When Ann Hiatt applied for a job at Amazon, she did not know that CEO Jeff Bezos was going to interview her.

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Sharing her experience with CNBC, the Silicon Valley veteran said the key to Amazon’s success was Bezos’ tireless pursuit of the exceptional.

Bezos surrounds himself with outstanding talent whom he spearheads as a leader, says Hiatt who has 15 years of experience working as an executive business partner for Jeff Bezos, Marissa Mayer and Eric Schmidt.

“He created teams of people so ambitious, creative and determined that they made up for any expertise they lacked,” Hiatt said.

While building Amazon, Bezos focused on hiring talent with “grit, courage and motivation” who could run at his pace, Hiatt wrote in CNBC.

Also read: When Jeff Bezos spoke about space dream 20 years ago, people laughed

The Redmond girl was first called for interviews for a junior assistant role at Amazon in 2002.

Initially, Hiatt had to go through a number of interviews with senior assistants, some of which lasted all day. In one such interview, Hiatt was interviewed in a dark office with just the light of the monitor and a night lamp illuminating the room. For a newbie, such circumstances for interviews would have been intimidating, but Hiatt was well aware of the tech world and continued unfazed, she wrote.

After a gap of few months, Hiatt was called back for the final interview at Amazon. She did not know then that Bezos himself would interview her.

During the interview, the Amazon founder asked Hiatt two questions. The first was a mathematical brainteaser.

“I want you to estimate the number of panes of glass in the city of Seattle,” he said.

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

Also read: Happy Birthday Jeff Bezos: 10 interesting facts about the Amazon boss

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.

“I wanted to jump into an astronomical learning and growth curve,” Hiatt had told Bezos.

Bezos hired Hiatt on the spot.

Hiatt is now a consultant with CEO clients across the globe. She is also the author of the book, Bet on Yourself: Recognize, Own, and Implement Breakthrough Opportunities.

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:Nov 3, 2021 6:20 PM IST