Would you pay for the experience of interviewing for a job that doesn’t exist? It appears some may, and such an experience can be yours for about $4,600.
Airbnb now offers “experiences,” where visitors can pay a local for “an activity that goes beyond the typical tour or class, designed and led by locals all over the world,” according to the website. Examples include a farm stay in Indiana Amish country and a “Galapagos safari,” where tourists can visit multiple islands and enjoy local food.
In Seattle, former Amazon executive Nick Dimitrov offers his own one-of-a-kind experience: a mock Amazon interview.
Dimitrov’s bio on the listing states that he co-founded Amazon Game Studios in 2013 and that since then, Amazon has “acquired [streaming platform] Twitch and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in gaming.”
“I was also an Amazon Bar Raiser with 350+ interviews. Bar Raisers are esteemed Amazonians who determine whether the company should hire a job candidate or not,” the bio continues. “Lastly, I was a New-hire Orientation Host who inculcates new hires in the Amazon culture, during their first day on the job.”
Dimitrov recommends taking a separate experience, the “Prepare For The Amazon.com Interview” experience before they take the “Simulate The Amazon.com Interview Loop.”
The preparation experience costs about $800 for eight hours worth of preparation, but “availability for this experience is rare,” according to the Airbnb listing.
The actual “experience” lasts five hours and includes an “interview with former Amazon employees, matched to the candidate’s job level and function.” After the interview, “candidates” are able to watch the interviewers “deliberate and decide whether to ‘hire’ the candidate based on Amazon’s Leadership Principles and functional competencies.”
Candidates whom the interviewers decide not to “hire” are given instruction on how to improve their interview in order to get hired.
Prospective interviewees are asked to complete the “Inside Amazon’s Interview: Workshop” experience before the mock-interview experience. Interviewees are also told to bring a laptop or tablet and to “Write out your top 20 achievements (preferably in the SOAR framework)” and “Choose at least two live Amazon job reqs that you’re interested in” prior to the experience.
Just one person has left a review for the experience. “Seth” gave the mock interview five stars and called the experience “intense” in June 2018.
“I had chosen to ‘interview’ for an open TPM position in the AWS group,” Seth wrote. “I interviewed with four current Amazon employees who Nick had selected based on my experience and background. Subsequently after the interview I watched their debriefing as they deliberated if I should be hired. I learned a lot, seeing myself through alternate perspectives and feel this simulation helped prepare me to interview at Amazon.”
Business Insider explained that interviewing for Amazon is unlike interviewing for other companies.
“Amazon is known for its tough interviews,” the outlet reported. “CEO Jeff Bezos once said that he’d rather interview 50 people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person, and this means asking tricky questions to find the best candidates.”
Remember, at the end of all of this, you don’t actually end up with a job at Amazon, no matter how well you did in the interview.