In every aspect of life, change is always constant. The job market has taken an unexpected turn in the last decade. This has led to remote and hybrid working, virtual conferences, and increased automation in many industries.  

The status quo has witnessed an irreversible shift, compelling industries, and their workforce to adapt and be adaptable. Amazon is one of the pioneer organizations committed to supporting employee career advancements and growth opportunities through different upskilling and mentorship programs.  

The company has set aside around $1.2 billion to facilitate its Upskilling 2025 pledge to expand workers’ upskilling opportunities, setting the stage for similar organizations to follow suit. As an Amazon employee, you can make career changes or advancements through the many Amazon training and upskilling opportunities offered as part of the company’s apprenticeship or partnerships with platforms like Pathstream.  

In this article, we explore how upskilling through Amazon career advancement can help you reach your career goals and the benefits it can bring. 

Table of contents

Importance of upskilling for career growth

Benefits of continuous learning within Amazon

Understanding Amazon’s corporate culture and values

Overview of the various career paths available at Amazon

How to determine which Amazon career path is right for you?

How to identify the skills you need to advance at Amazon?

Tips for Developing Amazon skills and becoming a stronger candidate for promotion

Example of  Amazon employees just like you who achieved career advancement with the help of Amazon and Pathstream

How Pathstream can help you advance your career at Amazon

Importance of upskilling for career growth

In a world that’s entirely dependent on technology, there’s no predicting how the evolution of these technologies can radically disrupt the job market.  

What’s apparent, however, is the challenge most organizations face in their quest to keep up with the pace of digital transformations.  

It presents technology as a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it brings immense business opportunities. On the other hand, it presents new pitfalls like skill gaps for the current workforce. 

A report by Gartner HR Research seems to agree with this. It showed that companies would need to equip at least 58% of their existing workforce with new skill sets if they are to be productive and impactful in their roles in the future.

To address this widening skills gap, organizations must include upskilling as one of their core employee retention initiatives to empower employees to capitalize on training opportunities across departments.  

Such initiatives must emphasize learning new skills, attaining new and exciting capabilities, and staying ahead of the competition.

 

Benefits of continuous learning within Amazon

The advantage of continuous learning within Amazon cuts both ways: employers and employees stand to gain tremendously.

For example, a study by Amazon and Workplace Intelligence conducted across different industries and companies, including 3,000 U.S. employees, reported that most focus on development opportunities.

Of these, a significant majority are Gen Z and millennial employees, three-quarters of which would be quick to quit their jobs if their companies were not keen on upskilling support or career mobility options.

That demonstrates how today’s job market is highly employee-driven. No other time has witnessed such a level of empowerment enjoyed by employees as it is now.

Today, workers can move on to the next employer genuinely committed to their long-term career goals and ambitions.

And companies that acknowledge this and are ready to provide a high level of support ranging from skills development to learning opportunities and upskilling programs stand to win the battle for top talent.

So what benefits can employers and employees enjoy from continuous learning within Amazon?

  • Increased employee retention
  • Cost savings
  • Attracts new talent
  • Boosts morale

 

development programs boost employee morale

 

Understanding Amazon’s corporate culture and values

Amazon has a set of several principles that guides its philosophy and operations, but four of them stand out from the rest.

They include customer obsession as opposed to focusing on competitors, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking.

Amazon strives to be Earth’s best company, employing a customer-centric approach and the safest workplace.

Through its four leadership principles and 15 core values, the company demonstrates its commitment to a customer-centric leadership approach and decision-making. These principles and values are known as:

  • Customer Obsession
  • Ownership
  • Invent & Simplify
  • You are Right, A lot
  • Learn and Be Curious
  • Hire and Develop the Best
  • Insist on the Highest Standards
  • Think Big
  • Bias for Action
  • Frugality
  • Earn Trust
  • Dive Deep
  • Have Backbone; Disagree & Commit
  • Deliver Results
  • Strive to be Earth’s Best Employer

Amazon’s leadership principles aim to guide the actions and decisions at the leadership level. Each principle highlights which decisions employees should take under various circumstances.

