Founded in a garage in Bellevue, Washington, in 1994, Amazon, originally named "Cadabra," quickly changed its name to the now-iconic title to avoid a reputational blunder by associating with "cadaver."
Jeff Bezos, a Princeton graduate, started the venture by selling books online, marking the dawn of the e-commerce behemoth.
In this deep dive into Amazon as an Employer for MBA programs, we cover:
• From Loss to Win – Amazon’s Growth Story
• Industry you are likely to Work at Amazon
• Writing Culture
• Customer First - Backward Problem Solving
• Amazon and MBA Recruitment – Challenges
• Why do MBAs prefer Product Manager roles at Amazon?
From Loss to Win – Amazon’s Growth Story
Amazon's early years were characterized by losses, but a pivotal shift occurred in 1996 when quarterly revenues surged from $4.2 million to $8.5 million, coupled with a $100,000 reduction in losses.
The financial transformation set the stage for Amazon's trajectory toward success.
In 2000, Amazon pursued its ambition to be the premier online shopping destination by inviting third-party sellers onto its platform. This strategic move, where Amazon managed logistics for independent retailers, burgeoned into a segment constituting around 60% of the company's sales by 2024.
Over its transformative journey, Amazon's revenue trajectory illustrates remarkable growth. In 1995, the e-commerce giant had a modest $511,000 in revenue, evolving into a retail powerhouse with a staggering $590.74 billion in 2024 - a 12.5% year-over-year growth.
See Revenue from 1995-2023 in F1GMAT Premium’s Employer Series on Amazon
Industry you are likely to Work at Amazon
Retail operations constitute the majority, contributing 80% of revenue, followed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) at 10%-15%, advertising services at 5%, and other segments in the Entertainment industry representing 5% of the revenue share.
Amazon's international footprint is mainly distributed to Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Occasionally, I have observed clients obsessing over European schools for their low cost, especially schools in Germany.
If your M7 or T20 US MBA program dream doesn’t work out, pursuing an MBA from Germany or the UK, where 25-30% of non-AWS sales originate, would be a strategic career choice to enter non-AWS products and services while saving close to $100,000 to $150,000 in MBA costs.
Writing Culture
I would be the first to object to applicants embracing bots for writing essays. These are not hacks for an efficient life. You are risking losing a key skill in building a case and expressing ideas that often can’t be expressed in short meetings/calls or spoon-fed by an AI bot.
Jeff Bezos agrees, too, on the philosophy of writing as a thinking tool.
At Amazon in a meeting, you are expected to present a written memo where the attendees read them in unified silence. And these are not the regular shorthand corporate summaries but expanded narratives that has enough adjectives to express passion for a new product or a strategic direction.
Writing an impressive memo is unlikely to be done overnight just as MBA Essays can’t be pulled off with just a day’s writing. The poorly structured narrative or copy-cat templates is visible for any experienced editors/consultants. A similar realization has held Bezo’s belief in Amazon’s writing culture, where a brilliant memo can’t be manifested without feedback and review from colleagues.
The whole process takes 3-5 days to find a clarity in vision that is appreciated by your peers at Amazon.
Customer First - Backward Problem Solving
The expensive break from delivering products to training to be a better writer is from obsessing over what customer wants. The thought is ingrained in each step with a backward problem-solving mantra where the employee must make a pitch for the imagined PR release of the product they are proposing.
By imagining the value proposition, the team is deeply aware of the essential qualities that make the product valuable and addresses common questions on usability, value, and application to potential customers.
Amazon and MBA Recruitment – Challenges
Despite all the perks of working at Amazon – where the salary offered to schools where Amazon frequents is 15-20% higher, the Technology industry has been on a downward trend in the MBA market, with schools quickly pivoting to cling onto PE and IB recruiters.
Amazon also faced a challenge in 2022 when, for the first time in 10 years, the company posted a $2.7 billion loss in a decade. The net income of $30.4 billion was a saving grace in 2023, but by then, the career switchers from Technology in Business Schools began to explore FinTech and Venture Capital functions that were relatively faring better compared to the Technology industry.
The correlation between the job offers in 2022 and 2023 at Top 20 MBA programs with Amazon’s revenue is spooky to say the least.
The only schools that seemed to not get affected by Amazon’s hiring and spending freeze was MIT – a lesson all MBA applicants must take to heart when they shortlist M7 schools that fit their post-MBA goals.
The branding as schools for Engineers, Investment Bankers, PE, Retail or Healthcare professionals matter as these perspectives are often self-propagated by recruiters when decisions to pick select few talents in a downmarket comes to play.
Why do MBAs prefer Product Manager Roles at Amazon?
Finding a correlation with Amazon’s Product culture, Product Managers lead the pack with an $200,000 + salary and overseeing the development and strategy for 19 of Amazon's notable products and services.
The gap in remuneration between the Product Manager to the next Leadership Development, Program Manager, or Operations Manager role is $50,000 to $70,000.
And that gap limits any risk-taking from Top US MBA candidates splurging $230,000 to $300,000 on an MBA.
If you are eager to recruit with Amazon, be strategic with school choices. Our 2020 to current year analysis shows that 9 schools have maintained double digit representation in hires with 3 schools maintaining the 15-20 hiring rate. See the T20 MBA Hiring Trends for Amazon.
References
• F1GMAT Premium’s Salary Trends Analysis
• Writing Culture
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• Amazon Employer Series – F1GMAT Premium
