Hiatt said that she felt Amazon was an innovative company filled with people that cared immensely about their work and the growth of the company. Hiatt figured that the answer had to be some average of all of those places, and Bezos fastidiously did the math on a whiteboard in the office.īezos finally looked up and told Hiatt: “That looks about right.” It was now time for his second and final question: “What are your career goals?” After accurately guessing Seattle’s population, she began to work with Bezos on the problem, considering every context in which glass is found, moving between one’s home or apartment, through public space and transit, and in workplace or educational settings. Unbeknownst to her, that interview was between her and Bezos.Īfter an initial pang of terror, Hiatt got her bearings and began to consider the questions. Following a marathon of interviews with employees working in the senior role of the position she was vying to land, Hiatt was contacted after months of silence and informed that she had made it to the final interview. Hiatt was shocked when her application was met with an invitation to interview at the company. Hiatt applied for a job as a junior assistant fresh out of school with no prior experience, no relevant degree, and no contacts amongst the retailer’s employees. Hiatt explained that she grew up in Redmond, Washington, which is not far from Seattle, where Bezos had headquartered his company.

Ann Hiatt, who landed a job interview with the billionaire businessman during the relatively early days of Amazon’s existence in 2002, shared with CNBC two questions Bezos asked her when she met with him twenty years ago. One of Jeff Bezos’s former employees at Amazon recently shared the story of her job interview with the company’s founder and former CEO.

A former Amazon employee wrote about the experience of being hired by Jeff Bezos in 2002.

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