LinkedIn ranked Amazon at No. 1 on its Top Companies 2021 list, which is designed to help professionals identify the best places to grow their careers. Amazon is up from No. 3 in 2019, the latest edition of this ranking. This annual list uses data from LinkedIn’s 740 million members across the globe to rank the most sought-after places to work for professionals in the U.S.

"We keep refining our Top Companies methodology each year," said George Anders, senior editor-at-large for LinkedIn. “Amazon's strong showing this year isn't just a tribute to how many different ways there are to make a career at the company. Our data shows that Amazon also is a standout in building employees' skills, year by year."

LinkedIn’s methodology evaluates how companies attract and retain the best talent, including through promotions, funding opportunities for employees to learn new skills, gender diversity, and hiring people from all backgrounds and levels of education. LinkedIn also looked at how much recruiters from other companies search for employees currently working at Amazon.

“Over the last year, hundreds of thousands of people joined Amazon, some looking for a temporary job until they could go back to their old one, and others hoping to start a new career with us,” said Beth Galetti, SVP of People eXperience & Technology. “To all Amazonians, thank you for obsessing over customers and making Amazon a great place to work.”

Just this past year, Amazon created more than 400,000 jobs in the U.S. and on-boarded tens of thousands of new employees virtually. We talked to some of the employees who started with Amazon over the last year—and helped make us LinkedIn’s top company in 2021.

Hiring the best, from home

Jo Shoesmith is an executive creative director who was one of the creatives behind Amazon’s 2021 Super Bowl campaign and the successful holiday ballerina ad. She just celebrated her one-year anniversary with Amazon, while working from home. Though she has yet to meet her team in person, Shoesmith said she has enjoyed getting to know everyone virtually.

“You never know when a child or pet will make a cameo in a meeting,” she said. “I love those little moments of reality that break our virtual office fourth wall. The ones that bring that humanity and personality into the meetings. Those moments always make me smile.”

Dianne Eldridge, a business development lead for industrial artificial intelligence at Amazon Web Services (AWS), has been working from her Houston home with her college-age kids for the past five months. She said the experience has evoked a new interest in her role.

“I am honestly still giddy that I made the move over to AWS during the pandemic,” she said. “The hiring and onboarding process were surprisingly smooth, so I feel privileged to be able to work on something exciting from home—with an added bonus of my kids thinking I am cool since I now work in the field of AI and machine learning.”

From corporate offices to fulfillment centers, Amazon is always looking for passionate, customer-obsessed people from diverse backgrounds to help us build the future. “If you are willing to learn and grow, you will find success at Amazon,” said Susan Gunder, a fulfillment associate in Coppell, Texas. “My fellow Amazon peers have really helped me thrive in my work, and I’m motivated by helping others.”

All Amazon jobs pay a starting wage of at least $15 an hour—twice the federal minimum wage—and all regular, full-time employees enjoy healthcare from day one, a 401(k) plan with company match, up to 20 weeks of paid leave for a parent who gives birth, company-subsidized backup child and adult care, and access to free upskilling opportunities.

‘Positively influencing the culture’

Despite being stationed behind a screen since starting her job in January, Richelle Minor, a senior program manager, has found other ways to get involved during her short time at Amazon. “One of the highlights of my time so far has been joining the Black Employee Network (BEN) affinity group, and being able to take a cooking class during Black History month. I really enjoyed the class—along with my family—and meeting others while cooking.”

Amazon has 13 affinity groups, also known as employee resource groups, with more than 90,000 members across 190 chapters. The groups bring Amazon employees together across businesses and locations around the world. Affinity groups play an important role in building internal networks for creating a community, advising Amazon business units, leading in service projects, and reaching out to communities where employees live and work.

Gary Bushrod, a diversity, equity, and inclusion business partner, said the two reasons he joined Amazon in January were impact and disruption. “It is no secret that Amazon is known for its ability to reinvent and improve itself. They are constantly disrupting the status quo, and doing so while rapidly growing,” he said. “As a DEI leader, I wanted to be instrumental in positively influencing the culture and people behind one of the largest machines on Earth.”

It’s still Day 1

Though remote work offers its perks, Shoesmith is looking forward to Day 1 in her new office. “As a creative, there have been several times since I started at Amazon where I am in a meeting and there are many different perspectives being discussed. Diversity of thought is a very powerful tool at Amazon, and when you sit in a room with diverse perspectives, inevitably ‘Disagree and Commit,’ my favorite Leadership Principle, becomes very powerful.”

As we look ahead to the day when our new employees will meet their peers in the office, and the years that follow, we will continue to innovate and improve in our efforts to be Earth’s Best Employer. We’re honored to be recognized as No. 1 on LinkedIn’s Top Companies list this year, and we continue to believe that when it comes to creating great experiences for our employees, customers, and communities, it’s still Day 1.

To apply for a job at Amazon, visit www.amazon.jobs. We have more than 30,000 positions open for people of all backgrounds and levels of experience. For more information about LinkedIn’s 2021 top companies list, visit here.

LinkedIn names Amazon No. 1 company where Americans want to work

Hiring the best, from home

‘Positively influencing the culture’

It’s still Day 1