Behavioural interviews · Module 09 of 12 · Level 3: Company, level and delivery

Company values and Amazon's Leadership Principles

Most big companies publish the values they hire for, and some score every interview against them. You don't need new stories for each company: you need to know which part of each story to tell first. This module covers Amazon's sixteen Leadership Principles in detail and the published values of four other companies.

1. The idea

A good speaker gives the same talk to engineers and to executives, but changes the examples and the emphasis. The facts stay true; the angle changes. Company values work the same way: your stories don't change between companies, but which part you lead with should.

Most large tech companies publish the values they hire for, and interviewers are often asked to score candidates against them. Reading them before your loop tells you which competencies matter most there, and which angle of each story to tell.

Amazon: the sixteen Leadership Principles

Amazon is the most explicit: its own interview prep asks candidates to prepare examples that show the Leadership Principles in their experience, and to frame them with the STAR method. The first line of each principle, quoted from Amazon's page:

Principle	In Amazon's words (first line)
Customer Obsession	“Leaders start with the customer and work backwards.”
Ownership	“Leaders are owners. … They never say “that’s not my job.””
Invent and Simplify	“Leaders expect and require innovation and invention from their teams and always find ways to simplify.”
Are Right, A Lot	“Leaders are right a lot. They have strong judgment and good instincts.”
Learn and Be Curious	“Leaders are never done learning and always seek to improve themselves.”
Hire and Develop the Best	“Leaders raise the performance bar with every hire and promotion.”
Insist on the Highest Standards	“Leaders have relentlessly high standards.”
Think Big	“Thinking small is a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Bias for Action	“Speed matters in business. Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study.”
Frugality	“Accomplish more with less.”
Earn Trust	“Leaders listen attentively, speak candidly, and treat others respectfully.”
Dive Deep	“Leaders operate at all levels, stay connected to the details, audit frequently, and are skeptical when metrics and anecdote differ.”
Have Backbone; Disagree and Commit	“Leaders are obligated to respectfully challenge decisions when they disagree… Once a decision is determined, they commit wholly.”
Deliver Results	“Leaders focus on the key inputs for their business and deliver them with the right quality and in a timely fashion.”
Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer	“Leaders work every day to create a safer, more productive, higher performing, more diverse, and more just work environment.”
Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility	“We must be humble and thoughtful about even the secondary effects of our actions.”

Other companies

Company	What it publishes	Stories to have ready
Meta	Core values: Move fast; Build awesome things; Be direct and respect your colleagues; Focus on long-term impact; Live in the future; Meta, Metamates, me	Shipping quickly and iterating; direct feedback given and received; long-term bets
Netflix	A culture memo built on four principles: The Dream Team; People Over Process; Uncomfortably Exciting; Great and Always Better	Decisions you made with freedom and owned; candid feedback; raising the bar
Microsoft	Cultural attributes: Growth mindset; Customer obsessed; Diverse and inclusive; One Microsoft	Learning from failure; customer focus; collaboration across groups
Google	Its hiring process and interview tips on its careers site; candidates commonly report a round on “Googleyness” and leadership	Collaboration, handling ambiguity, doing the right thing for users; ask your recruiter what the round covers

Values pages change. Read the current version before your loop; the links are in Go deeper.

2. How it works

One story, told for three different Amazon principles. The events don't change; what you say first, and what you spend the time on, does.

3. Try it yourself

Which principle is this question testing?

Eight questions an Amazon interviewer might ask. Pick the principle each one most likely targets, then check. Several can fit; the check shows the most likely one and why.

4. What interviewers look for

Values questions are scored like any other behavioural question, but the interviewer has a specific value in mind. Matching your angle to it is what separates good from strong.

Signal	Weak	Good	Strong
Fit	A generic story with no link to the value	A story that fits the value	The part of the story that shows the value is told first and in most detail
Language	Reciting the value's name	Mentions the value	Shows the behaviour without naming it; the interviewer recognises it
Range	One story stretched over many values	Different stories for most values	Two stories for each value the company stresses most
Honesty	Bends the facts to fit	Mostly accurate	Completely true; picks a different story rather than bending one

5. A model answer

"(Amazon, Customer Obsession) Tell me about a time you went out of your way for a customer." An invented answer, shown part by part. Read it for the shape, then build your own from a true story.

