Fresh-out-of-college Amazon AM — how am I supposed to manage people who know the warehouse 10x better than me?

I’m a brand-new Amazon Area Manager straight out of college, and I’m honestly trying to understand how this is supposed to work.

I’ve been meeting people at the warehouse who started as Tier 1 associates and worked their way up. Some of them have years of actual Amazon warehouse experience and seem to know the operation inside and out.

Meanwhile, I’m coming in externally straight from college with basically zero warehouse experience, and I’m supposed to eventually manage a large group of associates.

That’s the part I’m struggling to wrap my head around.

How do you effectively lead people who know the job and the building way better than you do? If an associate comes to me with a problem, how am I supposed to actually help them when I’m still learning what everything means myself?

I definitely don’t want to be the stereotypical fresh college-hire AM who walks in thinking they know everything just because they have the title. I actually want to learn the operation, earn people’s respect, and be useful to my team.

I’ve also heard a lot about Amazon AM turnover, burnout, long hours, etc. Is the turnover really as high as people make it sound? What usually causes new AMs to quit or fail?

For people who started as Tier 1 and moved into leadership: what do you wish external college-hire AMs understood?

And for current/former AMs who also started straight out of college: how rough were your first few months? When did you finally feel like you knew what you were doing?

Basically: How do I survive my first year, actually become a good AM, and avoid being the clueless college hire everyone hates?

Any advice, even brutally practical advice about what NOT to do, would be appreciated.