Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has a clear message for anyone hoping to build a career at Amazon: if you can’t innovate, you won’t survive. The e-commerce giant’s founder revealed that his preferred interview question focuses entirely on a candidate’s ability to invent solutions rather than simply follow established processes.“When I interview people, I ask them to give me an example of something they’ve invented,” Bezos explained in remarks from 2012 that are now resurfacing across social media platforms. The invention doesn’t need to be patentable—it could be a new metric, business process, or creative problem-solving approach that demonstrates original thinking.
Bezos’ go-to interview question reveals what AI can’t replace
When interviewing candidates, Bezos asks them to provide an example of something they’ve invented. It doesn’t need to be patent-worthy—a new metric, business process, or creative solution counts. In an era of ChatGPT-generated resumes and oversaturated job markets, innovation may be the one skill artificial intelligence tools cannot replicate.“You want to select people who like to invent their way out of boxes and don’t necessarily immediately go to either/or—’we can do A or B,'” Bezos said. “The right question is, ‘How can we do A and B? What invention do we need to be able to do both?'”
Amazon founder tells why innovation drives economic growth and company success
Bezos’ emphasis on innovation extends beyond Amazon’s hiring practices. In a 2015 shareholder letter, he wrote that failure and invention are “inseparable twins,” noting that experimentation is required for true innovation. “If you know in advance that it’s going to work, it’s not an experiment,” he stated.Innovation accounts for approximately 50% of annual GDP growth in the United States, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Business leaders like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates have similarly built their success on transforming industries rather than simply operating within them.As AI tools reshape the workplace, Bezos’ philosophy suggests that adaptability and creative problem-solving will become even more critical differentiators for workers and companies alike.
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