Starting at Amazon

A few folks on my team have asked me how I feel about starting at Amazon. What differences in culture have been observed? What was it like in the other tribe? I’ve worked at Microsoft, Google, (a great startup named) PlanGrid, and now Amazon. All awesome companies, with very different personalities, strengths, and eccentricities.

Day 1 at Amazon started at the banana stand. Huge group started on my first day.

Jurassic Period

I joined Microsoft in 1995 during a fast paced, growth period. Imagine the feeling of your first job being exactly what you wanted to do, and at the #1 rated company in the world. It was magical, and being very new, heightened the feeling of excitement. Customers loved the products (minus the blue screens), the stock saw rapid growth, and the business looked limitless (at the time). The Rolling Stones even agreed to use their song for the Win95 launch, and I had a front row seat (caution: nerds dancing). It was a great time to start and there was a lot of opportunity to grow and innovate. 

Early Search Team 2005 with BillG. Folks in this photo include current: VPs at Salesforce, CTO at EA, COO at DoorDash, a successful writer, lots of entrepreneurs, and many current employees of Google, Amazon, and Facebook. I’m in the back, near the Llama.

Ancient Times

Fast forward 11 years when I started at Google. An emerging unicorn. They had gone public 2 years earlier, and in spite of general lack of a clear company strategy and culture chaos, was the new place to be if you loved software. I sat next to someone during orientation and asked what they were hired to do. He said, “I have no idea.” “That’s cool, neither do I,” I said. And things didn’t change. That person was Laszlo Bock (who ended up writing a book on Google culture). Google was always in a state of cultural evolution and change. There was a sense of doing what was right and good for the world. Back then, “Being Googley” was a thing. A very important thing. The people who didn’t adapt were “Un-Googley,” and didn’t last very long. 

Google Leadership Group 2008. Current and previous heads of Search, AI, Compilers (like Go), Infrastructure, Ads, Engineering, Jeff Dean is facing away from the camera, ...and I’m center-left and on the phone.

Recently

Then I joined PlanGrid in 2016. I was attracted to an incredibly passionate and focused emerging company. The team was in a rapid growth mode. We were moving quickly and putting in place changes that kept us nimble, but also allowed us to scale our product and teams. The culture was something like an extended family or a small commune. Being open and clear was important, since we didn’t have time to act like a big company. New employees were given a hardhat and introduced by music at the conclusion of their first week. We ran down a hallway with people lined up on both sides, cheering and high-fiving. There was a game night. Free Kombucha and cold brew - on tap. Lots of socializing. Lots of focus on the scaling the team and business. The company had a great feeling of ownership and empowerment: we were all owners. Everyone's role was very clear: do whatever it takes.

Vint Cerf (a father of the internet) casually hanging out with Team PlanGrid.

Yesterday

Which brings me to Amazon, where I've been for 4 months. The first thing that I’ve noticed about Amazon is that it shares many elements of all of the other companies. It’s now the new “most admired company.” Like my other employers, the culture is very important, and demonstrating that you are a part of the culture (Leadership Principles) is an expectation. There's a lot of focus on being a builder-owner. These concepts are deeply embedded in the company with the idea of “single threaded leadership.” The intention is to give people autonomy to drive ahead quickly. There is also a feeling of excitement with many initiatives happening in parallel. Like Google and Microsoft, I get surprised by new innovation regularly. Like PlanGrid, I feel like it’s up to me to get things done. This is what Amazon calls “Day 1.” You are expected to know our areas and to set high standards. It’s a fun culture, where you can be yourself.

Promoting our Hack-a-thon (“Mission to Mars”). I walked between Seattle buildings as if nothing was odd. #bepeculiar

Recycling

Microsoft, Google, PlanGrid and Amazon were similar in many ways as a new employee. They all had a strong sense of culture and purpose. They focused heavily on innovation and moving forward quickly. And most importantly, they all wanted me to build capability with high functioning teams.

The only big difference between them, was their corporate lifecycle at the time when I joined, and the emphasis given to leadership and team building at different stages of my career.

Lastly, I have one piece of advice. Always take advantage of the present: learn from the people around you, embrace the crazy, continue to adapt, do things that you've never done before, and stay curious.

You will be recycled, if you are lucky.