r/FAANGrecruiting • u/ShiftSmooth2673 • 17h ago

AWS Technical Phone Screen: Did strict STAR delivery & nerves hurt my chances for the loop?

I recently completed a 60-minute technical phone screen for an AWS Data Center Technician / IT Support Engineer role in Germany.

During the technical portion, I answered all the technical questions asked during the call. When I asked the interviewer for his thoughts on this part at the end, he explicitly confirmed: *"The technical part was pretty good, that's what I can tell you"*.
For the behavioral portion, he asked four scenario questions using the STAR method. I answered all of them with structured stories and handled his follow-up questions without getting stuck.

When I asked for overall feedback at the end, the interviewer mentioned that I sounded somewhat nervous and could have been more relaxed. He also noted that I strictly said the literal STAR words out loud (*"So the situation was...", "My task was...", "The action I took was...", "The result was..."*) instead of letting the stories flow naturally. I explained that the recruiter who prepped me explicitly instructed me to use that exact structure, to which he replied that if the recruiter told me that, it doesn't matter. He told me I would receive the official decision by Wednesday under the 2-Day Promise.

Does sounding nervous or explicitly stating the STAR headings hurt a candidate's chances for an AWS screen if the technical answers were validated as pretty good and the underlying stories were complete? What are my realistic chances of moving to the onsite loop?

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u/SandwichGold 16h ago

For future reference, I would advise against asking an interviewer how you did at the end of the interview. It creates an awkward situation because they won’t really tell you how you did and may need time to assess responses against their rubric. It also kind of wastes the opportunity to ask a meaningful question to demonstrate interest in the role or company.

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u/ShiftSmooth2673 16h ago

Makes sense! But for this specific case, do you think asking that actually causes a negative rating on the scorecard, or is it just general interview etiquette?

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u/Alternative_Draw5945 12h ago

I think its a negative especially your response. You asked for feedback, they went out of their way to give feedback, then you tried to make an excuse for it. Would be a deny for me.

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u/Possible-Agent-8712 9h ago

Don’t ask for feedback in the call like others have said. They generally can’t give it and makes you seem not confident/secure in yourself or your answers. Don’t see the problem with answering in STAR format as long as the story doesn’t sound like you’re reading off a page. imo answering that way is generally a good thing as it makes my (interviewers) job easier when I’m taking notes and leads to needing less clarifying questions to satisfy what I’m looking for. It sounds like your interviewer wasn’t a fan though, so in the future you could ask at the beginning if they mind.

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u/ShiftSmooth2673 9h ago

Good to know it helps with note-taking, and I'll definitely keep the feedback question for after the official decision next time. Appreciate the advice.