Jeff Bezos hired a candidate ‘on the spot' by asking just 2 interview questions

With technological innovations constantly increasing, getting an offer from a big tech company can be a dream for a lot of people. The dream to get a job at one of the most sought-after tech companies certainly makes them to the wish list of graduates. These firms individually receive over two million applications annually, making them one of the most sought-after companies worldwide.

If you are preparing for an interview with a big tech company like Adobe, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, you will agree that they have a very extensive and gruelling interview process. A candidate has to go through many rounds. Contrastingly, the interview process of Ann Hiatt at Amazon bogged down to just two questions. Let’s dive into the story of how Jeff Bezos hired this Amazon applicant ‘on the spot' by asking just 2 interview questions.

An Unexpected Interview call from Amazon

Ann Hiatt grew up in Seattle during the original dotcom era, surrounded by companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks. Her first employment, when she was 16, was at MusicWare, a startup in Redmond, Washington, back when no one knew what a startup was.

While most of the people around her were tech executives, and even though they made a lot of money, their life didn't seem fun to her. After graduating, she started exploring all the career options available to her. Back in 2002, she submitted her resume to Amazon without much thought. She was called in for a first-round interview for a junior assistant role although she had no connections at the company, no computer science degree, and absolutely no experience working for a CEO.

Amazon Interview process: The Two Questions

Ann Hiatt was first called for interviews for a junior assistant role at Amazon in 2002. As usual, the initial rounds of the interview at Amazon were enervating with some lasting up to a day. In one of these interviews, Hiatt was interviewed in a dark office with only the monitor light and a night light illuminating the room. While a hiring experience like this can be intimidating to freshers like her, she was well aware of the tech world and continued unperturbed. After a gap of a few months, Hiatt was recalled for a final interview at Amazon. She had no idea then that Bezos himself was going to interview her. 

During the interview, the Amazon founder asked Hiatt two questions. The first was a mathematical brain teaser and the second was a career-oriented question.

1. The first question that Bezos asked was that he wanted her to estimate the number of panes of glass in the city of Seattle.

For Hiatt, the question seemed to test her capability to “break down a complicated problem into small, manageable steps.”

She recalled that “I was momentarily terrified. Then I paused to calm down, reminding myself to think about his motivation for asking me that question. He wants to see the way my mind works, I told myself. He wants to see me break down a complicated problem into small, manageable steps. I can do that.”

Once done, Bezos asked her about her career goals. Hiatt had then told him that she wanted to learn from the ambitious and passionate people working at Amazon. She answered that she wanted to jump into an astronomical learning and growth curve.

Bezos hired Hiatt on the spot.

After story at Amazon

Having earned her stripes at Amazon, Hiatt upped sticks and moved to California to do a PhD at the university in Berkeley focusing on European politics. After two years, however, Google came knocking and, up until last year, she’d spent 12 years at the tech giant.

Now, Ann Hiatt is a Silicon Valley veteran with 15 years of experience working as an executive business partner for Jeff Bezos, Marissa Mayer and Eric Schmidt. Ann recently founded a consulting company with CEO clients across the globe where she applies the lessons of innovation, ambition, growth at scale and forward-thinking leadership she learned at Amazon and Google. She is also the author of “Bet on Yourself: Recognize, Own, and Implement Breakthrough Opportunities.”. Ann is a sought-after international speaker, angel investor and sits on several boards in the UK. Ann has recently relocated from Silicon Valley to Europe and brings with her a unique perspective on what it takes to succeed in business today. Ann is also the author of Bet On Yourself which will be published by HarperCollins in 2021.

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