In February 2017 the town of Daventry became home to BHX3, an Amazon fulfilment centre named after Birmingham airport. The site, which is roughly the size of three football pitches, is the workplace of Anca Valeria Sanpetrean. Anca is a picker, which means that when a customer places an order, she is responsible for locating the product, picking it from the shelf and sending it to be packed.
“I learned from scratch how Amazon works and how important each role is, from a picker to a packer through to shipping. It is amazing how everything is connected and how close you actually feel with the customer,” said Anca.
As part of a programme called ‘I Found the Right Place’ Amazon invited employees from fulfilment centres across the UK to explain what they like best about working at Amazon and why it is the right place for them. More than 800 employees from across the UK and dozens from each site put pen to paper.
In her entry to the programme, Anca wrote “I like working at Amazon because the people are happy, friendly and helpful all the time. What is great about Amazon is that we all work together as a team, the BHX3 team, but at the same time I feel that we are part of something bigger than us and together we make the system work.”
All of the entries were anonymised and the best entry from each fulfilment centre was chosen. The chosen employees were invited on an all-expenses-paid trip to Seattle, U.S., to explore the Amazon head office and see where it all started.
“When the general manager told me I was going to Seattle to see the headquarters, I was speechless. I couldn’t wait to go to the US for the first time.”
During the five-day trip to Seattle, Anca and Amazon colleagues from sites across the UK were shown around the city and enjoyed a trip up the Space Needle. They also went on a tour of the Amazon campus and the robotics fulfilment centre in Kent, Washington, where they met Amazon’s chief scientist.
“I loved everything about the trip from seeing the city and the Amazon Spheres, which are like a mini rainforest in the city, to meeting so many new people,” said Anca.
Speaking to future Amazon candidates, Anca said “I would encourage anyone who is considering a career at Amazon to apply. I remember being in a sauna with a friend once, we were talking about work and people around us started telling us how much they love Amazon, it was great to be able to tell them how the parcels get to them so quickly.”
