Five Years at Amazon: Growth, Gratitude, and Lessons Learned

As someone who prefers the dynamic, fast-paced environment of startups, I never imagined I would celebrate my fifth anniversary at a global giant like Amazon. Yet, here I am, and I'm grateful for all I've learned professionally and personally. In this article, I'll reflect on a few key lessons learned at Amazon that I wonder if I would have learned solely working in startups.

Transitioning industries is more straightforward at a big company.

One of the most significant advantages of working at a large company like Amazon is the opportunity to transition industries. I started my career in advertising technology and switched to healthcare after having ten years of experience, a leap that would have been much more challenging to make at a startup. Unified by a common culture, Amazon's diverse range of businesses enabled me to transition, aligning my career with work driving more direct social impact.

You need to be wrong a lot, then change your mind, to be right a lot.?

Amazon's leadership principles have played an essential role in shaping my development. One that stands out is "Are Right, A Lot." This principle emphasizes seeking diverse perspectives and working to disconfirm one's beliefs. Developing tunnel vision and blindly believing in the mission is a natural risk working at a startup. It can provide a tailwind to be a bit dogmatic and stubborn because you're going after an opportunity others have yet to bet on. However, we can use data to sharpen the boundaries of decision space. Amazon's data-driven and analytical culture has taught me the importance of self-reflection, due diligence and open-mindedness. Focusing on these approaches enables me to make better decisions and be a better leader.?

Organizational norms and culture provide massive leverage.

The leadership principles are just one aspect of Amazon's peculiar culture, which is highly integrated into Amazon's hiring, promotion, performance management, recognition and operating mechanisms. This tightly woven cultural fabric enables you to "fast track" engagements with different teams because you have a shared mental model to execute against. One example is Amazon's hiring process. Unlike my experiences in startups where we compared candidates to one another, Amazon compares candidates to a "hiring bar" intended to ensure that every hire is more capable than 50% of those already in similar roles. This system is adjudicated by bar raisers, Amazonians who undergo extensive training and participate in interviews as a core part of their job. They develop pattern recognition for how the leadership principles present themselves in work examples candidates share during the interview process. Their role is to mitigate biases that sometimes emerge when a hiring manager's urgency to fill a position negatively influences their decision making. Having worked across two business units and four teams at Amazon, the common culture enabled me to onboard and complete cross-functional projects quickly and effectively.?

Plan for scale, even if you're not sure you'll achieve it.

Working at Amazon has taught me how to scale projects and handle operational complexity. Amazon MatchUp is a peer-to-peer mentoring program which pairs similarly leveled Amazonians from different parts of the business to support each other's personal and professional development. I was the program lead for a few years, tripling enrollment and launching the program in new countries. Launching something, seeing streams of applications come in, and realizing you need different intake/triage systems, is humbling when you're up late in the evening and clearing out the queue on weekends. This and similar experiences taught me the importance of pre-planning, quantifying trade-offs, and managing customer expectations when dealing with large-scale initiatives.?

Mentors want to help, find and engage them. And mentor others.?

Mentoring and networking opportunities at Amazon have been instrumental in my personal growth and development. The availability of mentors across industries and seniority has allowed me to seek guidance from a broader set of senior leaders compared to a smaller company. These connections have been invaluable in shaping my career path and expanding my professional network. Also, having the privilege to mentor others has continually shown me that it's much easier to advise others than to live that advice ourselves. Taking on mentees not only supports their development but also reminds us of lessons learned in the past that are no longer top of mind. Learning always goes both ways.

Reflecting on my five years at Amazon, I am grateful for the opportunities I've been provided and the relationships I cherish. The ability to transition industries, participate in a mature corporate culture, and work on large-scale and complex projects has significantly influenced my personal and professional growth. While I will always have an affinity for startups, I sincerely appreciate the invaluable lessons I've learned at Amazon—lessons I might not have discovered had I exclusively worked at smaller ventures.

Do you have experience working both in large corporates and startups? What unique experiences did you have from both? I'd love to hear your thoughts and perspective. Please comment and share.