In a full day of interviews at Amazon in 1999, I met 3 people who would go on to shape the internet: Andy Jassy built AWS and is now Amazon's CEO, Leslie Kilgore built Netflix and joined their board, Ram Shriram seeded Google and joined their board. Here’s what happened that day:
I was in my first year at University of Michigan Business School and had hustled my way into interviews for a summer internship at Amazon.
I knew Amazon only recruited from Harvard and Stanford, so when I was introduced through a family friend to a marketing manager named Andy Jassy I begged him for an interview. He passed me off to the recruiting team who didn’t return my calls. But I was persistent.
Microsoft recruited at Michigan so I signed-up for an on-campus interview loop. One of my friends tipped me off to the big question they were asking that day: “If your life was a website, how would it be designed?” I aced the interview and got invited to Redmond for final rounds.
I called Andy again: “I’m coming to Seattle next week to interview at Microsoft. They’re paying for my airfare and hotel, can we please meet while I'm in town?” He finally agreed to organize an interview loop with his marketing team.
Amazon’s offices in downtown Seattle were across the street from the needle exchange for heroine addicts. While people shot-up in the streets, the energy inside the building was electric. I shared this story on a recent podcast with Brad Stone:
open.spotify.com
open.spotify.com
They had run out of space for desks, so new employees were squatting on the floor or in the hallway. The meeting rooms were all double-booked, so my interview with Andy was held in a stairwell where we crouched on the steps while people hustled around us. I loved it.
Next up was Andy’s boss, marketing director Leslie Kilgore. She had recently left a position as brand manager at P&G to join Amazon. P&G recruited heavily from Michigan and I had briefly considered applying there but ultimately decided it wasn’t exciting enough for me.
I managed to insult Leslie right out of the gate: “You must be adjusting to the fast past of the internet.” Leslie responded dead serious: “I worked really hard at P&G, this isn’t any different.” For the rest of the interview she grilled me on my lack of marketing experience.
Next I moved on to an interview loop with Amazon’s Business Development team. I had cold-called Ram Shriram who ran Biz Dev and was a Michigan alum: “I’ll be in Seattle for an interview with Andy Jassy's team and I’d love to meet your team as well.” He agreed to give me a loop.
I drained all my energy that day at Amazon, and the next morning I woke up with a terrible head cold. It was drizzling and dark as I drove to Redmond for a full day of interviews with the Microsoft Money team. My cold was getting worse by the hour and I knew I was bombing.
A week later I received an offer from Ram's team. My short career up to that point had been in business development so this was my dream internship. I called Andy to share the news and he was happy for me. I had been dinged by his marketing team, and also by Microsoft.
That summer I was charged with growing Amazon’s DVD store. Jason Kilar was our GM and he told me they planned to hire for my role after I returned to school, so I dropped out of Michigan and stayed on full-time. I figured I would learn more at Amazon than in a classroom.
Shortly after I joined, I spotted a print-out in the break room outlining Ram's seed investment in Google. He promptly left Amazon, moved back to SF and joined Google's board. Leslie also left in 2000 to become the first CMO at Netflix and later joined their board. Andy stayed...
After Ram left, I went to work for Owen Van Natta and my career took off at Amazon. When Owen joined Facebook as COO in 2005, he recruited me to run Biz Dev. I was ready to join an early stage start-up and was talking to a few companies that also had Peter Thiel as an investor.
One of my friends knew Peter and helped me get a meeting with him. When I shared my list of prospective companies Peter said: “You should join Facebook because they have the best people, and those people will attract other great people, so Zuck has the best chance to win.”
Bezos and Zuck understood the power of hiring the best people. Those of us who were lucky enough to make it through their gauntlet had the opportunity to work alongside some of the greats. I met three of them on one pivotal day in my career, and it's been a wild ride ever since.
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