We both came to Amazon because we wanted to do big, interesting things at a company that moves fast and loves to invent. Our experience here—like so many veterans and military spouses who come to Amazon—has been exciting and fulfilling. And an experience that has drawn upon the skills we honed while in the military.
Today, Amazon pledged to hire 25,000 veterans and military spouses over the next five years, and to train 10,000 active duty service members, veterans and military spouses (not employed at Amazon) in cloud computing through AWS Educate memberships and offering a path to AWS certifications. We're thrilled by Amazon's Joining Forces pledge because we know first-hand how veterans' and military spouses’ experience will enable them to have meaningful careers at Amazon.
At Amazon, we're guided by our Leadership Principles. They're ingrained in how we work—we use them when we're talking through a new project, interviewing a prospective hire or solving a customer's problem. And so many of our Leadership Principles closely align to what makes people successful in the military.
While we might say "take ownership" and have "bias for action" at Amazon, in the military the corollary is "ensure mission critical work gets done." Amazonians try to be "right, a lot" and "deliver results," the same way we regularly had to quickly make the right decisions and come up with field expedient solutions while serving our country.
These overlapping skills extend to military families, as well. Both of us are also military spouses—we faced several stretches of solo parenting while our husbands were serving abroad, and we're well-versed in the ambiguity that comes from not knowing where we'll be stationed next. As we've seen from other military spouses at Amazon and from our own time on bases, military spouses' calm and flexibility when faced with unexpected change—paired with their desire to maintain interesting work—make them well-suited for the fast-paced, ever-changing work at Amazon.
Today's pledge is a wonderful extension of Amazon's ongoing commitment to hiring veterans and military spouses. As leaders in Operations recruiting and AWS human resources, we're excited to bring 25,000 more colleagues into our active Amazon Warriors network. These jobs will bring the full suite of Amazon benefits—including healthcare and parental leave benefits. Those in eligible positions will be able to enroll in the Amazon Career Choice Program—an employee benefit that pre-pays 95 percent of tuition for college and industry certification courses related to in-demand fields, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.
And we’re excited that the 10,000 veterans and military spouses who take advantage of AWS Educate will have access to resources that help develop the skills necessary to pursue jobs in the high-demand cloud computing space.
This is a big day for Amazon and Joining Forces—and it's an extension of work we've both been doing for many years. We're thrilled to ensure even more veterans and military spouses like us can pursue exciting careers in tech. As we say at Amazon: it’s still Day One—are you ready to join us?