These principles allow leaders to raise the bar for performance when hiring and promoting. They’re able to identify and reward exceptional talent through internal promotions. These principles also allow leaders to mentor and coach future leaders and create avenues for development, like career choices.

One of Amazon’s core values impacting career advancements is the Hire and Develop the Best principle. The company expects its leaders to focus on hiring the best talent, with every new hire expected to raise the performance bar.

In addition, each successive promotion allows leaders to elevate their team’s overall capabilities mentoring employees to become exceptional performers.

Amazon also provides a Career Choice program where 95% of all tuition for in-demand courses is prepaid.

Finally, Amazon strives to encourage employees to incorporate initiatives and ideas into their roles as part of its open and inclusive culture, which promotes diversity and inclusion of all its employees.

Overview of the various career paths available at Amazon

Amazon is one of the largest global employers offering various employment opportunities, from corporate to technical, operations, and logistics roles.

Such roles can be classified as official and warehouse-based. A few examples include:

Corporate Roles 

  • Strategic Customer Engagements (SCE)
  • Senior Account Manager at Amazon International Seller Services (ISS)
  • Senior Corp Development Manager
  • Senior Program Manager in charge of Billing Operations and Reconciliation Program

Technical Roles 

  • Senior Software Engineering at Amazon
  • Device Software Engineering
  • SW Automation Test Engineer
  • AWS Software Development Engineer, Internet Automation and Optimization
  • Software Development Engineer – Music Technology, Machine Learning
  • ICQA Data Analyst
  • Catalog Manager, Business Ops
  • Business Operations Lead
  • Salesforce Administrator

Operations and Logistics Roles

  • Advanced Manufacturing
  • Commodity Managers (Technical and Business)
  • Forward and Reverse Logistics
  • Operations Program Managers
  • Product Quality Managers
  • Prototype Lab Technicians
  • Quality Engineering Managers
  • Supply Chain Managers
  • Supplier Quality Management

Remote and Flexible Work Opportunities 

  • Warehouse Associate
  • Customer service

 

How to Determine Which Amazon Career Path is Right for You

One of the best things about being an Amazon employee is the unique opportunity to develop your career path by completely controlling your development processes, job, and future. 

Having innovative ideas and initiatives will define which paths to explore, the opportunities you invest in, and their overall impact.  

Choosing from Amazon’s diverse pool of career options can be challenging. 

However, these tips can help you determine which Amazon career path to take: 

  • Outline your career goals plan: Know from the onset what you want to do, how you want to get there, and what role or position you want to hold within a specific time. In short, have a road map of where you want to be in 5-10 years. 
  • Compare job requirements to your education: Evaluate your educational level and qualifications before upskilling or reskilling. Determine if your current qualifications meet the requirements for the job you’re eyeing or if you’ll need to up your capabilities to meet the cut.
  • Assess your current skill set: Do you have the skill set for the job, or can you acquire them through continuous learning?
  • Note your interests and passions: These should align with what you want to do with your life. You will only be impactful in your role if you enjoy what you’re doing.
  • Identify your core values: Your values and beliefs should match the company or the role you want to undertake. You won’t make a significant contribution without a conflict of interest.  
  • Consider your paycheck needs: Aim for a role that will fulfill your long-term career objectives and provide high-income potential. No matter how passionate you are about your job, you need the money at the end of the day.  
  • Conduct informational interviews with Amazon employees: Interacting with employees gives you a broader perspective on various career paths and helps inform your decisions.  
  • Utilize internal career resources and tools like the Amazon Web Service and Pathstream. 

Identifying the skills needed to advance at Amazon

You need exceptional skills as a job seeker looking to be part of the world’s leading online e-commerce brand. Since several jobs are available at Amazon, your resume should feature various skill sets for related roles to improve your chances of getting hired or promoted.

