This past summer, BHP senior Josh Hu worked as a Leadership Operations Intern at Amazon.com in Reno, Nevada. Amazon.com is the world’s largest online retailer and the producer of the Kindle e-book reader.
How did you find out about your internship?
I am a big Amazon fan and at the Fall Career Expo, I stopped and talked to the recruiter to learn more about the different opportunities available at the company. Lucky for me, they said they had a Leadership Operations Intern position available for sophomores and juniors! After a short mini interview on the spot, they told me to drop my resume on McCombs OCR.
What do you think set you apart from other candidates and led to you getting the position over other candidates?
Before the interview, I talked to now BHP senior Karthik Ramachandran and my UBC parent Claire Krucik to learn more about their experiences as interns the previous summer. Going into the interview, I had a pretty good idea of what interns do on a daily basis. I think Amazon really values people who are open and willing to learn new things, and I definitely emphasized during the interview that while I may be young and not know as much as others, I was willing to work hard to learn as much as I could.
What were you doing for your internship?
The internship I did was in operations and supply chain. During the first week, all the interns went through Associate Week, where we learned how to do every single process at an Amazon facility and experienced what it’s like to be an associate. Throughout the summer, I shadowed area managers and Operations Managers, performed safety audits to make sure that associates were being safe, scheduled carrier appointment requests to bring freight into the facility, worked on different projects, and even led stand up meetings. I honestly learned so much!
What did you enjoy most from the experience?
The thing I enjoyed most from the experience was how I learned something new every single day. In addition, so many people at Amazon were happy to answer any questions that I had. There are many different challenges every day, but that’s what makes it so exciting! At Amazon, there are so many different people from different backgrounds. I really liked getting to know them and hearing their stories.
What were the key takeaways for you?
Give everyone a chance and as cliché as this sounds, don’t judge a book by its cover. I have met people at Amazon who attended Harvard Business School as well as people who only have a high school education. And a lot of times, the person with the high school education knows way more than the person with the MBA from Harvard. People definitely surprise you. Take time to get to know others and listen to their stories.
Be able to deal with uncertainty. Not everything will go as planned, and when faced with any challenge, it is important to take a deep breath and make the decision that you believe to be right at that moment. Even if it is the wrong decision, life goes on, and you learn from your mistakes. Having strong Excel skills can also help you immensely. MIS 301H is definitely useful, and knowing how to write Macros will help you even more!
How do you think this internship will help you with your future career goals?
I think that having a background in operations can help you immensely in finance and accounting careers, which is the career path I am leaning towards. I also learned a lot about process improvement during this internship, which is something that can be applied to any job.