Amazon.com's mission: to be the most customer-centric company in the world, where people can find and discover anything they want to buy online.


Prepared Candidates Get More Out of the Interview

1.At a minimum, you should explore the Amazon.com Web site. Check out our stores, read some customer reviews and product recommendations, learn about our Associates Program and Web Services, and scan the Help section.


2.Then, go to www.amazon.com/ir, our investor-relations and PR site, to review our last annual report, read recent announcements about partnerships and product launches, and learn about our executives' responsibilities and backgrounds.


3.It's also interesting to see what others have to say about us. Go to finance.yahoo.com or www.fool.com and search for "AMZN" (our stock symbol) to get a feel for what the analysts think about us, and what the competition is up to.


4.Of course, there have been several books written about Amazon.com. If you have time, you can go to the Amazon.com Books store, search for "Amazon.com," and order a copy to read ahead of time. (Note: none of these books have been officially endorsed by us, and represent only the opinions of the writers.)


5.You can also usually pull up some interesting articles about Amazon.com in high-tech publications like Wired magazine or business publications like BusinessWeek. Also, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Amazon.com's hometown newspaper, The Seattle Times, tend to write a lot about our company.


6.Finally, you can learn a lot about a company by reading some of its job postings. Spend a few minutes here on www.amazon.com/careers and look through jobs in marketing, finance, legal, technology, operations, and so on. You'll learn something about our organization as you begin to see how the various departments and jobs connect to each other, and to our guiding mission.


Amazon.com at a Glance

Founded and Incorporated
July 1994

Opened on the Web
July 1995

Employees
56,200 worldwide (2012)

Revenue
US$ 48 billion net sales in 2011

Completed Initial Public Offering
May 1997; traded on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol AMZN

Headquarters
Seattle, Washington, United States

Web Sites

Selection
Amazon.com and other sellers offer millions of unique new, refurbished, and used items in categories such as beauty, health and personal care, jewelry and watches, gourmet food, sports and outdoors, apparel and accessories, books, music, DVDs, electronics and office, toys and baby, and home and garden.

Subsidiaries

  • Alexa Internet, Inc.: Provides dynamic data about the Web. Services include Web-site traffic information, statistics, and other tools to make timely and intelligent business and consumer decisions.
  • A9.com, Inc.: Invents and develops e-commerce search technology for Amazon.com and other Web-based businesses
  • Amazon Services, Inc.: Works with third parties to leverage the power of the Amazon.com e-commerce platform.