Ep9 - The Importance Of Lifelong Learning with Andrew Wilson, Senior Finance Manager, AWS Artwork

Finance Guys In Tech

The opinions on this show are our own. The voices in our heads... still figuring that out. Charlie & Sid bring you some humanity, fun, and other useful stuff from the trenches of working in finance at Amazon. An interview show with our friends and colleagues at Amazon about how they ended up here, how they thrive, and most importantly…what are they doing this weekend. This show is all geared towards helping you perform better in your career, forming stronger teams, reducing stress & anxiety, and having plenty of laughs along the way. We’ll go micro on the day-to-day tactics and tips. We’ll go macro on creativity and mindset. We’ll give you all kinds of new ideas to play with about how to get into tech finance or what an optimal career might look like for you. We'll also bring you guests who you might not otherwise have access to. And since our number one objective is to bring you value we'll listen to you about the things you really want to hear. Sid joined Amazon in 2016 and AWS one year later. He's a value investor at heart so his presence on the show should be all you need to know about choosing to listen. Charlie (that’s me) has worked in finance at Amazon since 2014 and joined Amazon Web Services in 2015. He is also 1/2 of GoodBaby.band | Bass and songwriter for fornow.band | Recovering drummer | Author of the Art & Work weekly newsletter at charleskunken.com | Writer. Rider. New Yorker. Artist.

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Finance Guys In Tech

Ep9 - The Importance Of Lifelong Learning with Andrew Wilson, Senior Finance Manager, AWS

January 07, 2020 • Charlie Kunken & Sid Dhodi, Finance At Amazon

“Lifelong learning is important…go find something (with a plan!)...follow your passions.”

Today Sid and I interview Sr. Finance Manager, Andrew Wilson here at AWS Infrastructure. Andrew also happens to be….our manager. Best behavior! (not really)

Today Andrew talks about his lifelong pursuit of curiosity and explains how riding to work on a unicycle is a perfectly good way to read the newspaper.

Please enjoy!

1:45 | On riding a unicycle to work (while reading the paper)

4:05 | Choosing a path in undergrad, learning & being curious from the beginning, looking for answers to WHY

5:50 | An accidental path to finance

9:55 | Starting a solar startup from the halls of Intel

15:00 | Startup life & Solar IP

19:25 | 3 career lightning strikes: Intel, startup life , AWS

20:10 | Amazon origin story: perseverance + networking

22:20 | Advice for someone looking for a job at Amazon (or anywhere) – find a human to talk to

23:20 | Biggest surprise starting at Amazon – where’s the data!

25:50 | Andrew’s take on the Leadership Principles – Amazon walks the walk

30:30 | What LP could we add? Fun, balance

34:15 | Situational Leadership- a model for managing

38:55 | 3 historical figures for lunch: Einstein, Richard Feynman, da Vinci

40:40 | Sid negotiates for the conference room

42:20 | Consuming content: podcasts

44:10 | For fun outside of work – on 2 wheels & exploring the Pac NW

45:50 | Andrew’s philosophy for life – lifelong learning is key

Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/abwilson1/

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Theme music by Good Baby. ‘Rose Colored’ (instrumental version). You can peep the full music video here: https://www.goodbaby.band/musicvideos