. 0:07not get asked to do. If you're um
4. 0:10interviewing for kind of a midlevel and
5. 0:12above role in Amazon, you will
6. 0:13definitely get asked to do one. Some
7. 0:16more junior roles are also asked to do
8. 0:18them depending on the nature of the role
9. 0:19that they're going for. So, forgive me.
10. 0:21I've got some notes with me today. This
11. 0:22is quite a detailed video and I wanted
12. 0:24to make sure that I didn't forget
13. 0:25anything. So, forgive me if I look up
14. 0:27and down. Okay. So writing in Amazon is
15. 0:31super important. Amazon is a very
16. 0:33document-based business. Uh PowerPoint
17. 0:36has its place but it's a very limited
18. 0:38place. So you might see PowerPoint for
19. 0:40example in town hall meetings or in
20. 0:43training but other than that PowerPoint
21. 0:45is not used. The way decisions are made
22. 0:48in Amazon is that people write a long
23. 0:51form document either say two pages or
24. 0:54six pages. People go into a meeting,
25. 0:56they sit down, they read the document in
26. 0:59silence, they make notes, they capture
27. 1:01their thoughts, and then for the rest of
28. 1:03the meeting, the the group will discuss
29. 1:06the documents and their thoughts. So
30. 1:09that's how it works. Now, that could be
31. 1:11a um kind of a business review document
32. 1:14or it might be a business requirement
33. 1:16document where you're developing a
34. 1:18product for a customer. It might be a
35. 1:19strategy document, but either way,
36. 1:21anyway, it's going to be a written
37. 1:24document. So being able to write clearly
38. 1:26and concisely in Amazon is absolutely
39. 1:29fundamental to success and that's why
40. 1:31you are asked to provide a writing
41. 1:33sample ahead of the interview process.
42. 1:36So that's the kind of the reason why
43. 1:39you're being asked for it. What you will
44. 1:41be asked for if you are asked to do a
45. 1:43writing sample is effectively you'll be
46. 1:45given a behavioral/competencybased
47. 1:48question to answer in the written form
48. 1:51in the same way that you would be asked
49. 1:53that same question if you were actually
50. 1:55having an interview and you need to
51. 1:57write that and then submit it ahead of
52. 2:00your interview. So I have six kind of
53. 2:03key things that are that are worth
54. 2:05thinking about when you are planning and
55. 2:08in the process of writing your
56. 2:10submission. So number one is around
57. 2:13structure. So there are obviously a
58. 2:16number of ways that you could structure
59. 2:18that type of a document. Uh my
60. 2:20recommendation is that actually you
61. 2:22follow the STAR process method. There's
62. 2:25lots of um kind of videos and documents
63. 2:27out there about STAR. I'm not going to
64. 2:28go over it now, but STAR effectively
65. 2:31means situation, task, action, result.
66. 2:35And most of you are going to plan your
67. 2:37interview examples exactly using that
68. 2:40structure. So, logic kind of dictates
69. 2:42that if it's the same question or type
70. 2:44of question that you're going to get in
71. 2:46a spoken interview and you're going to
72. 2:47use the STAR method, makes sense that in
73. 2:50a written document, you also follow that
74. 2:51STAR method. It's just kind of a really
75. 2:54easy shortcut to make sure that you are
76. 2:55super super focused on what exactly you
77. 2:58are intending to put in that paragraph.
78. 3:00If it's the situation section, it's
79. 3:02situation. If it's the task section,
80. 3:04it's task. If it's the action section,
81. 3:06it's the action. And if it's the result
82. 3:08section, it's the result. But it's just
83. 3:10a really easy framework to help keep you
84. 3:12in a really, really clear structure. So,
85. 3:15that's my first tip. My second tip,
86. 3:18actually, is about font. Now, it's not
87. 3:21going to make any difference to the
88. 3:23quality of your document, the font that
89. 3:25you use, but you're going to have to
90. 3:27pick something. So, in that you're going
91. 3:29to have to pick something, my suggestion
92. 3:31is you may as well pick Calabri 10.
93. 3:34Amazon documents are in the main written
94. 3:37in Calabri 10. So, if I am the bar
95. 3:41raiser reviewing your written sample or
96. 3:42the hiring manager reviewing your
97. 3:44written sample, if I'm looking at
98. 3:46something in Collab return, it's at
99. 3:48least kind of on a font basis pretty
100. 3:49familiar and my brain doesn't have to
101. 3:51think about it twice. So, as I said,
102. 3:53it's not going to be a game changer.
103. 3:55It's not going to make a major
104. 3:56difference, but you're going to have to
105. 3:57pick something. So, you may as well pick
106. 3:58Collaborate 10. Okay. So, the next one
107. 4:02is about brevity. Now, as I mentioned
108. 4:05earlier, people in Amazon have to read a
109. 4:08lot of docs every day. And nobody wants
110. 4:12to spend their time reading through
111. 4:15reams and reams and reams of words and
112. 4:17sentences that could have been said in a
113. 4:20far more concise fashion. So, your
114. 4:23writing sample needs to show that you
115. 4:26can write with conciseness.
