HOW MUCH WATER FLOWS THROUGH THE MISSISSIPPI DAILY?

Intelligence vs Experience

Job interviews at Amazon & Microsoft are more likely to focus on an applicant's answers to questions such as:

• How much would you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
• How many windows are there in the city of San Francisco?
• How many trees are there in New York city's Central Park?
• Why are manhole covers round?
• How much water flows through the Mississippi daily?

The executives of both Microsoft and Amazon.com emphasize intelligence as the primary factor in hiring new employees. The interviewers are concerned with how applicants think rather than their ability to provide a correct answer. Amazon, for instance, carefully scrutinizes college transcripts and SAT scores of potential customer service reps before making a job offer. 

Most companies emphasize experience when making employee selection decision and experience can be a valid predictor of future job performance. Microsoft and Amazon.com emphasize on intelligence as these companies believe that the key to its success is its ability to innovate and the smartest people regardless of their jobs are best innovators.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, defends this approach as a means for fending off mediocrity: "If you start out with A's, you get to keep A's.... If you start hiring B's, B's hire B's." Bill Gates, co-founder and CEO of Microsoft, succinctly defends his company's belief that IQ is more important than experience - "You can teach smart people anything." 

Amazon and Micosoft believe their greatest asset is the collective intellectual resources of their employees. So they consistently seek out and hire the smartest individuals they can find!