Amazon insider's eyes
Hi, Habrahabr!
The other day I decided to see what is on Habré about the Internet giant Amazon. I was very surprised when I discovered that among the many posts about all kinds of Kindle releases and news about Amazon Web Services, there is almost nothing about the company itself. That's why I decided to write this post in order to tell some interesting stories and tell about the culture of this company. The author of this post had the honor to spend at Amazon twice for three months as an intern (Software Development Engineer Intern), working on these projects in the Webstore and Kindle offices.
First of all, I should note that many of my friends from the post-Soviet space hear little about Amazon, and, probably, therefore, consider this company not so significant compared to Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and others. However, in the States, all of the above companies, including Amazon, belong to the highest echelon of the IT industry, and what company on this Olympus in the first place, and which in the second is the subjective judgment of the people working there. After all, at approximately the same (and extremely favorable) level of salaries in equivalent positions, people choose where to work based on geographical preferences and the unique culture that each company can offer. Rotation of employees within, as well as between top-tier companies, is also a very common phenomenon.
Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, WA. The company, as befits a decent Internet phenomenon, originated in the garage of the founder Jeff Bezos in the distant 95th. Initially, only books were sold on Amazon; when it went, CDs were added to the turnover. Slowly but surely, it became possible to buy clothes, furniture, video games, bicycles, saucepans in the Amazon - in a word, everything your heart desires. For eighteen years, the company changed several office buildings until it settled in the heart of Seattle, in the South Lake Union area. About a dozen posh office buildings that make up the Amazon campus belonged to Paul Allen for a long time, and only in 2012, Amazon became the full owner of this place, paying the previous owner more than a billion dollars.
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Surprisingly, a person walking in downtown Seattle will hardly notice that he wandered onto the Amazon campus - neither the logos on the buildings (like at Microsoft), nor the guards (like at Google), nor even the change of industrial context. As it turned out, it was so intended that the headquarters of the corporate giant would organically fit into the environment without too much pathos or pretentiousness.
Rather, about their names. Each campus building, in addition to its official address, has an alternative name: Fiona, Rufus, Obidos, Wainwright, Arizona, Day 1 (South and North), and so on. Each name, of course, has its own history. For example, Rufus was a four-legged friend of the chief engineer; by pressing his paw on the mouse, one of the Amazon systems was launched. Fiona is the codename of the first Kindle, which, in turn, was so named after the heroine of the Diamond Age novel, who was then read by the company's vice president. Wainwright is the surname of Amazon.com’s first customer. Day 1 comes from the favorite saying of the founder Jeff Bezos: “It's still day one” - he likes to repeat, saying that our technology, Amazon as a company, or even ourselves, is only at the very beginning of an exciting way.
Amazon’s three huge branches are Amazon Retail, Amazon Web Services, and Kindle. Retail is best known to the general public in America: it is Amazon.com's online store, Amazon Payments online payment service, Amazon Webstore platform, and much more than other branches that are not very connected with each other. AWS is most known to people on Habré, so I will not stop here. Let me just say that AWS originated from Amazon.com's ambitious desire to never fall (especially during the Christmas holidays), and later grew into a separate resource open for use outside of Amazon. Finally, Kindle is a kind of sentiment of a giant who started selling books from the garage.
The mission of the company is to be “the most customer-conscious company on earth”. Whether it is a return purchase or a broken device - Amazon always seeks to keep the customer happy, even at the cost of their own losses, firmly believing that customer confidence is the most expensive asset.
Another distinctive feature of the Amazon culture is thrift. Unlike Google and Facebook, Amazon does not offer free lunches, gyms, video games, and so on. Work desks of the first workers were made of doors. I told the first workers? Still, the Amazon countertops are raw doors.
In the Amazon, the division into so-called “two pizza teams” is practiced. This means that the size of the team is determined by the fact that everyone can feed two pizzas. That is an average of about eight people in a team. Thus, Amazon retains the feel of a start-up, while being a corporate giant.
Every day in the offices of the company can meet the four-legged Amazons. Dogs are welcome (yes, yes, right in the buildings themselves)! This dog-loving culture originates from Rufus, which was described above.
Here such a story turned out, about everything and about nothing. I hope that such a shallow and short story will stir up Habravchan’s interest in this company with a unique culture. If there is interest, I will try to talk about the workflow and projects that I have come across.
The other day I decided to see what is on Habré about the Internet giant Amazon. I was very surprised when I discovered that among the many posts about all kinds of Kindle releases and news about Amazon Web Services, there is almost nothing about the company itself. That's why I decided to write this post in order to tell some interesting stories and tell about the culture of this company. The author of this post had the honor to spend at Amazon twice for three months as an intern (Software Development Engineer Intern), working on these projects in the Webstore and Kindle offices.