116. 4:30So the guidance that I always give my
117. 4:33own teams when they're writing docs is
118. 4:35to write it long first. Just get your
119. 4:39thoughts down on the paper. As I
120. 4:42mentioned, the situation, the task, the
121. 4:43action, and the result. Just get the
122. 4:45long version written down. It's really,
123. 4:47really hard to both write your ideas
124. 4:51down and edit at the same time. So part
125. 4:55the editing, just get the thoughts down
126. 4:57on the paper.
127. 4:59Once you've done that, then you can go
128. 5:02back and start to do your editing and be
129. 5:05brutal with yourself. Challenge
130. 5:07yourself. Can you reduce the number of
131. 5:10sentences that you are using to land a
132. 5:14point? Can you change four words into
133. 5:17two words and still land the same
134. 5:20message? Really edit, edit, edit, edit.
135. 5:24Super important. you've got those two
136. 5:26pages and you want to make sure that
137. 5:28every single word that you have on that
138. 5:30page is delivering for you. So that's my
139. 5:34next tip, brevity. So my next tip on top
140. 5:37of that is specificity.
141. 5:40So in Amazon documents, Amazon likes
142. 5:44specifics.
143. 5:45Nobody wants to read lots of customers
144. 5:48do X or sales increased a lot. That is
145. 5:54not specific. Every single Amazon
146. 5:56document has to be specific. So when
147. 5:59you're making statements like that,
148. 6:01instead of many customers do X, say 10%
149. 6:06of customers do X. Or if you're going to
150. 6:10say I increased a metric from the work
151. 6:15that I did, don't just say I increased
152. 6:17it. Say, I increased the metric from X
153. 6:21to Y or I increased the metric by 10%.
154. 6:27Or I increased the metric by 100 bits,
155. 6:30whatever that might be. But be specific.
156. 6:33That again really really shows that the
157. 6:35way you write is very aligned to the way
158. 6:39you have to write if you're in Amazon.
159. 6:42So be specific when you make statements.
160. 6:46Okay. So the next one is around data. So
161. 6:51maybe I should have done data and
162. 6:53specificity the other way round.
163. 6:55However, it's really important if you
164. 6:58can to include data points in your
165. 7:01writing example. As I'm sure you all
166. 7:04know, Amazon is a super data centric
167. 7:08organization. Almost every single
168. 7:10decision ever made in Amazon is based on
169. 7:14solid data. So if you can use data
170. 7:17points in your writing sample, again, it
171. 7:20gives the organization and the
172. 7:22interviewers lots of evidence that you
173. 7:24already think and behave in the way that
174. 7:27you would need to inside Amazon. So it
175. 7:30doesn't need to be a sales metric, but
176. 7:32it does need to be some kind of metric.
177. 7:36So percentages or response rates or
178. 7:39sales volumes, you know, efficiency
179. 7:41metrics, whatever it might be, but a
180. 7:44very specific data point helps the
181. 7:46interviewer see that you already think
182. 7:49like an Amazonian.
183. 7:51Okay, so the last one, I mean, it's a
184. 7:54super basic one, spelling and grammar.
185. 7:57Please, honestly, in my interviews, I've
186. 8:01read so many uh writing submissions and
187. 8:04it kills me. Absolutely kills me when
188. 8:07I'm reading a document and just the
189. 8:09basics are not covered. spelling
190. 8:12mistakes, punctuation mistakes, like
191. 8:15it's such a basic and it it's not that
192. 8:19that making mistakes there will will
193. 8:22kind of mean that you you you fail your
194. 8:24interview process, but it is really
195. 8:26indicative of what Amazon thinks of as
196. 8:30insist on the highest standards is if
197. 8:32there is ever a time that you insist on
198. 8:35the highest standard for yourself and
199. 8:36make sure that your work is as perfect
200. 8:38as it could possibly be, that time has
201. 8:41to be when you're trying to interview
202. 8:43for a role. So, if you aren't capable of
203. 8:45doing that when you're interviewing for
204. 8:47a job, then the interviewer can't really
205. 8:50have confidence that you're going to do
206. 8:52that in your everyday working at Amazon.
207. 8:55So, it's a super basic one, but it
208. 8:57really, really matters and it tells so
209. 8:59much about you and your personal
210. 9:02standards. So, get it right. Use
211. 9:04Grammarly. uh give it to somebody else
212. 9:07to review, but do not submit a writing
213. 9:11sample with spelling and grammar
214. 9:14mistakes. It's such an easy one not to
215. 9:17mess up on, and quite frankly, it's one
216. 9:19that so many people mess up on, it's
217. 9:22crazy.
218. 9:23Okay, so those are my six tips for the
219. 9:26writing sample. Hopefully, that's been
220. 9:29helpful for you. And I will uh see you
221. 9:32next time. There are plenty more videos
222. 9:35with tips and thoughts on the Amazon
223. 9:37interview process on my YouTube channel.
224. 9:40Uh so if you search for Amazon interview
225. 9:42whiz, you should be able to find me.