Four years ago today I joined Amazon as a technical recruiter. I started my career as part of the Recruiter Academy Program, which was a four and a half month program designed to teach new recruiters all the ins and outs of recruiting at Amazon. I was making a huge career transition out of the world of rowing and into the world of big tech.
I tell my candidates that before joining Amazon I had never thought about a software engineer a day in my life and I thought Java was coffee. And now I help hire some of the best engineers and engineering leaders in the world. And it all started because Amazon had an innovative program that allowed someone like me, who had spent 17 years as an athlete and coach in the rowing world, to make a huge career change. RAP (3.0) gave me the opportunity to learn and grow at an incredibly rapid pace. I am astounded by how much I have learned in four years.
I have had the chance to manage and mentor others. I have piloted awesome tools across my entire org. I’ve written and presented papers. I’ve partnered with amazing leaders and businesses across Amazon Web Services. I’ve attended talks by Sally Field and Malcolm Gladwell and many other awesome events. I have even facilitated and participated in Peculiar Paths panel discussions. I have done a lot in four years outside of just filling roles.
I think more importantly than all of the above, I have worked with some incredible people who have lifted me up time and time again. Many of them are still with Amazon and some of them have moved on to greener pastures. But the impact on me has been immense. And the longer I am at Amazon the more incredible people I meet and have the pleasure to work with.
I am so grateful to Amazon for allowing me to try something new and having faith that I could pull it off successfully. And I’m so grateful to my teams and managers past and present for helping me to grow and laugh along the way. You are fierce and have ridiculously high standards and I love you all.
Who knows what the next four years will hold. But here’s to four incredible years with Amazon and the big wide future ahead.
