Interviewing at Amazon in 1996: A True Story
I had my first job outside of college working in the Bell Labs corridor (which is northern New Jersey, on the mid-Atlantic coast of the United States) at a traditional enterprise software company. I even had some options as the company had just gone public, but I wanted to write code on west coast with the cool kids. A friend of mine saw an early ad for Amazon in the University of Washington newspaper (a printed version, like they used to have), just like the one pictured below and so I *faxed* my resume to “Amazon.com” in late 1996.
Fun Facts about my 1996 Interview
- I had hair back then!
- I wore a full suit to the interview because you did that on the east coast (people still talk about this suit — it was a dark green linen suit)
- I wrote code on an actual keyboard live in one interview because I didn’t know you were supposed to use the whiteboard
- I interviewed with the Jeff Bezos in Amazon’s single floor office (yes, we all fit on one floor! No, I don’t think he remembers me). I was shocked I got to interview with the CEO!
I was pretty sure I did well in the interview but waiting back at home during Thanksgiving week for the call was pretty nerve wracking. So was deciding to take a 20% pay cut and moving across the country to a place where I knew almost no one.
Even after taking the job I thought would go out of biz in 6 months (online books?!?) & I’d end up at Microsoft. Instead I spent 3+ amazing years changing the world of commerce from 1997–2000, and then 14 years doing various other things before coming back to Amazon, this time in Amazon Web Services (AWS) in 2014 where I’ve been ever since. 23 years later I’m still amazed at how much more potential we have as a company.
Lessons: Believe in yourself. Calculated risk taking pays off
Hope this was helpful!
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PS. This article previously posted on LinkedIn
