In 2006, Kristi Coulter left her cozy but dull job for a promising new position at the fast-growing Amazon.com, but she never expected the soul-crushing pressure that would come with it. In no time she found the challenge and excitement she'd been craving—along with seven-day workweeks, lifeboat exercises, widespread burnout, and a culture driven largely by fear. But the chase, the visibility, and, let's face it, the stock options proved intoxicating, and so, for twelve years, she stayed—until she no longer recognized the face in the mirror or the mission she'd signed up for.
Coulter takes us through the ins, outs, ups and downs of her Amazon career, with roles ranging from senior manager in books and media merchandising to running Amazon Crossing ... Anyone looking for the inside scoop on Amazon will be in luck. Maddening stories and details about the company are abundant, if occasionally too plentiful — sometimes the focus on project minutiae bogs down the narrative ... Coulter’s writing is funny and warm, bringing to life a cast of people caught in the same corporate maelstrom ... By situating her experience in a larger feminist narrative, Coulter gives her story a more universal application.
A familiar story, Shakespearean in its inevitable turn toward tragedy as the author begins to lose herself in her desire to grow, succeed, and belong. But even as a past version of herself crumbles and transforms, Coulter’s voice is steady, compelling, and entirely her own.
