876: Kristi Coulter: Living and Leaving Amazon and Corporate Sexism

Shameless Leadership

Kristi Coulter is the author of the acclaimed memoirs Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career and Nothing Good Can Come From This, and a finalist for the Washington State Book Award. Her writing has appeared in The Paris Review, New York Magazine/The Cut, Elle, Glamour, DAME, Big Technology, and elsewhere. She has been a guest and commentator for media outlets ranging from Kara Swisher and Scott Galloway's Pivot podcast to the Evercore Investor Forum to NPR's Live Wire Radio. Coulter has taught creative writing at the University of Washington, University of Michigan, and Hugo House. She lives in Seattle and Los Angeles.

EXIT INTERVIEW tells the story of Kristi’s twelve-year career at Amazon, where she held numerous leadership roles in an obsessively driven, punishing work culture that was particularly unfriendly to women (though not exactly great for men, either!). Her experience included thrills and exhilarating achievements along with alcohol abuse, burnout, and disillusionment. Ultimately, Kristi recognized that for her ambition to live and thrive, she would need to leave the alpha-male rigidity of Big Tech. Her story is incredible. I could not put this book down!

Listen in to hear Kristi share:

• Her deeply thoughtful and personal story of professional endurance within the “alpha-male rigidity of Big Tech”
• The significance of unconscious sexism in the workplace and the impact on men and women
• Her nerves around the publication of the book and what her co-workers and fellow Amazonians might think
• How her ambition didn’t die when she left Amazon, but it outgrew Amazon and corporate spaces
• The messaging she received around success as a Gen Xer and how she sees this shifting for younger generations
• How she had to overcome people pleasing to write honestly and ethically about other people who may feel called out when reading book
• What burnout looked like and how easy it was to not see it or acknowledge it
• How her gray area drinking impacted her career at Amazon

Links mentioned:

• Connect with Kristi: www.kristicoulter.com
• Book: Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career
• Book: Nothing Good Can Come From This
• Kristi on IG
• Kristi on LinkedIn

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