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Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close

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Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close

#11

Post by saosebastiao »

chollida1 wrote: post #4

Have a look here at their MBA landing page. https://www.amazon.jobs/team/university-mba-graduate I know that some people love to hate on MBA's but a couple of things: - Amazon is a pretty data driven company, if MBA's provided no value, or negative value as some HN's readers seem to think, they wouldn't be hiring them. - Jeff Bezos worked for a well known hedge fund before amazon, he's no stranger to having MBA's aro…

> Amazon is a pretty data driven company, if MBA's provided no value, or negative value as some HN's readers seem to think, they wouldn't be hiring them.

Having been the guy whose job it was to collect, analyze, and present data to these MBAs, I can honestly say that 99% of them are dead weight for their analytic capabilities.

MBAs do much better at managing people. And by that, I mean only 70% of them are dead weight. The other 30% were pretty great and are probably the reason I'm not in jail for arson right now.

Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close

#12

Post by sulam »

Amazon is a company that clearly lets the strategists actually implement their strategies. That's working reasonably well for them (with some obvious flops, but more than enough success to make up for it and then some).

It's no surprise MBAs want to go there. Strategy jobs are some of the most hotly sought after roles -- my wife went to a top tier MBA program and I regularly have to hang out with people she want to school with. They all either have strategy roles or wish they did (minus the one person in finance -- in the SF Bay Area that's just not as cool as strategy). They also tend (with exceptions) to have egos bigger than big, which seems to line up nicely with thinking that the right job for you is to have the ideas while other people implement them. :)

Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close

#13

Post by saosebastiao »

mbesto wrote: post #6

My understanding (from multiple sources) is that culturally speaking, you basically need an advanced degree (MBA, Exec MBA, etc) in order to reach a certain level of management at Amazon.

Not entirely true. I met a few former Brigadier and Major Generals at high levels within amazon (you can consider that snark if you want).

There's still a wall though at the VP/SVP level where advanced degrees basically become meaningless. You either need to be close friends/confidants with every single person above you (and by that, I mean across the board, not just direct reports), or you need to come from a C-level position from some other public company.

Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close

#15

Post by rothbardrand »

sulam wrote: post #12

Amazon is a company that clearly lets the strategists actually implement their strategies. That's working reasonably well for them (with some obvious flops, but more than enough success to make up for it and then some). It's no surprise MBAs want to go there. Strategy jobs are some of the most hotly sought after roles -- my wife went to a top tier MBA program and I regularly have to hang out with people she want to s…

This is exactly why Amazon is a horrific place to work for engineers and why they are such a complete failure with products.... for every success Amazon has about a hundred failures (Amazon catalogs online, amazon moving listings, A9, etc.) Amazon throws money at ideas and throws ideas against the wall to see what sticks.

AWS was launched as a fraud (using no amazon infrastructure at the time, they claimed it was built on the reliable services of Amazon.com) and became a success.... so long as you have unlimited investor money to burn you can eventually be successful this way.

But it is a terrible place to work, because outside of the AWS organization you end up working for idiots.

Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close

#16

Post by rothbardrand »

chollida1 wrote: post #4

Have a look here at their MBA landing page. https://www.amazon.jobs/team/university-mba-graduate I know that some people love to hate on MBA's but a couple of things: - Amazon is a pretty data driven company, if MBA's provided no value, or negative value as some HN's readers seem to think, they wouldn't be hiring them. - Jeff Bezos worked for a well known hedge fund before amazon, he's no stranger to having MBA's aro…

Amazon is not a data driven company. Like most "data driven" companies they use the data when it confirms their notations when it doesn't they do what they want anyway and in amazon this is called "bias for action". It doesn't matter how many people you abuse (also favored at amazon) it's all about how you play the political game.

Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close

#17

Post by hkmurakami »

saosebastiao wrote: post #11
chollida1 wrote: post #4

Have a look here at their MBA landing page. https://www.amazon.jobs/team/university-mba-graduate I know that some people love to hate on MBA's but a couple of things: - Amazon is a pretty data driven company, if MBA's provided no value, or negative value as some HN's readers seem to think, they wouldn't be hiring them. - Jeff Bezos worked for a well known hedge fund before amazon, he's no stranger to having MBA's aro…

> Amazon is a pretty data driven company, if MBA's provided no value, or negative value as some HN's readers seem to think, they wouldn't be hiring them. Having been the guy whose job it was to collect, analyze, and present data to these MBAs, I can honestly say that 99% of them are dead weight for their analytic capabilities. MBAs do much better at managing people. And by that, I mean only 70% of them are dead weigh…

OP isn't saying MBAs are good at making data driven decisions. He's saying Amazon is good at making data driven decisions and that their decision to continue hiring MBAs is backed up by their data analysis.

Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close

#19

Post by gcb0 »

hkmurakami wrote: post #17
saosebastiao wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Amazon is a pretty data driven company, if MBA's provided no value, or negative value as some HN's readers seem to think, they wouldn't be hiring them. Having been the guy whose job it was to collect, analyze, and present data to these MBAs, I can honestly say that 99% of them are dead weight for their analytic capabilities. MBAs do much better at managing people. And by that, I mean only 70% of them are dead weigh…

OP isn't saying MBAs are good at making data driven decisions. He's saying Amazon is good at making data driven decisions and that their decision to continue hiring MBAs is backed up by their data analysis.

you're defending someone who dreamed up something ("Amazon is good at data driven decisions") versus someone presenting a fact ("Amazon does lots of dumb things but got very lucky so far"). why?
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