I applied for this position (L5) at the beginning of November 2024. First, the recruiter reached out, and we set up a meeting. He walked me through the process, what to expect, and who I'd be interviewing with for my first technical interview.
The technical interview was with a Principal Product Manager, who assessed my technical skills. She asked me to explain my past projects and followed up with detailed questions. Since my previous work was very similar to this role, she really dove deep into the details.
After that, I got an email from the scheduler (the person who just coordinates interviews) saying I had passed and that they wanted my availability for the loop interviews with six people. This scheduler, though, was the worst. She never responded to my emails or follow-ups. She sent a couple of automated emails asking for my availability, and I replied within an hour—but never got a response. I followed up multiple times, still nothing. Eventually, I had to escalate it to my recruiter.
My recruiter stepped in and tried to get it scheduled. I shared my availability, but once again, they couldn’t lock in a time. After five failed scheduling attempts, I reached out to my internal referral. She followed up through their internal messaging system to see what the hold-up was. And this part still makes me mad—they claimed the scheduler had been reaching out, but that I wasn’t responding! Excuse me, what!?
I forwarded all my emails, proving that I had not only responded but also followed up multiple times. Finally, after all that, they managed to schedule the loop interviews. So my advice: if you're stuck with scheduling issues, escalate it to your internal referral (if you have one).
The scheduling process was an absolute headache—it dragged on for almost two months. I even had to cancel trips and holiday plans because they kept making it seem like interviews would be scheduled "next week."
Now, onto the actual interviews. Overall, they were good—except for the hiring manager. The Bar Raiser interview was excellent. It’s so obvious that Bar Raisers go through intensive training. I wasn't really satisfied my own performance but I really enjoyed my conversation with her.
But the hiring manager? Terrible. Horrible. Completely unprofessional. He showed up late, made me wait 10 minutes, and throughout the interview, he kept interrupting me in the most abrupt way. He even did this aggressive hand gesture—like we were in a basketball game—yelling "STOP! STOP!" mid-sentence. It felt so unnecessarily aggressive. Instead of actually listening to my answers, he seemed determined to challenge me on everything.
At multiple points, he twisted my responses to make it seem like I was wrong or even lying about my data. He wasn’t trying to assess my qualifications—he was clearly just trying to make the interview go badly so I wouldn’t get hired.
And to top it off, he dropped from the call three times! That completely threw off my focus and disrupted the entire flow of the conversation. Between that and his dismissive attitude, it was impossible to have a proper discussion.
By the end of the interview, I wasn’t just upset about how it went—I was honestly relieved. Because if this guy was going to be my manager, it would’ve been a nightmare. Compared to the other interviewers, who were professional and engaged, my experience with him was a total contrast. It really changed how I felt about the opportunity.
In the end, a senior recruiter reached out and told me that the team went with someone else. However, they decided I was still a good fit for Amazon—just at a lower level. They downgraded me to L4.
She also mentioned that if I apply for an L4 Technical Program Manager role within six months, I won’t have to go through the loop interviews again. I asked her how I’m supposed to find L4 roles since job postings don’t indicate levels, and she just said, "Look for ones that require fewer years of experience than this role."
After looking it up, I realized L4 is basically an entry-level position. I have more than five years of experience. That really pissed me off.
But honestly? I wasn’t even sad about not getting the job. The idea of working under that hiring manager was a nightmare. He seemed extremely toxic, even though the rest of the team seemed nice. So, in a way, I feel like I dodged a bullet.
Also, after all the effort I put into preparing, the multiple rounds of interviews, and dealing with the scheduling nightmare, it was frustrating to end up with this outcome. The whole process felt unnecessarily dragged out, and in the end, I was downgraded to a level that doesn't even match my experience. It just left a bad taste in my mouth.
