Everything You Needed to Know About the Amazon Financial Analyst Assessment
The Amazon Financial Analyst Assessment consists of the Work Style Assessment and the Work Simulation.
However, candidates must also complete an Excel assessment, either before the Work Style Assessment and Work Simulation, or during the interview stage. This page includes information about all of these tests.
Work Simulation
The Work Simulation is an Amazon assessment test that is intended to gauge the candidate’s judgment, decision-making, and critical thinking aptitudes.
It is intended to check whether the candidate is compatible with Amazon’s workplace values and culture as expressed in the company’s Leadership Principles.
During the simulation, the candidate is shown videos, emails, and other messages from coworkers and superiors.
After this, you will have to resolve various dilemmas that are similar to those faced by Amazon employees in the actual workplace.
Work Simulation Sample Question
When ranking the response, you must remember the Leadership Principle “Insist on the Highest Standards.”
The leader must consider all means at their disposal to ensure the team performs effectively and works safely.
It’s certainly useful to work with Samuel to address any issues with the pricing model.
But it might not be as useful to immediately notify the team lead before discussing the problem with Samuel and other team members, as this may affect trust levels in the team. As such, this action must be ranked slightly effective.
Work Style Assessment
This stage of the test is a personality assessment that takes 15 minutes and is used to evaluate the candidate’s personal qualities and preferences in order to establish whether they are a good fit for Amazon’s workplace culture.
The questions in this test will have you choose between two options, and your goal is to choose the one that most reflects your attitude towards work situations.
Because the Leadership Principles form the basis of this test’s grading, you must be familiar with them and make sure to keep them in mind while answering.
Earn Trust is the important Amazon Leadership Principle for this question. Amazon employees do not exaggerate their achievements and abilities.
They are open about admitting issues and asking for help. When they do get help, they are open about acknowledging and appreciating it.
Most people have received help from coworkers many times throughout their careers, and it is important to regularly acknowledge the help we got.
Nevertheless, there may be individuals with previous experience working alone or independently.
The best answer here is MORE LIKE ME; however, in this case, MOST LIKE ME can also be an appropriate answer. However, in this case, the answer could go either way, “Most” or “More.”
The Amazon Excel Test
This assessment is an assignment that takes up half an hour and is designed to evaluate the candidate’s Excel skills.
Candidates will get an Excel file containing data as well as several tasks and will be asked to create advanced formulas, Index and Match, Pivot tables, Vlookups, and so on. Applicants are often also asked to create a graph based on the data in the Excel file.
This assessment is administered either during a phone or virtual interview, or even before the interview.
If you are taking the test before the interview, you should know that the test is not proctored, and you will be able to use outside sources of information, even search engines like Google or Bing, to answer the questions.
On the other hand, if you are being tested as part of the interview, you will not be able to access external sources of information.
Financial Analyst Interview Process
Interviewing for Financial Analyst positions at Amazon is part of a selective process, and several interview stages are required. The exact stages differ based on the job level for which the candidate is applying. This article contains an overview of the most common parts of the interview process for Interns, Financial Analysts, and Senior Financial Analysts
Phone Interview:
The phone interview lasts between half an hour to a full hour and consists mostly of behavioral questions and questions about your work experience and skills. The behavioral questions are often considered the most challenging, and we recommend answering them by utilizing the STAR methodת STAR stands for:
- Situation – You have to describe the situation in a general way and include the background to the main event.
- Task – In this step, you are getting into the nitty gritty of the problem. It is important to describe the main reasons why the situation was such a challenge and why you were the one most suited to provide the solution.
- Action – In the action part, you focus on the action items that you have taken to deal with the problem. Describe How you dealt with it? What plan did you put into action to ensure the desired outcome?
- Result – In Result, you’re summarizing the story. Describe how you achieved the goal and why it was significant.
While your answers should take no more than two minutes, with the STAR method, they will still be fully detailed and impressive.
