The bizarre question Jeff Bezos always asked Amazon during job interviews – and it can mean that you would not be hired

A former Amazon -Baas has revealed one Jeff Bezos‘S’ Favorite ‘questions to ask candidates in job interviews, the answer he would look for – and the answers that would guarantee a rejection.

Dan Rose, who was director at Amazon for six years before he became VP Facebooksaid that the billionaire interviewees would ask if they were a ‘happy person’.

He said that Bezos would prefer potential employees who answered that they considered themselves happiness, but used the happiness that came on their side.

The former amazon director explained that Bezos used the unusual question to gauge whether a candidate was ‘modest’, an ‘optimistic person’ and someone who ‘manifests success’.

“When I worked at Amazon 1999-2006, was the favorite interview question of Jeff Bezos” Are you a happy person? “What a great way to filter for optimists and people who show success,” said X in a post.

‘If you are a successful, optimistic, modest leader, the right answer starts in this way:’ Yes, I am the happiest person on earth. I worked hard to get to this point in my career, but many things also had to go well, and I fully benefited my luck. ‘

Then the question was used as a statistics for finding employees who were optimistic, because Bezos thought that the property showed ‘leadership potential and probability of success’.

“Considering happiness is a good proxy for optimism,” he said.

‘Humidity is also important and it is easy to filter false humility (‘ modest bragging ‘) in follow -up questions. This is not the only question, it is a conversation and opens to the door to expose someone’s personality outside their resume. ‘

Dan, who then started turning Facebook from a company with 130 staff to 35,000 employee company, also revealed the answers that Bezos candidates would see out of the running.

“Two wrong answers: 1) No, I have never felt lucky, but I have been able to overcome all the bad things that always happen to me,” he said.

“2) No, I never need luck because I am better/smarter/stronger than everyone else.”

Amazon is known for his meticulous recruitment strategies when using its business team.

Former employees and those who have applied for positions at the Billion-Dollar Corporation, have reported that they had to endure several interviews, a few sustainable hours or all day.

A man who worked with Bezos in Amazon at an early stage before he became one of the richest men in the world, said he was a “hands-on leader” with an “unknown magnetism for him.”

Steve Yegge, 56, from Washington, started working at Amazon in 1998 as a technical program manager, four years later Bezos launched the company from its garage.

Creeks with Business insiderHe added that he was so “focused on the mission” that he sometimes overlooked problems in the office.

“He seemed to give nothing but his mission,” said Steve. ‘It didn’t matter if the toilet was dirty or whether engineers were admitted all night.

“He just seemed to care if it started to slow him. Perhaps that is the kind of leader that you have to be. Successful leaders do not take no as an answer. ‘

Steve described the Amazon offices as ‘dark and grungy’, but added that despite the unattractive space the atmosphere was great.

‘After you entered the building, there was a crunch in the air. You could feel that something very big was going on – and it was all centered on Jeff, “he went on.

Steve admitted that there was a lot of ‘pressure’ and an expectation ‘that everyone always had to work. “

‘Avoids people to ask for free time. Some employees would sort out others, “he added.

“A friend of mine worked in a cupboard because that is the only place where there was room for a desk.”

When he first started with the company, Steve said that he ‘helped in coordinating projects’ before he eventually started ‘the technical team’.

He continued to “work his way up” and finally noticed that he worked directly with Jeff on a “secret project:” a platform “intended as Reddit.”

“I didn’t know enough about distributed computer use to get what Jeff wanted in his desired time frame,” he admitted.

“I felt that the project was not feasible at the time, but I was afraid of delivering that message to Jeff.”

In 2005 Steve said that Google made him a ‘great offer’, so he decided to leave Amazon.

Looking back, he confessed that he “didn’t really like it there” and disagreed with the practices of the company, “but he was grateful that he had the time he did with Jeff.

“I worked, among others, CEOs, including the Larry page of Google and Eric Schmidt, and they have usually not brought senior employees together for spontaneous chats, but Jeff would do this quite often,” he concluded.

“He would reset us and change how everyone in the company thought of things. He challenged people every day, but I never saw him get angry or swear in my almost seven years there.

“He had this electrical presence, a magnetism for him that was unmistakable.

“He was never difficult to work with, even though he could sometimes be difficult to work for because of his super high expectations.”

In response to the story of Business Insider, Amazon told the publication in a statement: “An anecdote of one person is not representative of what it was like to work at Amazon then or how it is now.”