Patrick joined Amazon three years ago as a new college hire. Now a Software Development Manager on the People Technology team, he recruits recent college graduates interested in technology. “Amazon is the perfect place to figure out what your strengths are,” explained Patrick. “You are encouraged to find the role you are the most passionate about.”

Patrick himself wasn’t sure what life would be like working for Amazon. “I assumed that people weren’t able to challenge the way Amazon already operates,” said Patrick. “But I was very wrong. We look for our employees to push Amazon in new directions and innovate. We are not always looking for our leaders to provide that direction – we trust our employees to take calculated risks to find success.” As a manager, he makes sure his team members know this mindset is special. “Not everybody's going to be coming up with the next AWS,” said Patrick, “But if you find something that's not working, you have the right to challenge that, so we continually keep ourselves in a position to do the best thing for our customers.”

Day to day, Patrick’s job is to manage the team that builds our careers website. “It’s amazing how we can find small solutions that impact so many people quickly.” On the side, he tinkers with additional prototypes in the HR technology field. “At Amazon, when you propose ideas, they are not lost,” Patrick explained. “There's no other company in the world where you can build and pilot things so quickly that impact millions of customers the way we do.”