Tips for a successful resume & referral at Amazon (Abhishek's guide)

tips-for-successful-referrals-adivekar.md

I am always happy to provide referrals for folks applying to Amazon for a variety of roles. Amazon is a FAANG, so I know that landing a job there can make a big difference to someone's career, and I am happy to spend the time to provide a referral.

If you are interested, please read the points below very carefully before reaching out (I only accept requests via LinkedIn). This is to save time on both sides 😄 I will not entertain requests from those who have clearly not read these points, regarless of how great your accomplishments are. No exceptions.

I usually check my personal email around 9am EST / 8pm IST. If you reach out, please give me upto 48 hours to revert.

The tips:

1. It is up to you to visit amazon.jobs and search for open positions.

2. ‼️ Once you find a job, DO NOT begin the application for the job yourself; if you do so, the portal does not allow me to refer you for the same job‼️. I will not go forward with a candidate who has done this.

   • Some candidates have said that starting the application (but not submitting it) also causes this to happen; if you have started the application for a particular job (even from LinkedIn), it makes sense to finish the application, since no Amazon employee can refer you for the same job anymore.

3. Pick jobs which best fit your profile and were recently posted (ideally, <1 week ago). A 1+ month old job is probably already filled (or has many candidates in the late stage of the hiring pipeline).

   • The Basic Qualifications and Preferred qualifications are usually set by managers, and taken seriously by recruiters. Hiring managers get maybe 100+ applicants for a job, and will typically ignore you if you have not worked in the domain before. Good role-fit is a huge deal in a successful referral. I will not refer you for roles where there fit is clearly not there. E.g. if you are a stellar embedded engineer, I will not refer you for a Full-Stack role. You should have worked in a similar domain.
   • If the role is super generic e.g. "Student Programs" or "University Talent Acquisition", you should just apply directly...a referral does not carry any extra weight.

4. I can manage upto 5-6 referrals per person, for at most 2 different roles (e.g. Software Engineer and Data Scientist). Beyond this does not make sense.

5. Below are important rules to decide if a job is right for you. These are my personal rules, created because I receive several requests which are inappropriate for the level/job given the candidate's background.

   • I will NOT refer for non-Tech roles (e.g. Associate, Human Resources, Legal, Sales, Business Analyst, etc). I have no influence in non-Tech roles. If it has the word "Engineer", "Developer" or "Scientist" in the title, it is a Tech role and I am okay to refer.
   • If you are transitioning to Tech or freshly out of undergrad/Masters, look for positions asking for 0-3 years work experience. If it says "1+ year of non-intern experience", understand that this is a hard requirement by the hiring manager. No exceptions.
   • If you're applying for an entry-level position and you are already working, I will only refer if you have been working for 1+ years (non-internship experience). No exceptions unless you already work at a FAANG or equivalent company.
   • If you've held a software/data science job for 3+ years, you can look for mid-level positions. No exceptions unless you already work at a FAANG or equivalent company.
   • Multiple referrals must be for different teams (i.e. different manager). Ideally, they should be for different departments, since then the recruiters may also be different.
   • I will only refer for Applied Scientist on a case-by-case basis (e.g. if you have ML research publications). I am okay to refer for Data Scientist without research experience, provided you currently work as a Data Scientist.
   • ‼️ Once you find a job, DO NOT apply for the job yourself; if you do so, the portal does not allow me to refer ‼️ I will not go forward with a candidate who has done this.

