Interview for AWS SA scheduled

Question

I have the 90 minute interview coming up. I have been through these before and even passed and went on to the loop. Various reasons why I am back at this stage, eg, position was filled, reviewing other candidates, etc. AWS recruiter gave me another chance. Any tips for the question about when you a mistake and the customer was unhappy with you? Seems I didn’t give a significant enough scenario last time. Being in healthcare we cant afford to make significant mistakes. Anyway I sure this question will come up again. I also need to say “I” more than “we”, it seems per the feedback. How much detail are the interviewers looking for? Any tips either way of getting through this technical/behavioral first interview?

TIA!

Anon1337 · Accepted Answer

I wouldn't automatically assume you will get that same question again. The interview team has a list of questions so it's highly variable.

The best advice I can give you is to write down 8 to 10 stories in STAR format that align to the SA LP's, and practice reciting them several times.

If you don't have a good story for something it's not the end of the world to say so. I skipped one question in my loop and was candid about not wanting to embellish just to answer the question.

Source: someone who passed the AWS SA loop recently & received an offer.

AWSEse · Answer

For on-site technical loops, most SAs are asked questions around technical breadth and depth - think storage, networking, databases, compute etc for breadth and different types of storage (object, file, block) and use cases for each for depth.

Good luck! AWS SA is a fun role, but wasn't hands-on enough for my taste.

tiny42bh1 · Answer

Great comments to far. LP's are LP's for a reason. They are the north star of every decision. Point your stories toward them and the rest will take care of iteself.

Regarding the mistake q, focus on what you did to make it right. Did you have a follow up conversation to better understand the requirements? Was there internal discussion about how things went wrong? Did you address any communication breakdowns? Was there any process improvement made to ensure that it doesn't happen again?

Iceman · Answer

The same happened to me I feel the other groups look at you harder from their perspective vs the loop they passed you. In my case they asked more technical and business questions vs behavioral since I passed loop and the role got closed.  Source: someone who got an offer AWS SA who went through several rounds with different teams.  Have fun with it and be yourself and you will shine !

jassywho · Answer

It’s not about mistakes, it’s about learning from them. Be a good story teller. Also try to be personable and connect with the interviewer.

Interview for AWS SA scheduled

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