How to Prepare for Amazon Leadership Principles Interviews
The exact change
"At Amazon, we believe leadership is not a title. It is a set of behaviors that we expect from everyone at every level. Our Leadership Principles are not marketing material - they are the actual criteria we use to make hiring, promotion, and performance decisions." - Amazon Jobs, Leadership Principles documentation / "The Have Backbone half is what most candidates think to include. The Commit half is what Amazon is actually most interested in. The person who disagrees respectfully and then executes fully regardless of their preference is exactly who we want making decisions at every level." - Amazon Senior Manager, interview debrief discussion
Amazon has publicly described leadership as a set of behaviors expected from everyone at every level, not simply a title, and has emphasized that its Leadership Principles are not marketing material but the actual criteria used to make hiring, promotion, and performance decisions. / The Have Backbone half is what most candidates think to include. The Commit half is what Amazon interviewers are often most interested in: a person who disagrees respectfully and then executes fully regardless of their preference is exactly the kind of decision-maker the principle is designed to identify.
Suggested change
De-attributed both quotes to plain unattributed prose preserving the underlying claims about Amazon's leadership philosophy and the Disagree and Commit principle.
Why this is better
De-attributed a quote presented as verbatim from Amazon's official Leadership Principles documentation (it did not match Amazon's actual published wording) into a general accurate statement about Amazon's public position; de-attributed an unverified quote incorrectly attributed to an unverifiable 'Amazon Senior Manager, interview debrief discussion' to plain unattributed prose, preserving the underlying claims about Amazon's leadership philosophy and the Disagree and Commit principle.
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