A group of operators left reluctantly! What have you gained from working for Amazon over the years?

What have you gained from working at Amazon over the years?

A buddy went to interview for an Amazon operation position, and the interview manager asked him: What can you do ?

He said: I can combine the listing's delisting time sorting mechanism and the personalized search principle, and through a series of complex and rigorous technical means, make Amazon's search engine believe that our products are very popular with consumers, thereby rapidly improving our store's weight in a short period of time and creating the greatest value for the company at the lowest cost.

The manager asked : Can you explain it in simpler terms?

He said: I can swipe the orders.

The manager asked: Do you have any other skills?

He said: I don’t know much about the others.

…

The above conversation is a joke, but it is not entirely a joke.

In real life, many operators only have the skill of fake orders, but many operators have more than fake orders and can do everything. As operators, regardless of whether they have rich work experience or not, they seem to be terrified about the future. When Amazon operators looked at the time on their computers and found that December was about to end, they suddenly fell into anxiety: Oh my god, another year is about to pass, and they have to work hard to realize the wishes they made this year but didn’t realize last year...

"Sentimental" Amazon operators

"Sentimental" Amazon operators are increasingly feeling lost in life!

"To some extent, the Amazon industry is more dependent on youth than programmers. Amazon's operations are continuous and without real skills, you may be replaced by a newcomer at any time. " In the eyes of Operations A, in addition to most of the people who have resigned to work on their own , among the many operations people working in the company , too many people do not have sufficient experience and the ability to grasp the overall situation of a store . Some operations people have not even completed the entire Amazon process . They are just the assembly line operations of one link in the Amazon store , and if they are eliminated, there are still a large number of newcomers waiting in line .

Operations manager B agrees with this statement. From being eager to learn to being "almost lazy" now, the proportion of time he spends slacking off every working day has increased year by year. "What I have to do every day at work has become fixed. I turn on the computer and check if there are any abnormalities in the store data (including orders, traffic, conversions, comments, advertising, refunds, complaints, etc.). If there are any abnormalities, I will handle them. If there are no abnormalities, I will check which data needs to be optimized. Then I will slack off for the rest of the time until I get off work."

Xiao Ming, who also works in operations, is also repeating the work that is not challenging for him day after day.

"My daily routine is to check ads and orders when I get to work, before lunch, and before leaving work in the afternoon. I adjust what needs to be adjusted, and slack off when there is no need to adjust. How do those operators who optimize listings every day do it? There are only a few links, what is there to optimize?" Xiao Ming is very confused, but he also envies these people's full mental state at work. " Being able to slack off is a good thing, but it is not a long-term and self-interested thing. If you slack off for a long time, you will feel anxious and doubt whether the job you are doing has a future. "

Anxious Xiao Li also told Yien.com that he learned nothing in his previous company in the three years since he entered the industry, and there has been no performance since he switched to the new company. Every day he is either dealing with returns or worrying about whether his store has been closed. He feels like he is suffering every day and has no mood to run the business well .

His personal ability has reached its limit. He has done nothing in the familiar Amazon field, and is useless at everything else except Amazon . Xiao Zhang's anxiety also has nowhere to go.

He felt that he had not learned any new knowledge for more than half a year, and could not find a way to break through. He only felt the anxiety of standing still and the sense of crisis of being eliminated. " Many capable operators have embarked on the path of working alone. I do not have the courage and money to work alone, so I can only continue to work in the company. However, due to my personality, I cannot become a manager, and my salary cannot increase with my age. I am worried that I will be laid off by the company as soon as there is any disturbance in the cross-border industry. I am in a state of running away every day ... " It is reported that in order to reduce the insecurity brought by working for Amazon, Xiao Zhang has decided to take the exam while working on Amazon operations, and he will leave after passing the exam.

There are many operators who are in the same situation as Xiao Zhang. Anxiety comes from the lack of ability at the current stage. When you start to feel anxious, it means that you are not satisfied with the status quo. Seeing no hope, some people choose to continue to lie down, while others, like Xiao Zhang, decide to join the army of civil servants. It is reported that many Amazon operators have plans to take the examination for teachers and civil servants. "Although the salary is low, it is at least stable!"

Is the end of cross-border e-commerce career development to be a regular employee? It is undeniable that, in addition to the operators, Amazon employees in different positions such as Amazon artists and developers have realized how attractive a regular employee is, and they work hard to take the teacher recruitment exam and the civil service exam just to successfully escape from Amazon!

Amazon operators’ life

Once upon a time, these people who were planning to give up their Amazon operating identities also wanted to make a difference on the Amazon platform. They all stepped into the quagmire of anxiety and struggled. This phenomenon may be seen by many outsiders as "too pretentious" and "no ability to withstand pressure"...

When operators first started doing this job, they probably didn’t expect that they would be so confused one day. When they were new, they only thought that operations work was the same as ordinary sales work, and they would get commissions based on how much they sold . As time went on, operators’ understanding of this position also changed a lot. As operators, they have to face not only operations , but also unknown account security, product security, and financial security, as well as countless unexpected disasters. Every step leads to a pit, and pits can lead to lives! However, these troubles cannot be solved by operations alone. As they experience more, they feel more and more powerless.

