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Three Things I Learned At Amazon That Prepared Me For A Career In Machine Learning

The culture at Amazon did more to prepare me for my job switch from game development to machine learning than any tutorial ever could.

Jesse Freeman
Towards Data Science

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Nick Youngson — Wooden Tile Amazon Image

I worked at Amazon for 5 years, leaving just a few days shy of receiving the coveted “yellow badge.” It’s probably important to note that the average tenure at Amazon is anywhere between one to two years. While there are lots of stories out there about working at Amazon, I felt like the culture there did more to prepare me for my job switch from game development to machine learning than any tutorial ever could.

If you don’t know much about Amazon’s culture, it’s worth a quick Google search. Moreover, while I could probably write an entire book covering my experience there, I thought I’d focus on three things I learned that prepared me for this new career move: being data-driven, writing 6-pagers, and being resourceful. Amazon has a set of tenets, called the leadership principles, that contribute to its unique culture. This same culture has allowed Amazon to grow since I joined back in 2014 exponentially. Here’s how I’ve applied some of this knowledge to my new adventure in machine learning.

Perhaps the most significant part…

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