Written Feedback: Clear, Specific, and Leadership-Aligned
Why Feedback Must Be Detailed and Structured
Detailed and structured feedback is crucial in Amazon's hiring process for several reasons:
- Ensures a fair and thorough evaluation of each candidate
- Provides a clear basis for hiring decisions
- Allows for comparison across multiple candidates
- Serves as a record for future reference and continuous improvement of the hiring process
- Aligns the evaluation with Amazon's Leadership Principles
How to Provide Unbiased Written Feedback
To ensure unbiased feedback, follow these guidelines:
| Guideline | Description |
|---|---|
| Focus on Observations | Describe specific behaviors and responses, not personal interpretations |
| Use Concrete Examples | Support your evaluation with specific instances from the interview |
| Align with Leadership Principles | Relate observations to relevant Amazon Leadership Principles |
| Avoid Comparisons | Evaluate each candidate independently, not in comparison to others |
| Be Timely | Submit feedback promptly while the interview is fresh in your mind |
Example Feedback Form Template
Candidate Information
Name: [Candidate Name]
Position: [Position Applied For]
Date of Interview: [Interview Date]
Overall Recommendation
[ ] Strong Hire [ ] Hire [ ] No Hire [ ] Strong No Hire
Leadership Principles Assessment
For each relevant Leadership Principle, provide specific examples and rate the candidate:
- Customer Obsession: [Example] - Rating (1-5)
- Ownership: [Example] - Rating (1-5)
- Invent and Simplify: [Example] - Rating (1-5)
- [Add other relevant Leadership Principles]
Technical Skills Assessment
Provide specific examples of technical proficiency or areas for improvement:
Additional Comments
Annotated Feedback Example
Here's an example of clear, specific, and leadership-aligned feedback:
The candidate demonstrated strong customer obsession when discussing a project where they implemented a new feature based on user feedback. They described how they gathered data, prioritized user needs, and iterated on the solution until customer satisfaction metrics improved by 30%.
Why it's effective: This feedback is specific, provides a concrete example, and directly relates to the Customer Obsession leadership principle.
When asked about a time they had to make a decision with incomplete information, the candidate struggled to provide a clear example. They eventually described a situation, but their approach lacked depth and didn't demonstrate strong Bias for Action or Deliver Results principles.
Why it's effective: This feedback highlights areas for improvement, providing specific observations without personal bias.
The candidate excelled in the technical assessment, efficiently solving the coding problem and clearly explaining their thought process. They demonstrated a strong understanding of data structures and algorithms, particularly in their implementation of a balanced binary search tree.
Why it's effective: This feedback provides a clear evaluation of technical skills with specific examples of what the candidate did well.