It’s never easy saying goodbye

I want to start by wishing everyone well during the trying times. After almost 2 years as Enterprise Support Lead (ESL) and Senior Technical Account Manager (TAM) at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as of Friday, June 19, 2020, I officially said goodbye and turned in my AWS blue badge. I am very grateful for having the opportunity to work for one of the largest organizations on the planet.

Despite all the new and exciting things I was able to work on, I realized around the 1 year mark I was missing the community activities in which I had previously participated. I missed regularly presenting. I missed building and showing compelling demos. I missed helping many customers, partners and I missed the events. I missed blogging freely and sharing my opinion openly. In sum I missed the community. So with that, I began to explore other options inside and and outside of AWS. It just so happens that the thing which struck my vibe landed me outside AWS.

The background

I joined AWS in October 2018 as a Senior TAM based in Phoenix, Arizona. The TAM role itself is a function of the AWS Enterprise Support offering. Shortly after on-boarding and graduating TAM check-ride I was quickly assigned a small group of customers to work with as their AWS TAM. Within a few weeks (I still remember the day, December 19th, 2018) I received a Chime instant message from my manager asking to talk…The conversation went something like, “Clint, I need you take on this huge financial services customer. Your personality and work ethic is a total match.” Me, “OK, (massive gulp) I got this!”

Little did I know that this call would forever change my AWS career.

My manager was spot on in assigning me to them. Eventually this customer required all of my time and attention thus becoming my one and only. This was special because I was given the chance to help a primarily on-premises, early in their cloud journey organization forge their path to the cloud. Second, I was able to build truly amazing relationships and lasting friendships. There are too many to name but thank you all for giving me the opportunity to be your TAM. It was a pleasure serving you and I look forward to keeping in touch.

Next, I was given the opportunity to work directly with the best Account Manager and Solutions Architect at AWS. I am confident that we will be life-long friends. Thank you for welcoming me to the team; I am very happy that we were able to work together over the last year and a half! Looking forward to the next time we cross paths.

After many months as a TAM, my manager approached me about becoming an Enterprise Support Lead (ESL). ESL’s help to mentor and guide a small cluster (5-7) of TAM’s on a daily basis. Daily TAM’s are presented with many customer and non-customer, technical and non-technical related challenges. ESL’s primary function is to help mentor, guide and backup the other members of the cluster. To all of the TAM’s whom were in my cluster as well as all of the TAM’s based out of the Phoenix office, I wish you all the best and I hope to see you at the next AWS User Group Meet-Up.

Lastly, imagine participating in an enterprise support idea generation competition. Then taking the idea, forming a small team, writing a press release & FAQ (PRFAQ) using Amazon’s Working Backwards process and presenting to the Enterprise Support shark tank. We did just that. Our project won the TAM popular vote and the judges vote too. Remarkable team effort which I am very proud of!! I look forward to some day (hopefully soon) seeing this thing come to fruition!

What’s Next

I’m grateful for the experience, knowledge and friendships for which I have gained during my time with AWS – however, I am super excited for the future! I am taking some time off to gather myself personally and will let you all know what’s next soon! Stay healthy.