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Jeff Bezos’s Favorite Job Interview Question Is Weird.. and Brilliant
These days, Jeff Bezos might spend more time planning his lavish Venetian wedding than hiring frontline engineers and executives. But back in the day when he was actively leading Amazon, Bezos always asked job candidates the same unusual question.
“When I worked at Amazon 1999–2006, Jeff Bezos’ favorite interview question was ‘are you a lucky person?’” former Amazon executive-turned-investor Dan Rose reported on X.
Was Bezos a believer in rabbits’ feet and four-leaf clovers? Did he want to borrow the magic dust of good luck from new hires to sprinkle over his young company? Not likely.
Instead, a variety of Bezos watchers and psychologists insist the question is an unusual but effective way to screen for some of the most important qualities for business success, including humility, initiative, and optimism.
Luck as a sign of humility
Bezos is famously a huge fan of humility in his hires. He also reportedly asks job candidates about their previous mistakes, believing that the ability to admit and learn from errors is one of the best signs of true intelligence.
Asking if a potential hire is lucky seems to have nothing to do with the search for the intellectually humble. But according…
