Today is my 25th Anniversary at Amazon. I took my last graduate school final exam on the first Friday in May of 1997, and started at Amazon the following Monday. I had no idea what my job was going to be, what group I’d be in, what my title would be, or where I’d live—all I knew was that I needed to be in Seattle to start on 5/5. The way I ended up at Amazon was mostly luck. I was returning home on a red eye in March of 1997 from a final round interview at a tech company in the Bay Area, and I arrived at my apartment at around 730a. I never checked the answering machine back then (remember those?), but noticed the flashing light and listened to the message from a woman named Jennifer Cast while I unpacked my bag. She said she’d found my resume in my school’s resume book, thought my background might be a fit, had a cancellation in her schedule, and was going to leave it open for me at 9a to come (or not). I was leaving Boston at 11a that morning to go to a Shawn Colvin concert at the Beacon theater in NYC, so had that window open, and decided to show up. I was not that well prepared and didn’t know much about Amazon at that point except that it sold books online. But, I must have answered enough questions competently to get invited to Seattle for another set of interviews. A few weeks later, I interviewed with a number of Amazonians on campus, was offered a job, and accepted shortly thereafter. My initial plan was to be at Amazon for 2-3 years, and then move back to NY (where I grew up). My wife and I agreed to this plan in a bar in Boston, and signed a napkin together to signify that commitment. That was a little over 25 years ago, and I have since been informed the statute of limitations on that napkin has long-ago expired. But the truth is I never had to “litigate” that napkin. I fell in love with Amazon. The people were smart, ambitious, inventive, and optimistic. The focus on customer experience as the paramount priority was palpable (few companies actually live to this credo, but Amazon does). There was a unique approach to considering new customer experiences and businesses that I found inspiring and made me believe there was no ceiling to what was possible. And, there was this urgency (even if it meant we might fail sometimes) that was motivating. It wasn’t always rosy. We went through lots of ups and downs. We haven’t been perfect (and still aren’t). I struggled at various junctures, and was fortunate to have mentors and managers who believed in me (often more than I believed in myself). But, on the whole, I don’t know another place like Amazon if you like to build, innovate, have broad impact on the world, and make customers lives better every day. Thank you to my Amazon teammates of past and present. I feel very lucky to have been on this adventure together the last 25 years, and look forward to pursuing it together for many years to come. It’s very early days still with respect to what we can and will deliver for customers.
Congratulations
Congratulations 🎊
Congratulations
Congratulations Andy
Kusum Kumari
1y
Congratulations 🎉🎉
Umair Malik
1y
Congratulations sir
Todd F.
1y
Congrats.
Chairman & CEO at Goldman Sachs
1yWhat a journey - congratulations on this incredible milestone.