amazon.com: work experience #3

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i invite all former amazonians to share their experiences while an employee at amazon.com.  here are some general guidelines:

do:

• details, details, details
• share about your interview experience
• what did you do there
• when and where did you work for amazon.com
• your least favorite core value & why
• why did you join
• why did you leave

don’t:

• openly slander people by name (don’t mention names)
• don’t share your own name
• sign your post with (your gender, years worked at amazon)

here’s the process: to submit your amazon story, please CONTACT ME.  to make sure that the comment is not spam, please provide a valid email address — I WILL NEVER SHARE YOUR EMAIL.  then, i’ll post your story as you submitted it.

*****

I worked for amazon.com from 2001 – 2005 at the RNO facility. I started as a lowly area manager and worked my way up to black belt. In fact, I started on the nights . . . weekend nights at that. I never forgot that experience and one of the lessons I learned is that it is really easy for people to feel isolated and forgotten about. So, all of you managers out there — remember that everyone who works for you is important!

Let’s go back to the beginning…my first interview was by phone. amazon.com contacted me regarding my resume that was posted on Monster. At first I did not even know which facility it was for. It could have been for TUL…yuck… (Sorry all of you Sooners). That interview was pretty easy and was done from someone in SEA (must have been an HR person). I drove to beautiful Fernley for my next interviews which consisted of a series of panel interviews. Interestingly enough less than half of the folks who interviewed me lasted through my tenure there. In fact, a couple of the folks had only been there a month before me! At these interviews the questions were primarily about my leadership style and problem solving. Pretty simple stuff.

Well, they liked me and I got a decent job offer (well, for amazon.com. For all of you who have not worked for amazon.com — they do NOT pay a lot!). On a side note: my least favorite core value is frugality. Great for a company…not so great for a paycheck. This was November which is just in time for peak season. I was put on the weekend night shift responsible the full case and non-con (read: large items) area. I started at a time when there was not a training program for managers so I was pretty much left on my own to sink or swim.

Well, I obviously swam and stayed with amazon.com for 4 years. I went from night shift to day shift and then finally to black belt. Oh, thanks for training me amazon.com! I really appreciate it!

Black belt was a good job under one boss but terrible under the next boss. One boss really believed in it and knew how to use Six Sigma. The next one was not quite as sure. I think that is more because they were kinda overwhelmed in that new position (to their defense…some key players left when he came on board). I joined amazon.com because I really liked how everyone believed in what they were doing. I never lost my passion for customer service even though my enthusiasm for amazon.com waned from time to time.

I left to move to San Diego and make more money.

sue me!

Male 2001 – 2005

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