How to answer interview questions about the Amazon leadership principle "Learn and be curious"
The fifth Amazon leadership principle is “Learn and be Curious.” If you’re preparing for an interview there, you should practice answering questions based on this leadership principle.
If you don’t know about the 16 Amazon leadership principles, read this article about interviewing at Amazon first.
How Amazon explains the “Learn and be curious” leadership principle
Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves. They are curious about new possibilities and act to explore them.
I think this is an easy leadership principle to understand. It’s asking you if you are the kind of person who is always learning and improving. How do you keep up with the trends and new developments in your field? Do you try to do things a new way even if there’s no “need” for it? Are you open to learning new things?
Some typical interview questions for the “Learn and Be Curious” Amazon leadership principle
How do you stay inspired, acquire new knowledge, or innovate in your work?
How do you keep up with best practices?
How do you keep up with industry trends and what your competitors are doing?
What have you learned that has helped you in your job?
What is the coolest thing you’ve learned on your own that has helped you better perform your job?
Tell me about a time you learned something new from your peer or your direct report at work.
Tell me about a time when you solved a problem through just superior knowledge or observation.
Tell me about a time when you influenced a change by only asking questions.
What is a recent book you’ve read and what did you learn from it?
Tell me about a project that required you to learn something new.
Tell me about a time you took on work outside of your comfort area and found it rewarding.
Tell me about a time you found you needed a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job well.
Tell me about a time you didn’t know what to do next or how to solve a challenging problem?
Give me an example of a time when you challenged the notion that that something had to be done a certain way because it had always been done that way.
What are you working on to improve your overall effectiveness at work?
When we enter a new role or problem space, it is common to come in and see things with a fresh perspective. Tell me about a time when you realized that you might have lost that fresh perspective. What ended up happening?
Tell me about a time you hired someone smarter than you. (Manager)
Tell me about a time when you challenged your team to push the envelope and go beyond existing standards and expectations. (Manager)
Give me an example of a time when someone on your team challenged you to think differently about a problem. (Manager)
Format for answering “Learn and Be Curious” questions
Do you need to answer this question the same way you answer other behavioral questions – in the P/A/R format? No. Actually this question is the one exception to that rule. Instead of P/A/R, you can just give a list of what you do, like you’ll see in the following examples. Or you can give a general statement first, like “I love to learn new things and for my job I always have to keep up with the new developments in X” and then after that give the list of what you do.
Sample answers for “Learn and be curious” Amazon interview questions
Question: “How do you stay inspired, acquire new knowledge, or innovate in your work?”
Answer given by a Director of Product:
“For my job, I need to understand business trends, and I’m also personally interested in what’s going on in the world. I read many newspapers every day, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. I also read magazines, including the Economist and the New Yorker. In addition, I spend quite a bit of time reading news on Twitter and other places online. As a Product Director for an EdTech company, I oversee a team that produces videos and courses on tech subjects, so I absorb a lot of the newest information while I’m reviewing our products and our competitors’ products.”
This answer is good, because it demonstrates that the interviewee prioritizes learning in his daily habits, which he ties directly back to what is useful for his job. Ultimately, the interview is about knowing whether you can do the job, so your answers should relate to the job duties. If you don’t need to know who is happening in politics or economics for your job (many people don’t) you wouldn’t say that you read newspapers, for example.
Answer this question by being honest about how you keep up with new technology and new trends in your field. What do you do? You probably read blogs, newspapers, and/or books, or maybe you listen to podcasts or watch YouTube videos. There are probably other things you do too – do you take classes at a local school or online, somewhere like Coursera or EdX? Are you enrolled in some kind of certification program? Did you just finish a degree? I’ve also had clients successfully answer questions about this principle by describing a lecture series that they attended at lunch in their offices or a conference where they met industry leaders.
Show your interest or passion when you talk about whatever it is you do.
Don’t tell the interviewer you don’t have the time to do any of these things because you have a family and a job — I hear this answer a lot from clients, and I warn them that it’s a mistake. The interviewer will think you’re a bad candidate if you don’t have a list of ways you’re keeping up with new developments.
I know that we’re all busy and it’s hard to do your job all day and then learn more in your free time. But the people you’re competing with for the job you want are definitely spending their free time taking classes or going to conferences or reading, even though their lives are just as busy as yours.
Another example:
“I always try to stay up to date with the latest technology. I go to conferences and meetups relevant to my work and interests and read books and follow all major technical publications. I stay current with my credentials and certifications. I recently passed my AWS Solutions Architect exam and am now preparing for the second set of exams. I follow ThoughtWorks Technology Radar and I have recently learned a lot about Micro-Frontends, and we are now building a framework to allow all teams to build FE applications that way.”
Notice how this candidate begins by answering the question generally, but then gives examples, before ending her answer with a very specific skill that she learned and recently applied to her work. Formatting your answer in a similar way is a good strategy.
Question: What have you learned that has helped you in your job?
Answer given by a Senior Technical Account Manager:
“My job has made me research a lot of new technologies, so I have learned a lot about Oracle’s Fusion Middleware platform. I have also done quite a few automation tasks. That gave me an understanding of CI/CD and made me appreciate the ease and agility with which you could complete your SDLC now compared to a few years ago.”
Answer given by a Technical Account Manager:
“I started my career as an Oracle System DBA and worked for Oracle as a consultant. I began to see Application DBAs as a very interesting area. Because Application DBA is responsible for everything (DB, web server, form server, reporting server, and so on). I discussed this with my boss, and he sent me to an Apps DBA training class. Very quickly I was on the projects where I was working in an apps DBA role. I began to learn even more and I did more implementations. I wanted to learn more and transferred to work with one large development org in Oracle to work as Apps DBA. After working with Oracle development, I went back to Oracle consulting and worked on exciting implementation projects for my consulting org’s customers.”
While both of these answers are fine, the second answer is stronger because the candidate takes the time to explain the impact of what he learned in specific detail.
