Who does not know Amazon founder and CEO, Jeff Bezos? He's currently the richest person in the world according to Forbes’ most recent list.

He comes from humble beginnings. Bezos left his job on Wall Street in 1993 to start Amazon, which first focused on selling only books online. It was successful earlier on, stayed afloat through the dot com bubble burst in the early 2000s and evolved into the e-commerce behemoth we recognise today.

Though Bezos is a self-made billionaire, there are thousands of great Amazon employees working behind the scenes. But he drives the company and built the culture and hiring standards when it was a small company 25 years ago.

It’s always interesting to learn what people like Bezos look for when hiring. We searched the internet looking for stories and quotes from those who know him best.

 

1. Bezos doesn’t care about efficient hiring process

Many fast-growing firms believe in efficiency, specifically when it comes to hiring. They usually fill their candidate pool with a lot of candidates, evaluate their backgrounds, interview some of them and eventually hire the best candidate for the position.

But, Bezos doesn’t believe in making a hire, just for the sake of filling an open position. A Fast Company profile reported that he once told a co-worker, “I’d rather interview 50 people and not hire anyone than hire the wrong person.”

It's against the traditional hiring wisdom but it makes sense. If you want to hire for an important job, such as a leadership role, you can't afford to make a bad decision. The new employee will resign or need to be fired and you'll be back at the beginning. The next person you hire will not only need to do the job but also undo the errors made by their predecessor.

By Seattle City Council from Seattle - https://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlecitycouncil/39972652661/, CC BY 2.0, Link

2. Each hire should build on the last

In the early days of Amazon, Bezos was known for being a tough interviewer and scrutinised every detail of a job candidate's background. He had a vision and was looking for the people who would go on to make Amazon what it is today.

In a 1999 Wired article, Amazon’s fifth employee Nicholas Lovejoy said, “one of his mottos (Bezos) was that every time we hired someone, he or she should raise the bar for the next hire so that the overall talent pool was always improving.”

Nearly every successful startup founder tried to replicate this philosophy. It's important to build a strong foundation of people who will get the company off on the right foot. 

Bezos' insistence on continuously hiring even better people is probably a big reason why Amazon went on to become one of the world's most thriving companies.

 

3. Bezos asks hiring managers the right questions

Since Amazon has grown so much, Bezos can no longer interview every candidate as he did when it was new. Though, he does ask his hiring managers these three questions:

• • Will you admire this person?
    Bezos doesn’t want Amazon to hire any capable person. He wants his company to find the best so he asks hiring managers to look for candidates they really value.

  • Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they’re entering?
    Bezos wants hiring managers to find people who elevate the production of the people around them. Work is regularly teamwork so it’s important employees come together to work toward common goals.

  • Along what dimensions might this person be a superstar?
    Bezos wants talented candidates to end up in a position that will allow them to have the greatest impact on the company. Some candidates are better suited for a role different than the one they applied for and will benefit the company in other ways.

By assigning these questions to hiring managers, Bezos’s hiring standards live on. He can’t interview every candidate but he can assure those who do recognise what’s important to him.

 

4. Hiring is a team decision

One thing you should know is that successful hiring is a team effort. Multiple people should interview candidates so the decision-maker has a mixture of perspectives and opinions to examine.

According to Jeff Holden, a former Amazon exec who is now Chief Product Officer of Uber, Bezos thinks hiring should not only be a team effort. It should be a team decision.

After final interviews, each member of the hiring team would meet in a room to share their perspectives on a candidate. After the discussion, a vote would take place and the results would have to be unanimous for the candidate to be hired. Even one  “no” vote would mean the team had to go back on the search for the right employee.

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Do what it takes to make great hires

If we can learn anything about hiring from Jeff Bezos, it’s that the hiring process should not be glossed over. Don’t settle when hiring. Do what it takes to find the best people available.

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Source: Recruiterbox

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Cover picture by Seattle City Council from Seattle - https://www.flickr.com/photos/seattlecitycouncil/39074799225/, CC BY 2.0, Link