Sr. Business Development Manager, Amazon Web Services
UW Major: Chinese
Tell us a bit about your job (e.g. what kinds of things you’re working on, what types of problems you solve day to day, etc.)?
In my current role at Amazon Web Services (AWS), I am a Sr. Business Development Manager. I specialize in an AWS technology called serverless, which customers are using to build solutions for things like e-commerce, financial services, and early detection of Covid-19 symptoms. I work with customers to learn about what they're trying to build, explain how building with serverless can help them achieve their goals, and support them as they develop their solutions. While I've worked in Seattle for the past four years of my career at Amazon, I recently had the opportunity to relocate to London and work with our UK and Ireland-based customers. I love that my role allows me to work with all kinds of customers and continuously challenges me to keep learning new things.
How do you think your humanities education has influenced/advanced your career path?
At Amazon, we have Leadership Principles that we use to guide our decision-making, and my favorite one is Learn and Be Curious. I had such a great time getting my degree at UW studying Chinese language. From my time in the classroom and studying abroad, I found that I'm motivated by taking on new challenges and navigating ambiguous problems. I could never have predicted that I'd find a similar experience of constant learning in cloud computing at AWS, but that was absolutely the case! I'm still passionate about Chinese, and I actually built a serverless Chinese vocabulary app as a side project. As an undergraduate, I was very focused on trying to choose the 'right' major for the career I envisioned. What I've found instead is that the best part about my career has been the surprises! The deeper concepts like learning how to learn, how to problem solve, and what drives you as an individual will be important wherever you go.
Want to read more? Check out the profiles on the Alumni Spotlights page for more information on what our humanities majors are up to.