
My First 12 Years at Amazon.com - jeffbarr
http://jeff-barr.com/2014/08/19/my-first-12-years-at-amazon-dot-com/
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simonebrunozzi
I had the privilege to work at Amazon for 6 years, and Jeff Barr was my first
manager.

I convinced him to hire me through Second Life - read the full story here:
[http://brunozzi.com/2008/05/22/how-i-got-hired-by-
amazoncom/](http://brunozzi.com/2008/05/22/how-i-got-hired-by-amazoncom/)

Jeff, congrats for this achievement! Looking forward to a 15 years anniversary
soon :)

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jeffbarr
Managing is definitely not my best skill; thanks for putting up with me.

We had some great times in Second Life. I wish we had figured out a better way
to use it to our advantage.

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smacktoward
The description of the State of Web Services circa 2002 is very true -- I was
trying (and failing, sigh) to convince my employer at the time, a data-
processing company, to move towards that model. The world needed a solid
example to look at in order to really "get it," I think; and he's right, at
that time no good example really existed, just toy services, so it was a hard
sell. AWS eventually became that critical example, of course.

It's kind of astonishing in retrospect how far we've come in a very short
time.

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keithba
I remember being impressed with Jeff way back in those days when we all
thought SOAP was a good idea. His progress at AWS has great to watch.
Congrats!

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jeffbarr
Thanks!

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mp99e99
wow, great post thanks for sharing

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bellerocky
A little bit unrelated to the topic, but the writer comes across really
cheerful and to me it feels disingenuous. Is that just me? I don't think
there's anything in the world I could be that cheerful about, maybe a cure for
cancer or eradication of malaria, but I'm not sure I'd even smile, I would
just feel huge relief. Not that there's anything wrong with smiling, I wish
I'd smile more.

> It is hard to imagine another place to work that would be more fun, more
> rewarding, or that would allow me to have a greater impact on the world.

I could see working at Amazon being fun, and you could have a big impact for
better or for worse. I think maybe this a problem I have, but I get really
suspicious when it feels like someone has drunk the Kool-aid, when someone
comes across as an uncritical cheerleader for some large corporation, product
or organization. There always has to be a touch of cynicism or self-
reflection, but this guy is like it's best day ever every day at Amazon. One
does have to reach much to come up with reasonable criticisms of Amazon.

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jeffbarr
I am a positive and cheerful person! In fact, when my brain snapped in to gear
at around 4 AM, I started to outline the post in my head and went downstairs
to write it before 4:30. I think that it is important to realize that there
are real people inside of companies, and that we have thoughts and minds of
our own.

We are a frugal company and there is definitely no free Kool-Aid. I gave up
sugar on April 1 and wouldn't drink it anyway (but that's another blog post).

There are plenty of things that I could point to and say "I don't like this,"
or "that could be better" but that wasn't really my objective. There are a lot
of different ways to organize and run a company.

I have worked at a ton of difference places in my life. Some big, some small.
I have been my own boss for for a while. I have had awful colleagues and
awesome ones. When all is said and done, it is a real privilege to be able to
work with bright, energetic people.

