After 11 years in e-commerce, I quit. Quit to be a corrections officer at Rikers
By John Aspinall ✱ · March 4, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
After 11 years in e-commerce, I quit.
Quit to be a corrections officer at Rikers Island.
Not a joke. Not a metaphor.
I went from managing 18-person teams, negotiating vendor deals, and building Amazon FBA operations to processing inmates on one of the most notorious jail complexes in the country.
People ask me why.
Honestly?
⤷ I needed something completely different.
And I got it.
3 years at Rikers teaches you one thing above everything else:
Read people in seconds or pay for it.
Then COVID turned Rikers into one of the most dangerous facilities in America.
→ I got out.
And I had a decision to make.
Go back to what I knew.
Or walk away from e-commerce for good.
I came back.
But not as a seller.
I came back as an operator in the agency space.
→ Canopy Management.
→ My Amazon Guy.
→ PickFu.
→ Trellis.
⤷ Now - Velocity Sellers.
Every role sharpened the same skill Rikers handed me.
Reading people.
What catches a shopper's eye in 0.3 seconds on a search results page.
What makes them trust a product they've never touched.
What makes them click instead of scroll.
The difference between a hero image that converts at 8% and one that converts at 15% isn't Photoshop skill.
It's understanding human behavior under pressure.
An inmate sizing you up.
A shopper deciding in a split second.
Different stakes.
⤷ Same psychology.
20 years in e-commerce.
50,000+ listings reviewed.
14,000+ hero images optimized.
And a 3-year detour through the NYC jail system that nobody plans for on their LinkedIn profile.
(Even though I PURPOSELY do not have it on there.)
What's the most unexpected detour in your career that turned out to be your biggest advantage?