#53 You're not just an Amazon person
I'm going to tell you something that might sting.
The story you lead with in interviews — the massive programme, the nine-figure impact, the team of hundreds — isn't landing the way you think it is.
I was working with someone recently who is genuinely exceptional. The kind of person who built things at Amazon most companies couldn't dream of. And a contact at a startup he was targeting said it to his face:
"You're talking about Amazon scale and Amazon resources. That's very different from what we do. You'll have to convince my leadership you're not just an Amazon person."
That hit. Because it wasn't wrong.
Here's the assumption almost every senior Big Tech person carries into a search: more impressive equals more compelling. So they lead with the biggest number, the widest scope, the most complex system.
What actually happens is the person across the table starts doing math they can't finish. Four billion in impact — okay, what does that mean at a 200-person company? Is this person going to be bored? Are they going to think we're small-time? Can they even operate without an army behind them?
The cognitive load gets too heavy. They get stuck trying to work out what you actually do. And when people don't understand something, they don't ask you to clarify.
They just move on.
This is the specific trap of leaving Amazon: the environment normalised a scale that now reads as a liability instead of an asset. Nobody warns you that your biggest number can be the thing that loses the room.
The fix isn't hiding your experience. It's translation — and translation is a skill, not a rewrite. It starts with a different question before every interview and every conversation: not "what did I build," but "what does this company actually need right now."
One thing to try this week:
Take the story you're proudest of and ask whether a stranger could tell what problem you solved without knowing anything about Amazon. If the impact only makes sense inside the system, it's not ready to travel yet.
That translation problem is the most common reason a strong senior search stalls — and it's the whole reason I'm running a free workshop on September 30.
Wednesday, September 30, 9:00am PT. Sixty minutes. Where senior searches actually stall, how to find the real bottleneck in yours, and what to do about it. Directors, Principals, L6/L7 or equivalent — searching or seriously considering it.
Register: [link]
Chat soon,
Mel