What Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos was doing in his 20s

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Jeff Bezos, founder and Ceo of Amazon

Fitel’s main goal was to create a global telecommunications network for trading firms, and Bezos started out debugging lines of code, Wired reports. He quickly rose through the ranks, eventually landing a role as the head of development and director of customer service.

He spent more than two years attempting to grow the business. But the start-up failed to get off the ground, so Bezos left and took a job as a product manager at Banker’s Trust, which is now part of Deutsche Bank.

At Banker’s Trust, Bezos again advanced and became vice president, Mic reports. But Bezos grew bored at Banker’s Trust and after only two years there, at age 26, he began preparing to pivot into tech.

He took a job at the then two-year-old hedge fund D.E. Shaw and became one of the company’s vice presidents in just four years. As a V.P., Bezos was tasked with researching new business opportunities on the rapidly growing Internet, which was held tremendous potential in the early 1990s.