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I got my first real job in & #39;99 on the biz dev team at Amazon. Like most first jobs, it was a combination of hustle and luck. I had no idea Amazon (or later Facebook) would become what it is today, but I knew I wanted to work there. Here& #39;s how it happened:
In high school I thought I wanted a career in business, but my dad was a doctor, my mom a therapist, aunts/uncles physicians & lawyers. I had no role model in biz except my grandfather who owned a fleet of taxi cabs in NY. And my grandmother who always told me "work for yourself"
Harvard had no business major so I thought I would try economics. But after taking Econ 101 freshman year, I decided it wasn& #39;t for me (too theoretical and math heavy). Instead I studied Sociology and went down a path of learning about human behavior.
While in college I attended a personal growth seminar program called Life Mastery, and I went to work for this family business after graduation. I thought of this job as an extension of my sociology degree, but when I arrived I found myself more interested in the business itself.
I hopped to another small business where I landed a job in channel sales and discovered a passion for partnerships. I later applied to business school to pivot my career into a larger company with more career potential. Got rejected at Stanford, accept at UMichigan.
My grandmother& #39;s advice was calling me to start a business, but I wanted more experience and mentorship first. Amazon was the hottest start-up in the world, and I desperately wanted to work there. But they didn& #39;t recruit from Michigan...
I didn& #39;t have much of a network, but I worked every angle I could find. My parents& #39; friends& #39; daughter& #39;s boyfriend was a few years ahead of me in his career, I went to him for advice. When I learned one of his b-school classmates Andy Jassy was at Amazon, I asked for an intro.
Andy was a marketing manager at the time (now CEO of AWS). He agreed to meet me for 30 minutes and I flew to Seattle to see him over xmas break. He told me to come back in April to check on MBA internships. In the meantime, I kept working my network.
I told everyone I knew at Michigan that I wanted to work at Amazon. One day someone randomly mentioned that a UMichigan alum Ram Shriram had recently joined there as SVP of Biz Dev. Ding ding ding! I found his email address and sent Ram a cold email asking for an internship.
2 hours after I sent the email, Ram called me on the phone (I& #39;ll never forget that call). He said they had been talking about MBA internships that morning. I was already scheduled to interview with Andy Jassy& #39;s marketing team, and Ram invited me to meet with his team as well
Amazon was busting at the seams, some of my interviews took place in stairwells and sidewalks. I didn& #39;t ultimately get a job offer from the marketing team, but I did get one from Biz Dev. A month later I moved to Seattle with my wife and young child in tow.
3 weeks after I started my internship, my manager told me they were going to hire someone full-time for my role after I left, and he wanted to offer the job to me. I decided I would learn more by staying at Amazon than in a 2nd-year of b-school, and I dropped out to take the job.
When I told Ram I was dropping out of school to stay on full-time, he said "your parents will never forgive me." My parents were a bit disappointed, but they supported my decision and helped me and my young family get settled in Seattle.
Shortly after I accepted the full-time offer, a VP in the Biz Dev group pulled me aside to say how much he admired my courage, and we discussed someday starting a company together. 7 years later, Owen Van Natta joined Facebook as COO and recruited me to run Biz Dev.
I hustled for that summer job at Amazon, and it sent me down a fortuitous career path over the next 20 years. I learned from insanely smart people and got lucky again and again. I never did work for myself, but my grandmother inspired me to take risks and think like an owner.
