
Job Posting for Amazon.com Before it Launched (1994) - jaybol
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/history_job_posting_for_amazoncom_before_it_launch.php
======
kqr2
Since we are digging through the archives...an oldie but goodie from
Shackleton (1907).

    
    
      Wanted. Men for hazardous journey.
      Low wages. Bitter cold.
      Long hours of complete darkness.
      Safe return doubtful.
      Honor and recognition in the event of success.
    

[http://bytepawn.com/2009/01/08/shackletons-job-
advertisement...](http://bytepawn.com/2009/01/08/shackletons-job-
advertisement/)

~~~
timr
_"Low wages. Bitter cold. Long hours of complete darkness."_

At least he was honest. That description applies equally well to startup life
in Seattle, but I didn't see any mention of it in Bezos' email. ;-)

~~~
aaronbrethorst
Seattle isn't that bad! :)

The wages are pretty good. Our locally produced Voyager gin is making me feel
pretty toasty right now. iPhone+Rails contracting work around here is
prevalent enough that it just paid for my Xmas trip to Maui... And, most
importantly, we're past the Winter Solstice. Next stop: 17 hours of sunlight
in late June!

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aaronbrethorst
Sorry, meta point: what is up with all of the spam on this thread? Has this
been happening a lot lately and I haven't noticed because people are just
really diligent with flagging, or are spammers just now finding HN?

(Since the spam will hopefully soon disappear, there are three separate
comments in here from one "dsgherhrt", advising us: "Priority my friend!
Christmas is coming, quick to our website shopping ::snipped:: Nike, Jordan,
prada ::snipped:: ::link spam::"; "sdgerhrtj"; and, "dfgerher".)

~~~
gommm
They do crop up from time to time (you can see it if you have showdead on) but
there's a lot more on this topic than usually...

I wonder if it's bots posting spam because of detecting Amazon in the title of
this page?

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latch
If this was a modern job posting, I'd find it overly pompous. The phd is one
thing, but "you should be able to do so in about one-third the time that most
competent people think possible" would put me right off (and obviously, in
this case, it'd be my loss - not that I'd have the skills...)

~~~
yannickt
I too tend to be turned off by displays of coolness or bragging in a job ad.
E.g. I am not a rockstar, a ninja or a junkie.

------
jsolson
I start with these guys Monday. I have a real feeling they're going somewhere.

Amusingly, the job posting I applied through gave only slightly more
information (New Products Division).

~~~
ronnier
I start on January 10. Maybe a HN Amazonian meetup sometime?

~~~
jsolson
This sounds good to me. I wonder how spread out people are, though (I don't
even know how many offices Amazon has in Seattle :). I'll be in South Lake
Union office.

~~~
ronnier
Same here, SLU. I'm currently in Seattle now looking for a place to live. Not
much luck. Places are more expensive, smaller, and older compared to Dallas.

Good luck on your first day. Contact me so we can meet up sometime.

~~~
jsolson
At least you've gotten an early start on the apartment hunt. I've heard
similar things about the rents (I'm coming from a $1/square foot loft in
Atlanta, so I'm quite certain I'm in for a shock). I guess I'll find out when
I get there. Right now I'm still in Atlanta tying up loose ends; I get to
Seattle on Sunday afternoon.

Good luck to you as well. I'll definitely get in touch once I'm in town.

------
grammaton
It looks exactly like a job posting for any of the 99.99999% of startups out
there that will _not_ be the next Amazon. If you saw an ad like this today it
would just fade in to the background noise.

------
sushrutbidwai
Best point -

"you should be able to do so in about the third-time that most competent
people think possible"

In a short description is gives exactly the amount of information that a job
post needs to give - Work, environment, challenges, co-worker info,
compensation.

------
aaronbrethorst
so...who ended up taking that job? Werner Vogels?

~~~
Joeboy
_Possibly_ Paul Davis, now lead author of <http://ardour.org>. I believe he
claims to have been one of Amazon's very first employees.

Edit: Yes it was, apparently.

------
mkramlich
So the challenge is to absorb that email, and perhaps other historical
artifacts like it from now-wildly-successful companies, and figure out if
there's a common pattern to them. If there's a common pattern, you can look
for it in job postings today. Try to recognize the Next Big Thing opportunity,
the diamond in the rough.

------
disruptivetech
I remember my own experience of taking a job back in '99 with ebay in the UK
and no-one back then had any idea of how big the web was going to be...it
really was a journey into the unknown. We had no idea the company would make
it, this little upstart in the UK market with a three person office.

------
sambeau
"Your compensation will include meaningful equity ownership"

That should be added to Joel Spolsky's list.

~~~
yannickt
What list?

~~~
ryanpetrich
He may be referring to The Joel Test:
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html>

~~~
sambeau
Yes, sorry, I was.

I should have added the link, plus this link: <http://vaig.be/2010/12/joel-
test-for-software-companies.html> and this:
[http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/10/12/26/1424243.s...](http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/10/12/26/1424243.shtml)

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mvzink
That Alan Kay signature quote is telling. Well done, Amazon.

~~~
qohen
Eh, not so well done--Bezos got the quote wrong.

The correct/canonical version of Alan Kay's quote is: "The best way to predict
the future is to invent it".

This version has 50+ million hits vs. 5100-ish for the version Bezos has (plus
40 more if you search for it with "it is" instead of "it's") ).

~~~
JonnieCache

        “Misquotation is ... the pride and privilege of the learned.
        A widely-read man never quotes accurately for the rather obvious reason
        that he has read too widely.”
        
        Hesketh Pearson (1887 – 1964)
    

There is a more amusing one than this but I cannot find it for the life of me.
Obviously this applies more to the spoken than the written word but the point
stands.

------
vchien
I am wondering .. What's meaningful equity ownership?

~~~
aristus
Shares in the company. One hopes, near an integer percentage.

