He had the résumé.
💼 15 years at Microsoft.
👥 Led 200+ person teams.
🚀 Shipped products used by millions.
He was targeting an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Principal (L7) role
Six months. Three interviews with AWS.
❌ Three rejections.
We worked together, and I provided “Bar Raiser feedback.” It was brutal but precise:
“Talks about team achievements. Can’t isolate personal impact.”
That single line exposed what most senior leaders miss about Amazon interviews:
You’re not there to showcase your team’s wins. You’re there to prove YOU drove them.
🧩 Point 1: The “I” Transformation
Every story starting with “My team…” became:
➡️ “I decided to…”
Every “We achieved…” became:
➡️ “I influenced the team to…”
Awkward at first — essential for Amazon.
The signal? Amazon wants ownership, not passengers.
⚙️ Point 2: The Mechanism Proof
Amazon doesn’t care that revenue grew 40%.
📌 They care how you made it repeatable.
His new answer structure:
• 🧭 The problem I identified (not inherited)
• ⚙️ The mechanism I created
• 📊 The metrics I chose (not default KPIs)
• 🔁 What still works without me
This is the stuff Bar Raisers zoom in on.
💥 Point 3: The Failure Reframe
Original story:
“Market conditions changed our timeline.”
New story:
“I misread early signals. Cost us $2M. Here’s the process I built so it never happens again.”
No excuses.
No finger-pointing.
🧠 100% ownership + learning + mitigation.
🧨 Point 4: The Leadership-Without-Authority Test
Amazon Bar Raisers hunt for one thing:
Can you influence when you have zero formal power?
His story:
🔥 Leading a company-wide security response as a mid-level manager while the CISO was unreachable.
“Someone had to decide. I decided. Here’s how I got 5 VPs to follow my lead.”
This is the strongest signal in Amazon’s LPs: Ownership + Bias for Action + Earn Trust.
🎉 The Result?
Fourth interview. Same company. “Different” person.
💼 Offer: L7 Principal Engineer
💰 Signing bonus so big he texted me at midnight.
But here’s what mattered more to him:
“I finally learned to own my career story instead of hiding behind my team’s.”
🎯 Your Move
Pull up your best achievement story.
Count how many times you say:
➡️ “We”
versus
➡️ “I”
If it’s more than 2:1, you’re interviewing for yesterday’s job — not the next one.
Amazon interviews aren’t about being selfish.
They’re about proving you can drive results with autonomy + ownership.
That’s what Bar Raisers are trained to find.
That’s what every hiring manager needs to hear.
💬 What’s the hardest interview feedback you’ve received that actually changed your trajectory?