Jeff Bezos once hired an Amazon candidate 'on the spot' — he asked her only two questions
Jeff Bezos is credited for creating the e-commerce to OTT juggernaut that is Amazon, and his business acumen as well as eye for talent made that possible. Although landing a job at Amazon is not an easy task, for those who succeed, the benefits can change their lives. Amazon employee Ann Hiatt, who has met Jeff Bezos, remembers this life-changing experience. Even though interviews are often stressful, the pressure of sitting down with the CEO is something else. That was precisely what Hiatt encountered in 2002.
Hiatt saw that many of her classmates were having difficulty finding a job after she graduated from the University of Washington in 2002. She decided to pursue a career in technology as a result. She applied for a job as Bezos' junior assistant at Amazon, even though she had no prior assistant experience. She was shocked when she got a call and they invited her for an interview. Hiatt was left feeling dizzy after an exhausting round of consecutive interviews with senior assistants. A one-on-one meeting with Bezos was the last obstacle.
Naturally, while being interviewed by the CEO, one would expect several tough questions, but Bezos only asked Hiatt two. Recalling the interview, she said, "I felt relaxed going into the interview that October morning. I was patiently sitting in a conference room chair when the door opened and in walked Bezos. He sat down across from me and introduced himself." She added, "Bezos started the interview by promising that he was only going to ask two questions and that the first one would be a fun brainteaser." Hiatt continued, "I took a deep breath as he stood up and uncapped a pen at the whiteboard wall. 'I’ll do the math,' he said. 'I want you to estimate the number of panes of glass in the city of Seattle.' I was momentarily terrified."
She quickly reminded herself to focus on the reasoning behind Bezos' question as he wasn’t looking for a perfect answer, but rather an insight into her thought process. Speaking to CNBC, she explained how she approached the problem. First, she started with the population of Seattle, which she correctly estimated at a million, simplifying the math. Then, she reasoned that each person would have a home, transportation, and either an office or school, all with windows. Using averages, she spent the next 10 minutes calculating, before presenting her final estimate to Bezos.
He seemed impressed with her response. Then, for the second question, the business tycoon asked Hiatt about her career aspirations. Hiatt recalled, "I told him that Amazon had proven to be a company full of ambitious and passionate people. I wanted to be like them and learn what they knew. Their strengths were in the areas I personally wanted to develop, so the value of the experience was obvious, even though it felt like a diversion from my goal of being a professor." She added, "I explained that I had no idea how to be an assistant, but that I knew the importance of being consistently outside of my comfort zone. I wanted to jump into an astronomical learning and growth curve." Impressed with her responses, he offered Hiatt the job instantly.