Jeff Bezos asked this Amazon candidate two questions, then hired her on the spot

Every person seeking an employment gets nervous before and during the interview as they are bombarded with questions, which sometimes can also be tricky, depending which field of work one is applying for.

Whenever it comes to top companies, we are often curious about their hiring process, especially the kind of questions that are thrown at the candidates. We want in on the questionnaire or at least get an idea on how these big companies think and function.

So recently, a former employee of Amazon spilled the tea on what went inside the conference room during an interview when she found herself sitting in front of none other than, Jeff Bezos, the founder and at that time, the CEO of the multinational tech company.


Ann Hiatt, who submitted her CV to the company back in 2002 "without much thoughts" (in her words), got a call for an interview for a junior assistant role. After back-to-back interviews, Hiatt found herself in front of the richest man in the world.

So of course, her being nervous would be an understatement. Bezos, with a pen in his hand and standing in front of a whiteboard, asked her two questions.

The former employee, who had no prior experience of working for a CEO, shared her story in an article for CNBC Make It, where she recalled the two questions Bezos asked her during the interview, with the first question being a "fun" brainteaser.

“I'll do the math," Bezos said, as he asked her the first question: "I want you to estimate the number of panes of glass in the city of Seattle." This made Hiatt momentarily terrified. But she quickly found her wit and got her brain rolling, realising this was just a test to figure out the working of her brain.

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She began estimating the population of Seattle and then from there, she broke down the total number to assuming each having a home, mode of transport, offices and schools.

"So I suggested that we base the estimate on averages of those," she said, and from there, the two "did the math".

"We got down into every possible scenario, group, anomaly and ways to account for these exceptions," the former employee said, adding that seeing Bezos write down the final estimate, made her feel a rush of thrill.

“That looks about right,” he said after doing the math.

For his second question, the business tycoon asked Hiatt, "What are your career goals?”

To which she told Bezos that Amazon had proven to be a company full of ambitious and passionate people and she wanted to be like them and learn what they knew.

Bezos ended up hiring her on the spot.

Years later working for Amazon and just some distant away from Bezos's desk in the same office, Haiti reflected on what Bezos's those two questions meant. "He was measuring my potential by asking questions that would explore whether I had the grit, courage and motivation to run at his pace and be brave enough to consistently jump with him and level up," she said.

Now that's some really motivating and interesting hiring story.