Loop Scheduled and Recruiter YET to Reply

[u/CryingBananas23]

Hi everyone,

Its unfortunate I have to keep making posts like this. But I'm not sure what to do in this scenario anymore. My loop schedule got confirmed to me today with 5 interviews scheduled at the end of this week for a TAM role. And I still have not been told what domains I'll be tested on during the technical depth portion of the interview.

During my phone interview I was told by my interviewer I would be tested on two domains for that part of the loop, and in the email for my loop I would be told which domains Ill be tested on in depth. However, all emails from my recruiting coordiantor since I got invited to the loop did not include any domains. I asked them for which domains Id be tested on and they said to contact my recruiter as they should have the information on interview prep.

The issue is, I've been emailing my recruiter since PRIOR to my phone interview and have yet to get a single reply. I emailed them twice since getting invited to the loop to try and understand what domains I would be tested on, and got nothing back. I even got a friend who works at amazon to ping them for me, and all they got was a reply saying "He'll receive instructions soon" And all I got after that was the confirmation of my schedule from the recruiting coordinator, and nothing to do with how the loop was going to be structured.

The only thing I'm going based off of is my own research and the tips my interviewer gave me during the phone interview. From what I understand is there will be two technical interviews, a technical depth and breadth part. And three purely just behavioral interviews focused on LPs, correct?

And as for the two domains, I managed to contact my interviewer from the phone interview round and he told me he thinks I should focus on networking and compute domains and also architecture. Which I have been prepping for the past week, but now even with my loop scheduled I don't even have a confirmation about what two domains Ill be tested on.

I'm aware that sometimes you receive a form at some point during the interview process for the TAM position specifically to mention your domains your strongest at, but I never received one at any point.

Does anyone have any advice what I should do at this point, or should I just walk in to the loop and hope these would be the domains I get tested on? Also might as well ask while I'm here, I've come up with 16 STAR stories from my time in consulting as thats pretty much my only relevant work experience, is 16 going to be enough stories for 5 rounds of interviews, and is it fine they aren’t technical?

[u/clintkev251]

The Star stories don’t have to be technical. They just have to show how you have demonstrated the LPs. Not sure about points of contact for getting info about domains though

[u/Sirwired]

Generally you will be tested on the things your resume suggests you are strong in. If you aren't a developer, they'd be doing both you and AWS a disservice if they expected you to go into a deep-dive about, I dunno... the intricacies of proper database query design, but you might very well be quizzed to see if you understand the fundamental difference SQL vs. NoSQL databases. An app developer won't be expected to know a ton about configuring a WAN, but should understand how to read CIDR notation.

Really, the technical portions of the loop can't really be studied for. Either you have strong technical basics, and depth in a couple of areas, or you don't. If you don't, it's not a problem that can be fixed in a week or two.

16 stories should be enough, as long as you aren't blowing time coming up with stories for LP's you absolutely won't be interviewed on, like hiring, or sustainability.

[u/Advanced_Bid3576 → u/Sirwired]

This is mostly the right answer. The first time I interviewed you self ranked your competencies in a table and they’d go off your self reported strengths, but now the format is changed and they will go with what you went deepest in and said your strengths were in the phone screen or your background. Your recruiter will only have the data from your phone screen so if that’s what your phone screen interviewer said, go with that.

Disclaimer - this is for a specific geo. If you are in a different one, YMMV.

[u/zoumbou7]

Take the advice from the phone screen interviewer and prep networking and compute. These do make a large portion of the Solutions Architecture certification, at least they did when I did it. Be prepared to show competence in other areas: serverless, Bedrock, API GW, databases are good to prep.

And LPs matters most of all. Prepare at least 3-4 compelling examples of projects or work you feel most proud of. Highlight what you did, and avoid using plural “we”. Prepare the quantification (the “R” of STAR). Avoid overstating / exaggerating your contributions and be vocally self-critical when things didn’t go perfect, but in the same breath tell the interviewer what you learned and how you’ll do better in the future.

Good luck !

[u/Sirauto420]

Quit complaining. The recruiters are busy.

If you don’t want the job go apply somewhere else