Job Posting for Amazon.com Before it Launched (1994)

Since we are digging through the archives...an oldie but goodie from Shackleton (1907).<p><pre><code> 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. </code></pre> <a href="http://bytepawn.com/2009/01/08/shackletons-job-advertisement/" rel="nofollow">http://bytepawn.com/2009/01/08/shackletons-job-advertisement...</a>

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?<p>(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".)

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...)

I start with these guys Monday. I have a real feeling they're going somewhere.<p>Amusingly, the job posting I applied through gave only slightly more information (New Products Division).

It looks exactly like a job posting for any of the 99.99999% of startups out there that will <i>not</i> be the next Amazon. If you saw an ad like this today it would just fade in to the background noise.

Best point -<p>"you should be able to do so in about the third-time that most competent people think possible"<p>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.

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

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.

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.

"Your compensation will include meaningful equity ownership"<p>That should be added to Joel Spolsky's list.

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

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