6. Resume: You should have your resume ready before you DM me. Take care to include the following:

   • Must include: your (a) city (b) zipcode/pincode (c) phone (d) email. These are necessary fields I must enter on the internal referrals portal. I cannot proceed unless your resume has all 4.
   • Ordering of resume sections:
     • If you are studying, the order should be: Education, Experience, Publications (optional), Skills, Projects (2-4), Extracurriculars (optional).
     • If you are working, the order should be: Experience, Education, Publications (optional), Skills, Projects (2-4), Extracurriculars (optional).
     • In Education, add your GPA, unless it's bad ("bad" is <3.2/4.0 or <7.5/10).
     • In Education, don't put anything before high-school (in India terms, don't put 10th grade, no one cares).
     • Experience should be reverse-chronological.
     • Mention dates on ALL Education & Experience line-items. In Education, mention "Expected graduation: XX"
   • Always tailor your resume for the job you are applying to. If you are applying to different roles (e.g. MLE and Data Scientist), then you should create multiple versions of your resume, since it will be
   • It's much better to have a short, 1-page resume where every single point is impressive, rather than a 2-page resume which is 50% fluff; the former demonstrates you know what is actually important.
     • At a section-level, keep only the most impactful things you have done which are relevant. It's better to have 3 strong, impactful bullet-points described in detail, rather than 5 half-hearted points.
     • Cut out irrelevant content ruthlessly. If you were swim captain or led the debate team or general treasurer of XYZ etc, it's not relevant to the job; remove it. Hackerrank/Leetcode scores are okay to keep for a Software Engineer role, since it is relevant. Kaggle is okay for Scientists but hardly makes a difference.
   • Add datapoints to quantify/qualify your impact.
     • This helps you stand out from other candidates, simply because when I read a line like:"solution improved model accuracy from 70% to 85% (1500 bps)" it is objectively impressive and clear that (1) you understand the impact of your work (2) your work is itself impactful.
     • You will be very surprised how impactful your work might be, when you actually sit down to measure the impact.
     • It's okay to use back-of-the-envelope calculations here, so long as they are grounded in reality and describe your impact, not your team's/department's. Don't make up impact numbers; make the effort to measure them.
     • Don't add irrelevant datapoints. If everyone in Amazon Retail says they work on a platform generating $500 billion per year, it's meaningless. Focus on impact measures for projects where, you personally, were the main owner.
   • 👨🏻‍🎓 If you are a Masters/PhD student, make sure you include the expected graduation date. For folks in a part-time degree like UT's MSCS online or GaTech's OMSCS, please additionally mention that the degree is "Part-time" and that you are available to work full-time.
   • 🧑🏻‍💼 Unless you have 10+ years of (industry experience + grad studies), your resume should be ONE page long. This is perhaps the biggest thing you can do to optimize your resume.
   • When reading resumes, I mentally note when someone's workex/projects demonstrate they are authentically "ML obsessed" or "SWE obsessed". This is usually indicated by the fact that they have gone very deep into a rabbit hole, upto the limit of what is technically possible, rather than doing 5 generic projects whose code can be found online (e.g. "Hostel booking system", "YOLO model for object detection", etc). I like seeing this, as do most interviewers.
   • For Scientist roles, add any Publications in a separate section, underlining your name on the author-list (if you lack space, mention "first author", "co-first author", "third author", etc).
     • If you don't mention this detail, I will assume you "breathed on the paper", i.e. you were in research meetings but didn't contribute anything substantial.
     • If any of your papers is in a pay-to-publish venue, I will NOT refer you. No exceptions.
   • Include the word "sublime" when your reach out so that I know you have actually read this. I will ignore you otherwise, or just send a link back to this post.

7. You understand that a referral does not guarantee an interview or that the recruiter will reach out. The hiring process is messy at every company, and not in my control.

8. (Optional) It helps to keep a small blurb of your most impactful achievements ready (3-4 lines). If there's a role for which your background is a great fit, I am usually happy to email the hiring manager to make sure your profile is surfaced. I will only do this for candidates with 3+ years experience, or those with published research papers.

Are we allowed to use 2 referrals for 2 different positions in same month?

@Khatiketki Sure

@Khatiketki Please read the post in detail, I believe your question is answered.
If not, an example could help clarify what you mean.

ok

Nice and detailed. Thank you.

If I am an undergrad and my university location is mentioned, then is it necessary to mention the city and the pincode?
Since I'll be studying where my university is.
Assuming I am asking referral for an Intern role.

Will contact you soon , I have read all the points that you have written , I am a second year BE computer engineering student , its been a pleasure to connect with you , hoping you will also refer me in the future! Thank you !