Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career

I don't want to give this book 5 stars, because it portrays the absolute worst of 21st century capitalism, enough to trigger me even though I left the workforce 10 months ago. Yet I can't not give it 5 stars. Exit Interview is brilliantly written, devastatingly incisive, and surprisingly humorous. Kristi Coulter spent 12 years working at Amazon in a variety of corporate positions. An overachiever since childhood, she viewed the offer of Senior Manager, Books & Media Merchandising an ideal way to grow professionally and escape the tedium of her current job. She had heard rumors that Amazon was a stressful workplace, but figured she was tough enough to handle anything.

By her second day, Kristi finds herself "drinking from the fire hose," show more with her direct reports complaining that they are stretched too thin and her bosses telling her to "find efficiencies" to meet their targets. Her colleagues reassure her they expect great things of her so often that she's ashamed to ask for help ("It feels like being Jesus, if everyone had a task list for Jesus written in acronyms he didn't understand"). Every workday includes at least six hours of meetings, and that's not counting the pre-meetings to strategize for the real meetings. Nobody knows what anyone else is doing, reorganizations happen frequently without warning, and the goals of one team are in direct conflict with another. Meanwhile, orders come down from CEO Jeff Bezos that are completely unrealistic and subject to change at his whim.

Through short, punchy chapters including a brutally honest (but fictional) job description, increasingly cynical aphorisms of professional advice, and illustrations of Amazon's "leadership principles" in their Orwellian reality ("Accomplish more with less" means laptops repaired with duct tape), Coulter helps the reader understand why she stayed for so long despite the toxic environment, how Amazon's touted "meritocracy" was just another word for sexism, and the series of events that motivated the girl who cried in kindergarten because she got one Not Satisfactory mark on a phonics worksheet to finally resign.

I haven't read a corporate takedown this powerful since Joshua Ferris' novel [b:Then We Came to the End|97782|Then We Came to the End|Joshua Ferris|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442800496l/97782._SY75_.jpg|2926759]. Our culture of prioritizing productivity above all, worshipping the wealthy, and demanding instant gratification has brought us to this place where Jeff Bezos can heap misery upon thousands in the name of "making customers happy." You can blame Kristi Coulter for being an "Amhole," but almost all of us are complicit. show less

Well this was a horror movie in book form, and I listened with the equivalent of my hands covering my eyes. I have no idea what the author actually did at Amazon as it was like listening to a foreign language for a lot of it, but I’m amazed she lasted for over a decade there. This was a strange listen as she seems to be missing some self-awareness or else she’s slightly gaslighting the reader into thinking that, but frankly I’m sure the stock options soothed some issues. But if this is how the tech world is (and it does sound like it’s all accurate—I won’t be arguing how much men can suck) then I’m grateful to not be in that world no matter how much money you can make.

This book gave me second-hand heartburn.