Seattle Varzea Building, Amazon Webstore House and Fulfillment by Amazon
First of all, I should note that many of my friends from the post-Soviet space hear little about Amazon, and, probably, therefore, consider this company not so significant compared to Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and others. However, in the States, all of the above companies, including Amazon, belong to the highest echelon of the IT industry, and what company on this Olympus in the first place, and which in the second is the subjective judgment of the people working there. After all, at approximately the same (and extremely favorable) level of salaries in equivalent positions, people choose where to work based on geographical preferences and the unique culture that each company can offer. Rotation of employees within, as well as between top-tier companies, is also a very common phenomenon.
About location
Amazon is headquartered in Seattle, WA. The company, as befits a decent Internet phenomenon, originated in the garage of the founder Jeff Bezos in the distant 95th. Initially, only books were sold on Amazon; when it went, CDs were added to the turnover. Slowly but surely, it became possible to buy clothes, furniture, video games, bicycles, saucepans in the Amazon - in a word, everything your heart desires. For eighteen years, the company changed several office buildings until it settled in the heart of Seattle, in the South Lake Union area. About a dozen posh office buildings that make up the Amazon campus belonged to Paul Allen for a long time, and only in 2012, Amazon became the full owner of this place, paying the previous owner more than a billion dollars.
')
Surprisingly, a person walking in downtown Seattle will hardly notice that he wandered onto the Amazon campus - neither the logos on the buildings (like at Microsoft), nor the guards (like at Google), nor even the change of industrial context. As it turned out, it was so intended that the headquarters of the corporate giant would organically fit into the environment without too much pathos or pretentiousness.
About buildings
Rather, about their names. Each campus building, in addition to its official address, has an alternative name: Fiona, Rufus, Obidos, Wainwright, Arizona, Day 1 (South and North), and so on. Each name, of course, has its own history. For example, Rufus was a four-legged friend of the chief engineer; by pressing his paw on the mouse, one of the Amazon systems was launched. Fiona is the codename of the first Kindle, which, in turn, was so named after the heroine of the Diamond Age novel, who was then read by the company's vice president. Wainwright is the surname of Amazon.com’s first customer. Day 1 comes from the favorite saying of the founder Jeff Bezos: “It's still day one” - he likes to repeat, saying that our technology, Amazon as a company, or even ourselves, is only at the very beginning of an exciting way.
About the device and offices
Amazon’s three huge branches are Amazon Retail, Amazon Web Services, and Kindle. Retail is best known to the general public in America: it is Amazon.com's online store, Amazon Payments online payment service, Amazon Webstore platform, and much more than other branches that are not very connected with each other. AWS is most known to people on Habré, so I will not stop here. Let me just say that AWS originated from Amazon.com's ambitious desire to never fall (especially during the Christmas holidays), and later grew into a separate resource open for use outside of Amazon. Finally, Kindle is a kind of sentiment of a giant who started selling books from the garage.
About culture
The mission of the company is to be “the most customer-conscious company on earth”. Whether it is a return purchase or a broken device - Amazon always seeks to keep the customer happy, even at the cost of their own losses, firmly believing that customer confidence is the most expensive asset.
Another distinctive feature of the Amazon culture is thrift. Unlike Google and Facebook, Amazon does not offer free lunches, gyms, video games, and so on. Work desks of the first workers were made of doors. I told the first workers? Still, the Amazon countertops are raw doors.
In the Amazon, the division into so-called “two pizza teams” is practiced. This means that the size of the team is determined by the fact that everyone can feed two pizzas. That is an average of about eight people in a team. Thus, Amazon retains the feel of a start-up, while being a corporate giant.
Every day in the offices of the company can meet the four-legged Amazons. Dogs are welcome (yes, yes, right in the buildings themselves)! This dog-loving culture originates from Rufus, which was described above.
Other fan facts
- The smile on the company logo is also an arrow from A to Z, hinting that you can find everything from A to Z on Amazon.
- Initially, the company was called Cadabra (as in Abra-Kadabra), but was later changed as the original name was heard as cadaver , which means corpse .
- One of the company's top awards is called Just do it, and is a worn Nike sneaker. Awarded for the implementation of some seemingly impossible task.
- Another interesting reward is a toy desk-door (which was already mentioned above). Awarded for a vivid manifestation of thrift.
- Until 2012, the legendary (Meow) was present in the source code of the homepage. (Maybe until 2013, I do not know when and why they removed this cultural relic).
Here such a story turned out, about everything and about nothing. I hope that such a shallow and short story will stir up Habravchan’s interest in this company with a unique culture. If there is interest, I will try to talk about the workflow and projects that I have come across.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/196748/
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