Suzanna Parikh – Amazon Operations Management Leadership Intern

My Operations Leadership internship with Amazon.com gave me an incredible glimpse into Amazon’s operations and supply chain. I had the opportunity to see what it takes to operate a shift of 40-100 associates in a 1.3 million square foot fulfillment center, shipping out thousands of items to customers around the world each day. During my first week, I got the chance to take on many different roles to learn what associates do on a day-to-day basis. I spent the first few weeks shadowing an area manager, and I started focusing on the outbound area which is responsible for packing all of the shipments that are sent to customers around the country. The majority of my internship was spent interacting with associates and area managers and learning to manage associates and operations. I helped set up the board in the mornings to determine who would work in which process paths, and determine how many people we would need in each process path to make sure we were able to meet our shipping deadlines. I also led the daily morning team meetings to discuss safety tips, news, and success stories to motivate the team.

One of my favorite parts of the internship was leading an eight-person team on a continuous improvement project. It was exciting to be able to change a process and then see the results so immediately. As a team, we were able to improve productivity by 60 percent and shipping compliance by 40 percent by streamlining the physical layout and implementing a new staffing structure. I believe that this internship has prepared me for a wide variety of future careers. I gained experience with many transferable skills during the three months of my internship, including: management/leadership, delegation, decisiveness, analytical thinking, public speaking, and communication. Amazon is such a quickly growing company, and it is very exciting to be in such a fast-paced environment that is consistently recognized for its success. I would definitely recommend this internship experience for students that are interested in management because it allows students to have an incredible amount of responsibility.