The Carlton Dance

Over the past few weeks, I have seen quite a bit of discussion about how to land a job at one of the big tech companies, which makes it a bit ironic that I am currently moving on from Amazon after a ten-year stint.  Given the number of questions that I have received about what it is like to work at Amazon, I decided to share a few observations and experiences.

Entering the Amazon

Prior to joining Amazon, I had worked for a plethora of small, early-stage companies, most of which few people have heard of.  This was a great experience because it gave me an opportunity to be involved in every aspect of the business and every part of its lifecycle.  I also found that I had more of a sense of ownership in ventures which I had helped start from the ground up.  However, these smaller, younger companies could also be a bit confining.  At some point the scale of the company itself became a limitation to my growth and I decided that I would like to try working in a larger company.

Before I began applying, I spent about 50 hours reviewing job postings for companies and jobs that interested me.  During this process I made note of any skills, tools and certifications which were commonly requested and devoted a significant amount of time to acquiring all of these over the course of a couple years.  Strength of my resume was enough to get me an interview right away, the main focus on which related to behavioral traits.  Once my soon-to-be new team was satisfied that I possessed the necessary skills to do the job, they were interested in finding out whether I was able to work well in a team, cope with ambiguity and find solutions to problems in the face of adversity.

Life in the Amazon

I saw a classmate’s blog recently which described a fairly thorough and well-organized onboarding process at a new employer.  While I am happy for my classmate, my own experience bore little resemblance to the one described.  My first week at Amazon was spent in Arizona, where I received my badge, laptop and a quick orientation to tools/culture of the company.  After that I spent my Associate Experience Week (AEW) back home in Tennessee.  This is actually a pretty neat experience which gives incoming managers an opportunity to perform all of the jobs most commonly performed by front line associates in our fulfillment centers.  The goal of this experience is to ensure that the participant has a solid understanding of key processes and the challenges that our associates face in performing these processes.

At the end of AEW, I called my manager in Seattle to ask what I was supposed to do next.  He asked me if I could be in Delaware by Monday morning, then gave me an address, a contact name and the door code for a construction trailer.  Over the weekend my wife and I packed up the car and relocated to Delaware for the duration of the project.  I should note that more established teams may have more thorough onboarding processes, but given the rate of growth, most teams have been operating in their current modes for no more than a couple years.  Since our team was focused on rollout of new facilities, our team also tended to be very nomadic and had relatively little opportunity to work together in the same location.  Over the course of my tenure with Amazon, my wife and I relocated to 11 different cities around the US, Canada and Australia.

Based on my observations and experience, most of what we hear in the news about conditions at Amazon fulfillment centers is incorrect or out of context.  However, the reports about work/life balance for technical specialists and managers was fairly consistent with my experience.  I would estimate that I worked more than 50 hours per week about 70 percent of the time… sometimes much more.  I was only able to use about half of my allocated PTO and even on holiday I wound up checking/responding to email and so forth.

Escape from the Amazon

All in all, I am glad that I joined Amazon.  I am glad that I stayed as long as I did, and I am glad to be moving on.  I was able to work on some interesting projects and became acquainted with some really great people.  Compensation was pretty good and experience was invaluable.  Since joining Amazon, I have also been approached by recruiters for other large tech companies including Microsoft, Meta and Oracle.  However, at this point I have plenty of options and the job has been taking more than it is worth.  Joining Amazon was a great career move, but at this point I am excited about a great life move and look forward to working on things that I love.