Hello! My name is Reagan White, and I am a junior at the University of Arkansas double majoring in supply chain management and international economics paired with a Spanish minor.

This summer I interned at Amazon as an Area Manager Intern at the OKC1 site in Oklahoma City for a duration of eight weeks. While hunting for internship opportunities, I was contacted by an Amazon recruiter via my LinkedIn, where an application link was extended to me, because my recruiter indicated that I would “great fit” for the role. Given my passion and interest in supply chain management, I knew that interning at Amazon would be an incredible learning experience and the chance of a lifetime. I submitted the application and completed the interview process within several weeks. Once I accepted my internship, I was a participant in the inaugural class of Sophomore Area Manager Interns at Amazon.

During the first week of my internship, I completed AAPT training, which provided me with the knowledge, experience, and insight into the daily tasks of Amazon Associates. This week was highly critical in preparing me for my leadership role as an Area Manager, where my responsibilities included overseeing Amazon Associates, ensuring that daily metric goals were met, identifying problem areas, introducing process improvements, and prioritizing employee engagement. Following my first week at Amazon, the remainder of my internship experience was a rotational program. Each week I shadowed a different area of the fulfillment center, learned the processes, became familiar with the software that each department uses, encouraged associates, and assisted with any daily tasks, as needed. The various departments that I shadowed included: stow, pick, count, AFE, inbound ship dock, and outbound ship dock. Personally, my favorite department was outbound ship dock, because of the influence that outbound ship dock has on the overall customer experience. Outbound ship dock is directly responsible for ensuring that packages reach the end consumer on time, throughout the allocation of trailer load times and package tracking. During my week in Outbound Ship Dock, Amazon had Prime Day, which offered exclusive deals to Prime Day consumers. Prime Day introduced a substantial increase in order volume. In addition to the rotational program, I was tasked with two projects to present to senior leadership at the end of my internship. One of these projects was an employee engagement project, and the other was a process improvement project. The purpose of the employee engagement project was to create a program or event that increases employee morale. My solution was an attendance awards program, which encourages Amazon to recognize associates that don’t use any unpaid time per each quarter. The purpose of the process improvement project was to identify a problem area within a department and propose a solution to decrease inefficiencies and improve the consumer experience. My process improvement proposal focused on implementing a new repackaging method to reduce cardboard waste, save money, and decrease the number of packages that miss their designated load times. Being able to present and implement several of my solutions during my time at OKC1 was an incredibly rewarding experience, and I’m very grateful for the countless associates, managers, and members of upper leadership that helped me along the way.

My time at Amazon contributed to my professional development through real-world experience within the field of supply chain management. One of my biggest takeaways from this summer was becoming a self-starter. Prior to interning at Amazon, I enjoyed solving problems, but I often waited for someone else to point them out to me and needed guidance in how to go about solving them. At Amazon, area managers and upper leadership are encouraged to seek out problem areas on their own and be bold in testing their own solutions. As I became more comfortable with this new understanding of initiative and ownership, I grew to appreciate the “learn-as-you-go” culture that Amazon fosters. Mistakes are viewed as learning opportunities and steps closer to reaching better solutions. While testing and implementing my solutions, I ran into several barriers, but each challenge was a chance to improve and an opportunity to celebrate resilience in leadership. At OKC, I was able to expand my professional network by shadowing the floor managers and asking for advice from upper management. One of the most beneficial shadowing experiences was being able to learn from the head of procurement at the site. Looking towards the future, procurement is an area within in supply chain that I am interested in potentially pursuing a career in, so learning about the daily responsibilities and challenges that come with a procurement role was very insightful, and the head of procurement at OKC1 was a University of Arkansas Alumni! The relationships that I formed not only impacted and grew me as an individual this summer, but they helped prepare me for my future career in the supply chain industry!

Following my Amazon internship, I hope to remember all the lessons that I have learned about supply chains, leadership, and problem solving, so that I can continue to grow in these areas. Looking towards the future, I plan on using this experience to help me achieve my long-term goals of working for a Fortune 500 company within a global supply chain role and eventually opening my own business. Interning for Amazon has been amazing, and I will always approach everything with the “day one” mentality and leadership that Amazon has shown me.