A couple of cents:
1. Seattle is full of MBAs. A lot of them came out of the Microsoft system and obviously got scooped up by the Amazon system. And a fair share of them are "executive MBAs'. They had some non-business degree and went back to school as part of the management grooming process. UW has one of the top programs in the country for this.
2. A four year business degree on its own is a pretty lousy education for making any impactful business decisions. I would say that an MBA is worth more than the equal number of years in the sales trenches.
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
#22Have 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…
> negative value as some HN's readers seem to think, they wouldn't be hiring them. HN's negative criticism is that MBAs don't know how to start things, not necessarily that they can't run things.
Yes, it's a master's in business administration not business innovation.
Amazon is the perfect example of where MBAs can be extremely effective. The way Tim Cook helped Apple optimize and improve its operations a great example.
Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close
#23Haha, I live in Seattle and signed up for a dating app earlier this year. Over half of my matches were MBAs working at Amazon. So I have Bezos to thank for my dating life.
They are male or female? I hope this isn't an inappropriate question
Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close
#24> Amazon managers often prefer to employ MBAs over someone from a traditional background “because they value the deep analytics and fresh perspective of an MBA hire,” she wrote. Considering the "deep analytics" and "fresh perspective" MBA managers I worked with and saw everywhere at amazon, I'm surprised anybody who works there could say such a thing. Deep analytics means nothing more than squinting at reports that o…
As a former operations manager in multiple Amazon warehouses I completely agree. Out of all of the "Pathways" managers I worked with, maybe 10% could effectively manage their people, shift, and metrics. Most hid behind their laptop and prayed that someone else would take care of the "hard" problems like talking to someone not hitting their rate or making quality errors. Their "deep analytics" knowledge meant nothing when running an operation.
Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close
#25Haha, I live in Seattle and signed up for a dating app earlier this year. Over half of my matches were MBAs working at Amazon. So I have Bezos to thank for my dating life.
They are male or female? I hope this isn't an inappropriate question
Women. I was on Coffee Meets Bagel which really should have been named Coffee Meets MBAs from Amazon.
The women complained about too many male engineers from the local Seattle companies. I had the foresight to not joke that they were, perhaps, the female equivalent. But I didn't have the foresight to realize some of them knew each other. I learned more about dating this past few months than I had the previous 30+ years. Thanks again Jeff!
Edit: want to add one more part. My college roommate was on the same app and we shared a lot of the same matches. But they picked him over me literally every time because he's taller and better looking. :*(
Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
> negative value as some HN's readers seem to think, they wouldn't be hiring them. HN's negative criticism is that MBAs don't know how to start things, not necessarily that they can't run things.
Yes, it's a master's in business administration not business innovation . Amazon is the perfect example of where MBAs can be extremely effective. The way Tim Cook helped Apple optimize and improve its operations a great example.
The way Tim Cook Ballmerized Apple into a company coasting on its past success rather than continuing to innovate is a great example of the pitfalls.
Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close
#27I've taught many MBAs and I can attest to their disappointing analytical skills. However, a company like Amazon already has plenty of analytically skilled employees. What they need from the MBAs are their management skills. I suspect Amazon is particularly targeting those MBAs who have experience with operations and supply chain management experience. At Amazon's scale, even a small reduction in costs is worth the cost of hiring all these MBAs.
Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
I'm not sure why you had to react so angrily but there are a lot of people who would defend Amazon as being a data driven company.
here is one instance. This is not a hard claim to back up by any means.
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/237326
http://www.businessinsider.com/ap-amazons-data-driven-approa...
Here they are being called out for being too data driven
http://splinternews.com/the-amazon-way-why-the-data-driven-w...
https://hbr.org/2015/08/data-driven-management-can-also-be-c...
And I hope your day gets better:) We've all been there!!
Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are male or female? I hope this isn't an inappropriate question
Women. I was on Coffee Meets Bagel which really should have been named Coffee Meets MBAs from Amazon. The women complained about too many male engineers from the local Seattle companies. I had the foresight to not joke that they were, perhaps, the female equivalent. But I didn't have the foresight to realize some of them knew each other. I learned more about dating this past few months than I had the previous 30+ yea…
Height, good looks, and money.
A lethal combination.
Re: Amazon is hiring the most MBAs in tech, and it’s not really close
#30My 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-leve…
I've heard the military thing about Amazon before. It's got more in common with the army than any other big tech company (so many people!). For the VP/SVP wall, high level decisions at big orgs are always bizarre, it's such a deeply unnatural job for a person to be doing.