Amazon vs Facebook, who has the harder interview process for TPM

To crack technical program interviews, you must be very well prepared, otherwise, those interviews are tough to crack. Companies like Amazon and Facebook tend to ask three types of questions: Technical, behavioral, and program management. During your preparation, you have to cover a lot of ground.

Amazon and Facebook ask the same type of questions, but some question types are more frequent at one of these companies. For example, Amazon asks a lot of behavioral questions to test you on their leadership principles. Facebook has more focus on gauging your technical aptitude with partnerships.

See also - _Comparing Amazon’s SDM interview process with Facebook _

Let’s see first what does the TPM interview process looks like in these companies:

Amazon interview process for TPM

Amazon technical interview process takes 4-8 weeks. Here are the steps that follow the interview process:

1 step: Resume, Cover letter

2 step: Recruiter phone screen (one interview)

3 step: TPM phone screens (1-2 interviews)

4. Writing exercises (Facebook interview process does not include this step)

5. TPM onsite interview (4-6 interviews)

Through the interviews, Amazon is looking for:

• Candidates with technical program management competencies
• Candidates who pass the test on 16th leadership principles and “raising the bar”. (This is much more important at Amazon than at any other Big tech company like Facebook).

You will be asked a wide range of questions during TPM interviews on Amazon, which is the major difficulty in Amazon interviews. That’s why you need good preparation and focus on the right things when preparing.

What to focus on?

• Learn Amazon’s technology culture, learn Amazon’s vision and mission analysis, and its strategy.
• A lot of practice: practice questions by yourself, practice mock interviews on our platform, and practice with ex-interviewers.
• Be confident and be good at what you do

The Facebook interview process for TPM

Facebook’s TPM interview process takes 4-8 weeks. Here are the steps that follow the interview process:

1 step: Resume, Cover letter

2 step: Recruiter phone screen (one interview)

3 step: TPM phone screen (1-2 interviews)

4 step: TPM onsite interviews (5 interviews)

Through the interviews Facebook is looking for:

• Candidates with deep technical and program management knowledge Candidates with partnership and leadership ability

What to focus on through your preparation?

• Learn Facebook’s technology culture to be sure that Facebook is the right company for you
• A lot of practice: practice questions by yourself, practice mock interviews on our platform, and practice with ex-interviewers.
• Be confident and be good at what you do

Amazon interview process for TPM is harder than Facebook interview process for TPM

According to Glassdoor.com, Amazon is one of the hardest places to interview. The reason for the rigorous interview process dates back to the beginnings of this company, when its CEO, Bezos, first started developing Amazon. So, Amazon’s interview process is harder than Facebook’s.

Amazon is making the final hiring decision with a method that ensures that only the best talents receive an offer.

The hiring manager is usually one of the interviewers on the loop, but perhaps the most important interview is with an experienced Amazonian called the Bar Raiser, whose job is to ensure only the best talent receives an offer. Feedback is reviewed, and the hiring manager makes a collective decision with the bar raiser leading the process. The hiring manager does not get to make the ultimate decision. That would be the bar raiser based on the entire loop’s feedback. Both of them need to be a “Yes” vote for the candidate to have any chance of receiving an offer.

Facebook and all the other companies do it differently. They are more traditional and rely on the hiring manager to lead the interview process and make a final hiring decision.

Amazon’s interview process can be grueling, but it is fairly consistent. Its consistency makes it much easier to prepare because we know the structure of the interview beforehand. This also applies to Facebook. The Facebook interview process is also consistent, and that facilitates the method of preparation.