"Not a former Amazonian." Real feedback, on a real candidate. They wanted agency
By George Barnett Reid 👀 · September 30, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
"Not a former Amazonian."
Real feedback, on a real candidate. They wanted agency or brand experience instead.
Having worked inside Amazon was the mark against them.
I sort of get it. Ex-Amazon people can be process-heavy, and knowing how the machine works from the inside isn't the same as knowing how to sell on it. That's a real failure mode.
But look at what's being said.
We'd rather have someone who learned the platform from the outside, guessing at it, than someone who helped build the thing.
There are decent versions of this objection. "Have they ever owned a P&L" is a fair question. "Can they work without a 40-person team behind them" is a fair question.
"Were they at Amazon" isn't one of them.
Anyway. They're working somewhere else now.