5 Years at Amazon - Drinking from the Garden Hose!

 

Milestones are a big deal at Amazon and I've hit an exciting one! Five years under my belt working for Amazon Web Services! That means I got this beautiful yellow tenure border around my employee badge, la de da. My employment has been in two strides, so I am what some refer to as a 'boomerang'. I joined AWS in August of 2014, decided to take a personal sabbatical in April 2019, then worked for a healthcare tech startup in 2020, then made my return to AWS in May 2021. AMZN stock was worth around $300 a share back in late summer 2014 when I moved to Seattle with no friends or family, to take a job in this new cloud business the technology world was buzzing about. Back in those days I put in A LOT of hours at conference booths, all over the United States representing AWS in front of tech conference attendees, who largely were still more familiar with Amazon.com. It was a lot of fun engaging with people who would do a double take of the Amazon Web Services booth and approach me with a quizzical look and usually exclaim 1 of 2 things - "My wife spends all our money on Amazon!" or "What is Amazon doing at a technology conference? Selling text books?" Seriously! It happened all the time.  And we got to blow people's minds by explaining cloud to them for the first time ever! Now, AWS has been named the leader in cloud computing by Gartner for the 11th year in a row - as long as the title has existed. Many more people are familiar with our side of the business today maybe from their own experience building web, mobile or business applications on AWS, or from the various professional sports leagues game data analytical features advertised as built on AWS during live broadcasting.

A very common adage when you start a new job in the tech world (maybe other worlds, this is the only world I've been hired in) is "There's so much to learn! I'm drinking from the fire hose!" - Which, when you actually visualize this hyperbolic description of your on-boarding experience… it's alarming! SO, I started my new job back at AWS telling myself "I'm drinking from the garden hose!" - see? Much better imagery. Personally, I'm transported back to summers in the South digging in the garden with my Mom and Grandad. If you don't have nostalgic memories tied to the sensation of drinking from a garden hose, I highly recommend you go make that happen for yourself. It's a special experience!


Currently Reading: 

An Unquiet Mind by Dr. Kay Redfield Jamison 

The Suspect by Kent Alexander   

The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer 

Just Read:

This is Your Mind on Plants by Michael Pollan

Thrive by Arianna Huffington 

-MaddyMo

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