Kristiana Helmick T'98 is the general manager of the Pet Supplies category at Amazon.
I have worked at Amazon for seven years and am thrilled to work in technology, which blends very well with my early interest in media. At Amazon, I've worked on the media and devices teams, launching products like magazines on Kindle. My background pre-Amazon is in magazines—after graduating from Tuck, I worked for ten years at Time Inc., marketing some great brands like InStyle and People magazines. One of my first post-Tuck jobs was on the launch of Real Simple magazine, where I was able to put in action some of the core principles of marketing that I learned at Tuck.
I saw myself as part of Tuck’s community during my on-campus interview, before I completed my application. I had visited several other top schools, but it was at Tuck where I felt most like myself. I developed an immediate rapport with my seconrd-year tour guide as well as my interviewer, who both expressed genuine enthusiasm for the skills I would bring to the school.
I had many strong professors who had an impact on me, including John Shank who taught life lessons during Cost Accounting, Steve Powell who inspired passion for Decision Science, and Paul Argenti who helped me bridge my pre-Tuck background in journalism to the business principles I was learning. I also consider my first-year study group members lifelong friends.
Hands down, my favorite event is the daily tea served at Sanborn, the library for Dartmouth’s English Department, which is down the road from Tuck. An endowment keeps the price of the tea to ten cents. It is an outstanding place to study or to get a literature fix in the middle of your day. The runner up is Winter Carnival.
Visit Dan and Whit’s, the general store across the road in Norwich, Vt. Their slogan is, “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it!”
At Amazon we are building many new businesses and are often faced with problems that no one knows the answer to because we’re inventing as we go. The challenge is to use good judgment in these situations that can stand the test of time, when data can only get you so far. My business is relatively young at Amazon, so I think a lot about how to build a business that we can be proud of not just today but also ten years from now.
It is crucial to listen, which is also extremely hard to do that when our own beliefs get in the way. Good leaders are able to create change because they listen in order to understand the issues at play in any given situation.
My husband and I live near Lake Washington in Seattle. We like going paddle boarding in the summer and throwing tennis balls into the lake for our dog, a Newfoundland mix named Pepper. He loves to swim after them in absolutely any weather.
“Country Roads” by John Denver. My dad is from West Virginia, so this one always goes in rotation when I am out running.
I find that many people wonder early in their careers how to build a network. It became easier for me once I heard this piece of advice: Every time you make a contact and hit it off, ask that person for names of two more contacts who can help you. Ask each of those people for two more names. Before too long you will have more than enough people to talk with. Then maintain your network for life. Email your contacts at least once a year to let them know how you are doing. They want to know.
My career goal during college was to be a history professor, and I studied for a year in Vienna, Austria on a Fulbright Grant after graduation. Vienna remains one of my favorite cities in the world.
Photo above: Tuck alumni who currently work for Amazon gather for a photo. Photo at right: Students study in Dartmouth's Sanborn Library, which is open to the public. Credit: Dartmouth College.