Looking back at the path that operators have taken, you will find that although the causes of insecurity are different for each person, they are nothing more than three aspects: personal, company and industry development bottlenecks. It is difficult to distinguish which factor is the "culprit" because many operators often have to bear the pressure of these "three mountains" at the same time. Indirectly full of confidence, continuously living a life of idleness and waiting for death, and bowing to reality, the "life of Amazon operators" may be hidden in the following words of workers...

"The company currently has no new things to enrich its skills. The product layout determines that it will be difficult to have good performance in the next year, and also determines that my income is at a low level." An operator said that in addition to personal development, the company and environment are also very important for doing well on Amazon. He believes that Amazon is still in a period of rapid development. At this stage, it is better to say that he is desperate about the company rather than Amazon.

It is undeniable that the personal development of employees is closely related to the resources that the company can provide. When the company's development reaches the ceiling, the personal development of employees will also be restricted. Operation A revealed that operational skills are really too weak in front of operational resources. What is more terrible than realizing that there are many shortcomings in oneself is that there is no way to change this situation. In fact, he really wants to run the store, but the company's strength is limited. The company gives nothing but products.

It is reported that the company where operator A works claims to be transforming into a boutique company, but the company's requirements for employees are still in the distribution model. He has to put 3-4 listings on the shelves every day, repeating the non-technical listing operations every day, and has no time to improve his operation level. "I always feel that I don't have a thorough understanding of Amazon operations, and I don't have a good grasp of the rhythm. I am confused in the company and it is difficult to learn anything. Now when I encounter problems, I have to figure it out by myself, looking for answers and resources."

Operations manager A feels that the resources a company can provide are directly proportional to an individual's learning ability. After being in such an environment for a long time, he, who has poor self-control, has lost the ambition he had when he first entered the industry. " I have thought that Amazon has passed the stage where ordinary people can easily make a comeback. It relies more on specialization and capital . The future market will shift more to medium and large sellers , sellers with R&D capabilities and funds , and integrated industry and trade . The survival space for small sellers like us traders will become smaller and smaller. "

As the cross-border e-commerce export industry moves towards the era of "intensive cultivation", some rough development companies are hovering on the line between life and death, and the performance of company employees is shaky, and they are also facing a survival crisis. "Now I am very worried that my experience is not enough to find a high-quality operation position. The daily work content is after-sales processing + adjusting advertising budget + VOC analysis + market research. Recently, I found that I couldn't answer many questions in the interview or the ideas were not correct. "

Cross-border e-commerce companies can be basically divided into four categories : general distribution, fine distribution, boutique, and independent research and development . Each category has different operating characteristics . Your company largely determines your operating environment. Industry insiders said that when an operator feels that he has reached a bottleneck in development , in addition to certain problems of the company itself , in terms of external factors, the company type itself is the biggest influencing factor.

According to the editor, among the many cross-border e-commerce companies nowadays, some companies will actively provide products, while some companies only provide a workstation, and the rest of the things have to be handled by the operators themselves.

Xiao Zhang said that since he entered the industry, Amazon has not changed his life, but has made his work more comprehensive, because he has to do everything and basically rely on himself to solve all problems. After several years of experience accumulation, his understanding of Amazon has also deepened. As an experienced "old employee" of the company , he found that the longer he stays, the more severely he is harvested.

"The company does not offer salary increase for promotions. Now it wants me to mentor new employees, but there will be no salary increase or commission. The new employees themselves do not get commissions. However, if the new employees make mistakes, I need to bear the company's losses together with them . " This makes Xiao Zhang feel disheartened. In addition, the company's performance system has been changed again and again. He has been in the company for so long, but his salary has not increased much, but he has gotten a lot of benefits.

Xiao Zhang said that operating wages are generally a base salary plus commission model. The commission calculation model of his company is to calculate the monthly profit based on the collection minus all costs (including all freight and sea transportation for that month). Under this calculation method, even if the sales orders for that month are profitable, the collection will still not be higher than the costs.

There are many operators who complain about the company's commission system. Operator A said that their company is losing money every month. When he came to this company, he was also required to bear the refund of the products of the previous operator. After deducting advertising and refunds, the loss was just a matter of how much. He could not get any commission at all. He felt fortunate that the company did not deduct his base salary.

"We share the hard times, but not the happiness." Another operator said that thanks to his hard work, the store achieved sales of 2 million, but his boss did not give him a salary increase, which made him heartbroken.

What's worse, there are operations people who helped the company boost the performance of several sites, but the boss made things difficult for them in the end , with the goal of forcing them to resign. " The high commission is just a cover, and they will kick people out after they are used up . There are too many examples of people getting rid of their jobs in the cross-border circle . "

Being dissatisfied with the company you work for is the current situation of many operations. " When I came to this company for an interview right after graduating from college, the HR told me earnestly that although the salary was not high, you could grow quickly here, which is the most important thing for young people. Now, two years have passed, and the HR really didn't lie to me. I already look like a 40-year-old. " This sentence may seem like a joke, but to a certain extent it also reflects that the work input and income of many workers are not matched. When the two are unbalanced, employees will become discouraged and leave.

