We sometimes think that great business people come out of nowhere. Of course, this is not true. The vast majority have a history of training and jobs before their great successes. Let’s take a look at some of the jobs Jeff Bezos had before becoming the CEO of Amazon.
Jeff Bezos is not only one of the richest men in the world. He is also a true business Guru. His reflections and business advice are listened to and followed by millions of people worldwide.
However, this entrepreneur did not achieve his success from one day to the next.
What jobs did Jeff Bezos do before he became a successful businessman?
Jeff Bezos joined the job market in the 1980s. In contrast to other well-known entrepreneurs, his beginnings were relatively humble, and he had quite a few job changes.
In his teenage years, he is known to have worked at the McDonald’s franchise and other temporary or summer jobs.
After his training, in which he changed his specialization from physics to computing, he could work in different companies such as Intel. However, he finally chose the offer from Fitel, a telecommunications company on Wall Street.
After two years or so, Bezos changed jobs and was employed by Banker’s Trust – in this case, it was an important product management position, rising to the rank of vice-president.
He will later join DE Shaw, where he becomes one of the company’s most important vice presidents. At this time, he was also a leader in Internet product marketing strategies.
In fact, after this last job, and as the company did not accept his innovative methods, Jeff Bezos decided to leave them and open his website, selling books over the internet.
Amazon’s success is now part of business and internet history. It has become one of the technological and commercial giants of the 21st century.
What can we learn from Jeff Bezos’ career?
There are two important lessons to be learned from Jeff Bezos’ career and job changes.
- The first of them is flexibility. This businessman has shown throughout his professional career to be flexible. He has been able to adapt both to market movements and the demands and needs of the evolving technology.
- The second important lesson we can draw from this entrepreneur’s evolution in the professional market is his determination. When his theories about Internet marketing were not well received by the company he worked for. He already stood out as a leader (DE Shaw); he decided to leave that project and create a new one based on his ideas and business theories.
Determination and flexibility are two values highly needed in today’s labor market. These values are necessary from the point of view of both employees and employers.