Today marks my three-year anniversary of working at Amazon. Over these years, I’ve been lucky to meet some really cool and smart people. Some have become friends that I plan to stay connected with even after I move on from Amazon. In this letter, I want to reflect on my experience identifying the kind of people I enjoy not only working with but also spending time with in general.
When I think about the people I’ll stay in touch with, a common thread is mutual respect and a shared desire to help each other succeed. While Amazon’s competitive environment can make you feel like you are being compared to each other (because you are), I’ve found that my favorite people to work with are those who strive to succeed together. Honestly, I think the company could do more to encourage this type of collaboration. Sometimes I feel that the competitive environment discourages teamwork and lowers productivity. But that’s a topic for another day.
Being early in my career, I’ve gravitated toward people who are willing to teach and mentor me. I am lucky to have found many mentors, and I attribute most of my learning and career growth to them. Though I haven’t had many opportunities to mentor others yet, it’s something I want to do. This trait of willingness to mentor others is similar to wanting to help each other succeed, but there is something extra about wanting to help people who are at an earlier stage in their career. Maybe it is just a good sign of character. I often find that when I am making a decision in my career, the people I enjoy working with are also people who I can reach out to for advice.
On a recent work trip, I met colleagues in person for the first time and spent time with them outside the office. I enjoyed working with them but also just being around them in general. I was thinking about it, and I think I was somehow able to tell that they were people who genuinely cared about each other’s work and lives in general. I don’t really know how I knew that, but I could somehow just tell. I think maybe it was the fact that we talked about things more than just work, and even when we were talking about work, everyone listened to and respected each other’s opinions. I hope to surround myself with more people who genuinely care about each other’s work and lives in general.
I guess my takeaway from these thoughts is that when I search for a new team or even new friends, I’ll try to look for these traits. While writing this, I kind of realized that many of my closest friends actually have these traits, even though I never consciously sought them out. I’ve simply tried to spend more time around the people I enjoy being around. One of the cool things about writing these newsletters is realizations like this. I didn’t really ever think about the qualities I like in friends, but now that I have to write something each week, it has made me realize that. Maybe now that I know what I tend to like in a friend, I will find some more. Most (if not all) of you guys are my friends, so thanks for your friendship, and let’s do some more fun things. Have a good rest of the weekend, and I always appreciate your responses!