For example, if you’re looking for a role as a Business Ops Lead, you need the following skills:

  • Sales
  • CRM knowledge
  • Ability to manage a sales pipeline
  • Ability to develop performance dashboards for the sales team
  • Customer service
  • Knowledge of data visualization tools
  • Teamwork
  • Motivation

Similarly, when seeking a position at an Amazon Warehouse and Fulfillment Center, your skill sets should include inventory management, order fulfillment, warehouse operations, material handling, shipping and logistics, and time management.

If you’re an aspiring Data Analyst, you should be able to develop a data collection process and data management systems. You should also have advanced technical skills like designing queries and generating reports in Excel.

Learn more about what a data analyst does by watching this short video:

 

Tips for developing Amazon skills and becoming a stronger candidate for promotion

The criteria for promotion at Amazon are thorough and detailed. However, it’s pegged on consistency. As an employee, you must demonstrate consistent next-level performance, which shows you can operate at the level you’d be promoted to.

This demonstration should be at par with the company’s promotional requirements. The following tips can best support your chances of a much-deserved promotion.

  • Leverage Amazon-sponsored upskilling courses through Pathstream.
  • Seek mentorship and networking opportunities within the company
  • Set SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) goals for skill development

 

 

Examples of successful career advancement stories at Amazon & Pathstream

One of Amazon’s commendable initiatives is giving back to communities and employees through its robust upskilling programs.

These programs have seen many people from diverse career backgrounds develop new skills that would shape their careers and life.

Below are the testimonials from hourly employees who have capitalized on Amazon’s training programs to excel in various professional fields.

Sylvia Thomas: Changing career tracks from fulfillment center to supply chain management

When the pandemic halted Sylvia’s film career, she began to look at opportunities that her second job Amazon offered. Sylvia enrolled in Pathstream’s Data Analytics Certificate Program for free using her Career Choice benefits with Amazon.

With persistent effort and instructor support, she mastered data analysis basics and applied these skills in her supply chain role at Amazon, significantly improving efficiency.

Pathstream’s program didn’t just enhance Sylvia’s technical skills; it reshaped her career aspirations. Career coaches helped her articulate her skills and experiences effectively during interviews, facilitating her transition into a Freight Operations Clerk role at UPS.

Today, she’s passionate about integrating data analytics into supply chain management and aims for continued growth in her field.

Yaimara Reid, from Process Assistant to Sales at Liberty Mutual

Struggling to balance work and family, Yaimara Reid Hechavarria, an Amazon employee, decided to take control of her career. As a process assistant at an Amazon fulfillment center, her demanding shifts left little time for her young children. Exploring Amazon’s Career Choice Program, Yaimara discovered Pathstream’s Sales Operations Certificate Program and saw a path to a better work-life balance.

“The Sales Operations Certificate and Pathstream’s career services played a pivotal role in my journey. They helped me build a marketable resume and stay motivated,” said Yaimara.

Her dedication paid off when she landed a job at Liberty Mutual after six months. The program’s hands-on sales projects and comprehensive services, including career coaching and resume building, were key to her successful transition.

Yaimara urges her fellow Amazonians to seize the opportunity offered by the Career Choice Program. “Using Career Choice to enroll and complete a Pathstream program can help you secure a remote job with improved hours, better pay, and the career you’ve always wanted. You demonstrate your commitment to success, setting yourself apart from others,” she shared.

Yaimara’s success story is a testament to the power of determination and the resources available through Amazon’s Career Choice Program and Pathstream.

 

How Pathstream can help you advance your career at Amazon?

Amazon is trying to live up to its core values of becoming the world’s best company and the safest place to work. We see this manifested in the retail giant’s relentless pursuit of success for its employees and communities through its life-changing upskilling programs. 

As we have seen, these programs benefit employees and organizations in many impactful ways.

As an employee, you stand to gain tremendously by taking advantage of Amazon’s career advancement offered by Pathstream. Amazon partnered with Pathstream to help workers upskill into higher-paying jobs. 

 

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