The first post I made on LinkedIn was my goodbye post, announcing that I was leaving Amazon, with a few comments as to why. I was surprised when it got nearly 250,000 impressions, over 1,500 reactions, and 150 comments. It’s the closest I’ve ever had to anything going viral.

After 17 years and 9 months, today is my last day at Amazon.

The belt hook is from the Retail Pricing DICE (Diversity and Inclusion Career Event), which I proudly planned, organized, and ran back in 2019. Before that, my belt hook had the AWE logo – Amazon Women in Engineering. I’ve always been an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. So when Amazon publicly announced they were abandoning their DEI programs in a craven capitulation to the Orange Taco, the question changed from “if” to “when.”

Unfortunately, Amazon’s become a Day 2 company. Senior leadership has ditched developing the best and customer obsession for profits and politics. And they never lived up to their promise to become one of Earth’s best employers.

What’s next? Well, I’ve made a LOT of money during may career by making other people a TON of money. My goal for the future is to make enough money doing something that makes the world a better place. I’m not sure yet what that means, but I know I can’t do that at Amazon. For now, I’m going to spend the summer with my family and exploring my options. You can see the results of one of my hobbies on http://www.arneknudson.com, where I’ve uploaded all the photos I’ve taken using my digital telescope.

The people that I got to work with, mentor, and learn from at Amazon remain some of the smartest and best people I’ve known. I’m proud of my accomplishments and will always treasure the great relationships I got to make. And I got to live in Europe for 4 years! I have no regrets, and I’m grateful for the opportunities, but I am sad about what Amazon’s become.