Jeff Bezos just asked his assistant these two application questions - then she had the job
Created: 12/31/2021, 06:16 AM
From: Andrea Stettner
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos likes to ask tricky application questions.
© Andrej Sokolow / dpa
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos only works with the best people.
One applicant convinced him so quickly that he gave her the job after just two questions.
A job at Jeff Bezos *, Amazon founder and former CEO of the online shipping giant, should be tempting for many people.
But it takes a lot of talent and guts to assert yourself every day with one of the most successful people in the world.
His assistant evidently succeeded in doing this right from the start - after only two application questions.
Also read:
These twelve questions will impress every HR manager.
Applicant without experience ends up with Amazon boss Jeff Bezos
According to her own statements, Ann Hiatt did not even plan to make a career at Amazon.
The American from Washington State
submitted
her
résumé to the online retailer in
2002 "without much thought"
.
“To my surprise, I was invited to a first-round interview for a junior assistant role.
I had no connections to the company, no computer science
degree
and absolutely
no experience working for a CEO,
”she describes in a guest article on the US news portal
CNBC.com.
1. Application question: "How many panes of glass does Seattle have?"
After countless, sometimes lengthy interviews with experienced employees, she finally landed with Boss Jeff Bezos personally. In that final interview, the CEO asked her just two questions. First he placed a whiteboard in front of him and said, “I want you to estimate the number of panes of glass in the city of Seattle.”
Hiatt was startled at first, but she sensed his motivation behind the question:
a complicated problem in small, manageable steps disassemble
.
So first you guess how many people Seattle has (a million for the sake of simplicity) and estimate how many windows the houses and means of transport of each resident would have on average.
After considering and including all anomalies and special cases, after a long calculation, both finally came up with a number that Bezos had fortunately assessed as "approximately correct".
Also interesting:
bosses say: This is the worst mistake in a job interview.
2. Application question: "What are your professional goals?"
Then Bezos asked her the second application question: “What are your professional goals?” She replied that she wanted to learn from the experience of the people at Amazon and thus develop her personality.
“I explained that I have no idea how to become an assistant, but that
I know the importance of constantly being out of my comfort zone
.
I wanted to enter an astronomical learning and growth curve, ”she continues.
Bezos asked these two questions to test her “guts” - whether she had the courage and the motivation to keep up with his pace and be brave enough to keep up with his steep path and
constantly improve
.
Video: 84% in nine years - this profession has the biggest raise
Also read:
Three typical interview questions - and the appropriate answers. *
Amazon: Bezos hired the applicant immediately
"At the end of the interview, we both knew that I would do anything to be successful, even though I am a very young candidate," concludes Hiatt.
So he hired her immediately after the interview - and gave her the desk closest to his.
It was to be her big breakthrough in Silicon Valley.
Today she runs a consulting firm for CEOs around the world.
By the way, this is how the Amazon founder recognizes whether people are really intelligent.
(as) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.