As part of the celebrations, employees and guests were treated to a month of activities including cupcake giveaways, competitions and challenges.
To mark important landmarks in the fulfilment centre’s 25-year history, the Amazon team created a giant cardboard ship inspired by the site’s logo. The ship was covered in pictures, anecdotes and memories from across the years.
Landmarks were also built around the fulfilment centre to represent important events in the site’s history. These were unveiled on site by Amazon alumni who began their careers at Amazon in Milton Keynes.
Paulina Wuczke’s 17-year Amazon career began in Milton Keynes. Paulina is a director of engineering planning and analytics on Amazon’s global engineering services team. She lives in Buckinghamshire and is based at Amazon’s corporate office in Shoreditch, although she travels all over the world in her role.
Paulina joined Amazon in Milton Keynes as a temporary employee in the packing department after leaving college in 2006. She was made permanent at the site in 2007, before she moved to a learning and development role in 2008.
Paulina looked back on her days at the fulfilment centre, saying: “I worked at the fulfilment centre when all the Harry Potter books were released, which were great events back then. We had special machines that would pack a single book at a time and the building was full of pallets and pallets of books!
“Being part of the team that sent these books out to our excited customers felt like being privy to a wonderful secret. It was more than just shipping products; we were delivering joy and adventure to millions of readers around the world. Those were truly enchanting times at the fulfilment centre.'"
Reflecting on what Amazon was like in the early days of her career, Paulina said: “Amazon was not a big company in 2006, and we hardly had two buildings in each country. In fact, some of the countries we now operate in didn’t have any Amazon sites at all.
“We have operated in a true start up way, with sometimes no-so-great solutions posed, many eureka moments, and lots of figuring things out. We focused on facing those challenges, however, and approached everything as a team, together, in a true one team spirit.
“Amazon was meant to be a short stop for me on my career path, however the culture, the leadership principles that I truly live by, the team spirit and the countless opportunities to learn and grow made it difficult to leave.”
Paulina’s experiences at Amazon in Milton Keynes set her on a trajectory of success that saw her launch new fulfilment centres in the UK, and soon all over Europe. From once being a temporary employee, Paulina now finds herself leading teams of hundreds of people and expanding her expertise to countries outside of Europe.
What’s made Paulina stick around Amazon for so long? The company’s lifelong learning opportunities.
“Once you become an expert in an area, you move somewhere else, so you keep learning,” she said. “This will not only support your motivation but will boost your confidence as you will be applying all the learning from the past in your future roles, having a true impact on the company you’re with.
“Engaging with mentoring and coaching at the very beginning of my career played a part in me owning my development at Amazon. I utilised tools that are readily available at the company, including internal learning portals, getting feedback from my peers and managers, reading books and listening to podcasts. These, combined with a lot of self-reflection, have helped me get to where I am today.”
Victor Pulido, General Manager at the Amazon fulfilment centre in Milton Keynes, said: “25 years of Amazon in Milton Keynes – wow! Our site has seen so much change and advancement since its doors opened in 1999. At that stage, the scale of Amazon’s operations in the UK were small, and it was mainly books that headed out the door to customers all over the UK.
“Of my 17 plus years at Amazon, I’ve spent almost 10 years of them at Amazon in Milton Keynes over three different periods and have seen many busy seasons and parties through with the team here. I’m very proud of what we’ve achieved together and am so pleased to hear of stories like Paulina’s, that started at Amazon in Milton Keynes. Stories like this show what you can accomplish at Amazon at any stage in your career.
“It’s also wonderful to be part of the wider Milton Keynes community and give back where we can through volunteering and donations. We’ve built some brilliant relationships with neighbouring schools and charities in our years here and have benefitted from hearing their stories and being part of their work helping others.”
Alongside the ship and landmarks, the fulfilment centre team created cultural information stands to celebrate the diversity of its employees’ home nations. The stands shared special cultural information about each nation.
Amazon employees receive competitive pay and comprehensive benefits. Pay starts at a minimum of £14.50 at Amazon in Milton Keynes and employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection and an employee discount as well as a company pension plan.
Community donations and employee volunteering are just two of the ways Amazon supports the communities where it operates. Amazon co-founded the Multibank initiative with former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown to support families in need. The initiative has donated more than 5 million surplus goods to over 500,000 families across Scotland, Wales, Greater Manchester, London, and Tees Valley.
Amazon has supported more than one million students across the UK with free STEM education programmes through Amazon Future Engineer and helps community organisations transport meals and other essentials to families in need through its pro bono logistics programme, Amazon Local Good.
Amazon partners with Comic Relief and is the official home of the charity’s iconic Red Nose. Together with its employees, customers, and partners, Amazon has raised over £4.8 million to fund projects that support people across the UK, and around the world.
To find out more about a career with Amazon, visit https://www.jobsatamazon.co.uk/#/