My 6 Year Amaversary! — Pt. 1

It’s my Amazon anniversary!

On Twitter people are posting “How it started/How it’s going” stories about love, careers, and more — and I’m loving it! I wanted to post one for my 6th Amazon anniversary, but I realized that I have way too many memories.

So instead I’m sharing my top six moments at Amazon to honor my six years at the company: three of my all-time favorite & three of my top “learning” moments, in a two-part posts.

Here are my top 3 all-time favorite moments:

#3 — Recruiting trip to Stockholm, Sweden

In my first role at Amazon, I was a Recruiting Coordinator (RC) where I spent my days scheduling interviews for tech and designer roles. Yep, it was as fun as it sounds. I got the opportunity to coordinate an international event in Stockholm. The Sweden trip was my first work-related travel experience and I decided to stay a few days after the recruiting event by myself and explore the city.

The RC role taught me organizational skills, the importance of doing the simple stuff right (thank you, Kobe), and the trip taught me a lot about myself. I quickly learned how to make decisions for myself and to trust my instincts.

Stockholm, Sweden

#2 — Joining the Black Employee Network (BEN) Corporate Board

I had been an Amazonian for 2 months and I didn’t have many work friends or Black co-workers when I was on my lunch break walking down Westlake Ave. in Seattle and passed a Chipotle when out of the restaurant came a Black woman, Sharon Chism, running towards me. Sharon quickly introduced herself, asked me for my email, and said she was the President of Amazon’s Black Employee Network (BEN). She invited me to BEN’s next meeting and this small yet sincere gesture changed my life.

I attended the meeting she invited me to and I immediately saw opportunities to serve and get involved. My first “official” volunteer leadership role with BEN was updating our internal communication page weekly. The role wasn’t flashy or visible, but it was needed. From there I went on to serve on the Board in various leadership roles such as co-leading our Community Relations committee to launching our first celebration of Black History Month to launching a storefront! 6 years later and I’m helping build out BEN in Amazon Logistics — we are building a great community across the country in our delivery stations.

I have met some of my best friends, mentors, sponsors, and countless allies through BEN. We started off as colleagues and ended up family. Building the organization with my BEN family has brought on many proud moments as we’ve made history, partnered with community organizations, created spaces for employees to feel safe and seen, hosted events for employees to network and launched business initiatives. I’ve had the time of my life at Amazon, all thanks to BEN.

Amazonians attending AfroTech 2018

If you’re new at your company, school, church, or neighborhood and looking to get plugged in — serve in a volunteer leadership role. Don’t just attend the events, but actually serve and I guarantee you that you will develop the close relationships with others that you’re looking for.

Without further ado, coming in at the top:

#1 — Winning the “Just Do It” award from Jeff Bezos!

I mean, it would be hard to top this one. For context, Amazon awards employees with the “Just Do It” Award who exemplify two core values: Innovation and Bias for Action. The Nike shoe that you see Jeff handing me, is a nod to simply “Just Do It”.

Just Do It Award — Amazon All Hands, March 2018

My co-founder Rovina Valashiya and I won the award for creating the Textures & Hues storefront, a one-stop shop for all your textured hair care essentials. What started off as an idea that I shared with others became a reality months later — we pitched the idea to senior leadership and were blessed to be able to bring the idea to life! We created a new customer shopping experience for Amazon based on hair texture — from relaxed to coily — including tutorials, product combinations, and accessories, all in a single place.

When we presented the idea, I was an account manager in the retail marketplace. Once we received the green light to build and launch Textures & Hues, I left my role to go lead the marketing for the storefront. I was scared, intimidated by the challenge, and inexperienced with launching a storefront, but my conviction that we were doing the necessary thing for the customer was stronger than my doubts.

Textures & Hues featured in Essence Magazine

A few months prior to us pitching the idea, I had just finishing reading Shonda Rhimes book, The Year of Yes (a must read), and decided that I would say yes over and over to the things that scared me.

There are a few lessons in this story:

1. Sometimes you have to do the job before you get it.

2. Remember to think about your customers through a holistic and inclusive lens.

3. Take it upon yourself to find the gaps in your operations or product offerings and then create a solution to close those gaps.

4. There is power in numbers and you don’t have to tackle big ideas alone — find your co-founder, build a team or get allies and sponsors who believe what you’re doing, and then work your a** off to bring the idea to life.

5. In hindsight, I wish I had taken better care of my mental health. There’s a season for everything — a season to pace yourself, to grind it out (pre-launch) and a season to grind harder (post-launch), but you have to take it upon yourself to look ahead and plan properly. I wish I had the foresight to see how busy we would be and had implemented small ways (taking breathing breaks, bullet journaling, short yoga sessions, etc.) to handle the fast pace and stress.

I’ve grown tremendously over the years and the experiences listed above are a reminder that it is possible for you to build your own career. I went from being a Coordinator to Business Development. It is possible for you to be a Black woman who leads with authenticity and bravery. It is possible to be a leader who prioritizes listening to and serving others.

For every peak in my Amazon career, there’s been an equal valley that’s produced my biggest learning lessons. One of my close friends often says to me, “there are only wins and learns. And when you learn, you’re winning. So all you do is win.” — I’ll be sharing my lessons learned in part 2!

Interviewing Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad at an Amazon ‘Fishbowl’ event

Until then remember to focus on doing the simple stuff right and saying yes to the things that scare you, over and over again.

-Kimberly Hill