How do you get a Seattle giant with big glass balls to notice you?
Aforementioned glass balls courtesy of Amazon.
Amazon Devices and Services is looking to hire a content writer. As you might suspect, hundreds of people have already applied (who knows? Maybe thousands, right?). So, how do I stand out? Here’s part of the cover letter I sent them: It should say "hundreds of people", and you need a period after "right?)".
Dear Amazon Devices and Services team,
I saw your posting for the Owned Content Writer, Amazon Devices & Services and I would like to throw my hat into the ring.
You want someone who can:
“…act as an in-house reporter, working to uncover engaging, differentiated stories from across the Devices & Services business and bring these stories to life through written and visual content on Amazon’s owned channels.”
This totally sounds like my jam. To give you an idea of what I could bring to the role, I dug into the Amazon Devices and Services page and found this article about what accessibility means to Amazon employees. I heavily borrowed and tweaked some of the employee quotes in the article and reimagined the piece as an animated video. Here’s what I came up with:
Accessibility to products and services should be about independence, dignity, and shared delight. A triangle-shaped person cuts the ribbon on their latest design; a door with a triangle-shaped keyhole. They insert their triangle-shaped hand and the door opens. Other triangle-shaped people with triangle-shaped hands applaud; the others disperse shortly thereafter.
But we live in a world, both physical and digital, which was not built to be equal or fair. Just as the triangle-shaped designer is about to walk on, a square-shaped person approaches the door. Their square-shaped hands cannot open the triangle-shaped keyhole.
For too long we’ve assumed that the accessibility problems people face in the world were because of their limitations. The triangle-shaped designer looks at the gateway and thinks. He inserts his hand into the keyhole and opens the door for the square-shaped person. The square-shaped person is thankful but a little embarrassed and walks through the door and away.
Because, if the world is built for you, if you never face these kinds of barriers, you might take for granted what it takes to be successful in this world. Just as the triangle-shaped person is about to walk away, a circle-shaped person approaches the door and struggles to enter. Mildly annoyed, the triangle-shaped person returns to open the door for them.
But that’s wrong; these barriers exist because the people who build the environments build them for the situations and scenarios they know best—ones that look and behave like themselves. Just as the circle-shaped person walks away, a triangle-shaped person approaches and easily opens the keyhole. But the designer’s expression falls when an oval-shaped person walks up. The designer suddenly “gets it.”
And that mindset must not survive. A determined sort of look appears on the designer’s face.
Access is an essential element of design. Any factor, whether it be disability, race, language, socioeconomics, identity…anything that hinders someone from accessing a product or service, then it’s not accessible. Full stop. Fade to the designer at their worktable. On the table is a blank sheet with a horizontal line drawn across the middle. Above the line are triangle people and triangle-accessible doors. Below the line are drawings of differently-shaped people (squares, circles, triangles, ovals, stars, etc.) The designer crosses out the triangle-accessible doors.
As designers, engineers, and builders, we must intentionally focus on the differences…The designer scribbles a sketch of a different kind of door.
… to level the playing field for everyone. The sketch is replaced by a working prototype. A circle-person inserts their hand into the keyhole; it scans the hand and admits the person.
We must be determined to create services and devices that foster independence, dignity, and delight in everyone. This is what accessibility does. And that’s what we are called to do Fade to a film-footage montage of Amazon devices and services being accessed by a variety of differently-abled people. Fade to the Amazon Devices and Services logo.
Anyway, I sent it off, so we’ll see! Oh, and if you’re an Amazonian who has influence over such things, give me a shout!
The Lengths I Go To was my (thankfully) limited-series blog wherein I shared the different ways I tried to stand out during my job search. I did six of these, got three interviews and one job, so…..yeah!
