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According to Trip, Ben Carvalho is the one that got away. When Ben was interested in a career switch within corporate, he ran into some issues with the way the corporate hierarchy was structured. In this week’s episode, he details his experience — everything from having to pay out-of-pocket to visit Amazon’s facilities in a different state to having to quit, wait a period of time, and reapply for the job he wanted.
Key Takeaways
Ben left Amazon to become a doctor and is currently in med school.
A little bit about Ben and his interest in UX design.
Ben’s hometown is more rural and agriculturally focused. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity for cognitive scientists there. However, Amazon came into town.
Ben shares how he became a warehouse associate at Amazon, and then later an Operations Area Manager, where he managed close to 200 employees.
It was a good job, but Ben did not graduate college to be a manager at a warehouse.
Since Amazon is so large, Ben wanted to switch career fields within the company to pursue what he studied. He had an interest in user experience and looked for openings at Amazon.
What is “user experience” and what does that entail? Larry explains.
What do people at Amazon look for in a UX designer? Trip explains.
Ben reached out to an Amazon hiring manager who loved the idea and wanted Ben to shadow the UX team in Seattle. How did Ben’s logistic managers take this news?
Larry used to interview students in different parts of the world and his company would always pay for them to come. Seems strange Amazon wouldn’t want to do the same for an internal employee.
Trip explains what ‘Frupid’ means.
So much money gets spent on finding new talent, but why not dig into your own pool and cultivate the talent you already have (and who already understands your company culture)?
Trip really liked Ben’s ambition and really pushed for Amazon to hire him, but due to bureaucracy, they couldn’t make it happen. What actually happened behind the scenes?
Now Ben is going to medical school. How has his learning differed due to the pandemic?
Switching careers takes a lot of courage and vision.
The good news to a story like Ben’s is that your career journey doesn’t have to be so linear. All three of your co-hosts have gone through similar career transitions the way Ben has.
Career switchers might get a bad rep for being indecisive, but that’s not true. They have diverse experience that they can incorporate into your segment that no one else has.
Take risks on people that have an outside perspective and a different skill set; you will see value from it.
Resources
Thebraveworkforce.com (http://thebraveworkforce.com/)
Bravenewcompanies.com (http://bravenewcompanies.com/)
Email Anna: Anna@Thebraveworkforce.com (mailto:Anna@Thebraveworkforce.com)
Ben on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjcarva/) Special Guest: Benjamin Carvalho.

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