Instead of providing just a simple yes when asked, “Have you ever been in charge of a team? How did you deal with this?” You, with the STAR method, will be able to provide a full picture of both yourself and your skills.
Face-to-Face interview:
This stage of the interview is actually a grueling series of four to six interviews with several Amazon team members and hiring managers. Part of the interview panel includes ‘Bar Raisers’ – Amazon employees who ask candidates tough questions, consider responses in-depth and challenge candidate responses.
To succeed in this stage of the hiring process, you must be thoroughly familiar with the 16 Amazon Leadership principles and know how to integrate them into your responses.
It might seem exaggerated or even funny to hear time and time again how much Amazon cares about the 16 Leadership Principles, but if you want to succeed and get a job at Amazon, you have to learn them by heart.
Candidates who have studied for, and passed, the Work Simulation test as well as the Work Style Assessment probably already have a good understanding of these principles. Only a refresher is required before the interview stage.
Amazon Finance Rotational Program (AFRP)
HireVue Video Interview
This is a virtual interview stage in which questions are shown on a computer screen, while the candidate’s responses are recorded in video form.
The HireVue interview takes up to 45-60 minutes, and the candidate can only try to answer each of the questions once.
For this reason, it’s important to ensure that you are ready for the interview and there’s nothing that might distract you from answering properly.
This stage of the interview process consists mainly of behavioral questions, with a few questions about your financial knowledge.
You are expected to answer the questions using the STAR method, which is a common method for answering behavioral questions that we already mentioned in this article.
Practice it until you are fully confident in your ability to answer questions in a way that follows the STAR structure.
Face-to-Face interview
This is actually a series of 2-4 interviews, mainly composed of situational and behavioral questions.
As we already covered above, the STAR method is very important for answering Amazon interviews. You should be fully ready to make use of it in your responses.
The 16 Leadership Principles are a key element of Amazon’s candidate selection process. You are expected to have detailed knowledge of these principles and refer to them when answering the questions.
It is very likely that one of your interviewers will be a ‘Bar Raiser’. Their job is to tackle your answers in depth and perhaps try to challenge you and put you off balance.
You should remain calm – this is just an element of the Amazon testing process that is intended to evaluate your ability to stand up under pressure.
Amazon Leadership Development Program (FLDP)
Amazon requires that its candidates for the FLDP program not only have good leadership abilities (after all, it is a leadership program!) but also show a high level of Excel skills. The Excel Case and the face-to-face interviews are intended to evaluate the candidate’s characteristics.
Amazon FLDP Excel Case
This stage of the process takes around 45 minutes. In your first interview, you will discuss your work with the interviewer. You are expected to be able to clearly describe your reasoning and thought process.
Amazon FLDP Interview
This interview consists of four face-to-face interviews, each is 45 minutes, and usually, there are no breaks in between (so, empty your bladder beforehand).
The interview questions are primarily behavioral (except for the Excel case discussion) and focus on Amazon’s 14 leadership principles.
The Amazon FLDP Interview consists of 4 interview sessions 45 minutes each without breaks.
Most of the questions you’ll encounter will be behavioral and will test your understanding of the company’s core values in the form of leadership principles.
Because you are looking to be admitted to the leadership development program, the company and its representatives expect you to answer their questions accordingly.
The interviewers will examine your answers closely and analyze every detail. It is therefore crucial that you remain consistent in your answers.
Amazon Bar Raisers - Who They Are and How to Deal with Them?
An Amazon Bar Raiser is a specialized evaluator who is not employed with the hiring department.
Their job is to give the hiring department an unbiased opinion that will help steer the hiring decision, that’s to say, whether or not to hire you at all.
Bar Raisers use a set of tactics deliberately designed to disorient the candidates and test their capacity for leadership and for resisting pressure.
The best approach is to maintain calm, keep responses and clarifications consistent, and keep every answer aligned to the 16 Leadership Principles.
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