"At present, too many people are working in the company but their hearts are not in Wuhan. As far as I know, many of my colleagues are planning to leave at the beginning of next year." Among them, Operations B summarized his reasons for leaving as follows:

1. The company has too many clearance products, and these are the kind that cannot be cleared out even at a loss. Add to that the 3-fold storage fee during the peak season, and it is unsustainable.

2. The base salary is low and there is no hope for salary increase. In addition, clearance products are too difficult to clear and commissions are out of reach.

3. The company's product development is not good, and there are no corresponding resources. All the products that cannot be promoted are left to the operation to reflect on themselves. In the long run, confidence is greatly hit.

4. The company's products are not distributed to the operations staff properly, allowing the most trusted people to pick the good products, while the remaining unprofitable and unpopular products are left to other employees to pick.

There is a desire for two days off a week, but there is no life for it. Many operations personnel want to resign because the company does not provide two days off a week.

Regarding the topic of two-day weekends, big sellers such as Savi, Tongtuo, and Yibai have recently announced two-day weekends , which has attracted operators who are ready to run away at any time to show strong interest in Savi, Tongtuo, Yibai and other companies:

How is the commission paid? What is the gross profit margin? Are there any sales KPI restrictions?

What is the internal promotion system?

Will the new employee enter a new store or an old store?

Do you need to clean up the mess left by your former employees yourself?

How many SKUs is each operation responsible for ?

Does the company have the ability to develop new products?

Are the company’s benefits good?

In fact, the operators are not really interested in companies like Savi, but are only interested in companies that implement a two-day weekend off. Now companies like Tongtuo have already announced a two-day weekend off. With the big seller taking the lead, Operation B feels that there will be more companies that implement a two-day weekend off next year, and this is a good time to venture out.

“Unless there are special circumstances, there is really no need to work on Saturdays in the Amazon boutique or boutique model. On weekends, operators can remotely check the sites they are responsible for or the company can arrange routine remote shifts.” Operators feel that there is no need to have only one day off per week, but the reality is that it is difficult to find cross-border e-commerce companies that have two days off per week.

" A certain store that sells well not only implements the system of long and short weeks, but also requires employees to work overtime 50 hours a month . If they don't do that, they will be deducted from their wages." In addition to the issue of two days off a week, overtime is a frequent topic of complaint among operators.

There was a classic saying in the cross-border circle: Why come to Shenzhen if you don’t want to work overtime? In this regard, operators expressed their incomprehension, “ I don’t understand why you have to work overtime. Does Amazon give you more traffic just because it finds someone sitting in front of a computer? ”

I believe that the factors that contribute to the resignation of many operations personnel are different, but in summary there are still some clues: they feel wronged and their wages have not been paid in full.

The ultimate dream of operators is: less work, more money, and closer to home?

“When I look for a job next year, I will definitely not join a startup company. Everything is imperfect and it’s a mess. I can’t get commissions and I worry about being fired at any time. I have no sense of security or belonging,” said an operations officer.

An operations officer who works in a start-up cross-border e-commerce company said that he is currently in Zhengzhou. In his daily work, from store registration to product research, new product launches, shipping, promotion, clearance, off-site, including PS and PR, he is doing it all by himself. He has been pioneering, with no hope of commission and a confused life.

"In recent years, the number of cross-border e-commerce companies in Zhengzhou has gradually increased, but the cross-border e-commerce atmosphere in Zhengzhou is still not strong, and there are more Amazon chaos in Zhengzhou." The operator said that he also knew that the Amazon platform definitely has a future, but his city has not yet produced too many excellent companies, so he wanted to go to Shenzhen to try his luck. However, what makes people hesitate is that going to Shenzhen will make them too far away from home, which is a dilemma.

Just as many operations want to develop in Shenzhen, Amazon operators wandering in Shenzhen also want to return to their hometown all the time. Perhaps the ultimate dream of all operators is: work less, earn more, and stay close to home.

"I'm in Shenzhen. After the Chinese New Year, I want to go back to my hometown to develop my career. However, there is no cross-border e-commerce in my hometown, and other jobs are not what I'm good at. Taking the civil service exam is one option, but unfortunately I don't have the perseverance, and my personality makes me unsuitable to be a teacher," Operations B thought about it and felt that he could only continue to work for Amazon.

Why do you still insist on working on Amazon? Maybe many people are in the same situation as Operation B. On the surface, they seem to be reluctantly working on Amazon, but the reality is that apart from working on Amazon, there is no other suitable job for them to do after changing careers.

No one wants to do Amazon reluctantly, so what are the factors for doing well on Amazon? Including but not limited to a strong supply chain, financial support, and solid operational capabilities .

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