scorecardJeff Bezos told Amazon execs to consider 3 questions before offering someone a job and they're still spot-on 20 years later
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Jeff Bezos told Amazon execs to consider 3 questions before offering someone a job and they're still spot-on 20 years later

1. 'Will you admire this person?'

Jeff Bezos told Amazon execs to consider 3 questions before offering someone a job and they're still spot-on 20 years later

2. 'Will this person raise the average level of effectiveness of the group they're entering?'

2.

Back in 1998, Bezos didn't want candidates who were good enough.

"We want to fight entropy," Bezos wrote. "The bar has to continuously go up."

Bezos asked his employees to "visualize the company" in five years — or 2003.

"At that point, each of us should look around and say, 'The standards are so high now — boy, I'm glad I got in when I did!'" he wrote.

In 2003, the company posted its first ever full-year profit, according to The New York Times.

3. 'Along what dimension might this person be a superstar?'

3.

Bezos has a penchant for enjoying unique meals; he's partaken in the occasional sliver of iguana and has even ordered octopus for breakfast.

Back in 1998, he revealed that he also likes to work with unique people. He wrote that it's important to hire candidates with "unique skills, interests, and perspectives that enrich the work environment for all of us," regardless of whether said traits were "related to their jobs."

Bezos specifically gave a shout out to an unnamed Amazon employee who he said was once a National Spelling Bee champion.

He speculated that the individual in question won the 1978 championship, but, according to Business Insider, the unidentified employee was likely Barrie Trinkle, who won the 1973 competition and worked for Amazon from 1996 to 2001.

"I suspect it doesn't help her in her everyday work, but it does make working here more fun if you can occasionally snag her in the hall with a quick challenge: 'onomatopoeia!'" he wrote.

Are you a current or former Amazon employee with a story to share? Email acain@businessinsider.com.

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