SituationI was on the team that ran our invoicing product. A small customer emailed support saying our PDF invoices were being rejected by their country's tax portal.

TaskIt was one customer with a rare setup, and support had marked it low priority. I picked it up during a quiet week because I suspected it wasn't rare.

ActionI asked support to put me on a call with the customer, and watched them upload an invoice. The portal rejected it because of a missing tax field that only that country requires. I checked our data: 340 customers were in that country, and most simply hadn't complained, they'd quietly been retyping invoices by hand. I added the field, behind a setting, and wrote to the 340 accounts myself to tell them.

ResultWithin a month, 210 of them had switched the setting on, and support tickets from that country fell by about 70%. Two accounts that had been planning to leave renewed, and said so.

LearningA single complaint can stand for hundreds of silent customers. I now check how many accounts share a reported problem before anyone triages it as small.

Why it scoresEvery part leans toward the customer: watching them use the product, finding the silent ones, telling them directly. The same events could answer Dive Deep (the data) or Ownership (picking up a low-priority ticket), but here the customer leads.

6. Remember it

Memory hook: "Same story, their angle"Your stories stay true everywhere; turn each one to show the value the company scores.

How this hook works: what “Same story, their angle” means

What the slogan means, phrase by phrase

“Same story”: Don't invent new stories per company. Your bank of eight to ten true stories is enough.
“their angle”: Read the company's values, then decide which part of each story to tell first and in most detail.

Why this picture fits: A speaker gives the same talk to engineers and to executives, changing only the emphasis and examples. The facts don't move; the angle does.

The story → the concept

The speaker	You in the loop
The talk	Your story bank
Knowing the audience	Reading the company's published values
Changing the emphasis	Telling the part that shows the value first
Not changing the facts	Never bending a story to fit

Watch it on an example

Customer Obsession: lead with the call where you watched the customer struggle.
Dive Deep: lead with the query that found 340 silent customers.
Ownership: lead with picking up a ticket support had marked low priority.

The trap it saves you from

Preparing new, half-true stories for every company, and getting caught out by follow-ups.

It still works when…

The company publishes no values. Ask the recruiter what the behavioural round covers; most map onto the competencies in this track.

7. Common mistakes

Naming the value"This shows my Customer Obsession" sounds rehearsed. Let the story show it.

Bending stories to fitIf a story doesn't really show the value, pick another. Follow-ups expose the stretch.

Ignoring the valuesWalking into an Amazon loop without knowing the principles is like a design round without knowing the requirements.

Memorising the list onlyKnowing the sixteen names doesn't help unless you have stories for them. Map your bank to them.

Old values pagesCompanies revise them. Check the current version before the loop.

8. Practice exercise (25 minutes)

Read the values (5 min). For your target company, read its current values page. Note the three it stresses most.
Map your bank (10 min). Next to each story, write which of those values it shows best.
Find the gaps (5 min). Any of the top three values with fewer than two stories? Find one more.
Re-angle one story (5 min). Tell one story twice, for two different values, and notice what you moved to the front.

9. Self-check quiz

How should you use a company's published values?

Same stories, different angle.

"Tell me about a time you disagreed with your manager and then supported their decision." Which Amazon principle?

Challenge respectfully, then commit wholly.

"Tell me about a time you made a decision quickly without all the data." Which Amazon principle?

"Many decisions and actions are reversible and do not need extensive study."

Should you say "this shows my Customer Obsession" in the answer?

Naming it sounds rehearsed; the interviewer will recognise the behaviour.

10. Go deeper

Resource	Time	Why
Leadership Principles (Amazon)	15 min	All sixteen, in full, with videos.
Culture at Meta	5 min	Meta's core values.
Netflix culture memo	30 min	The long version of Netflix's four principles.
Microsoft culture	5 min	Microsoft's cultural attributes, starting with growth mindset.
How we hire (Google)	10 min	Google's description of its process and interview tips.