Good book. Well written. I thought it was funny and enjoyable.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advance copy.

Good book with a laugh out loud story that takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster along with the main character.

Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an advanced digital copy of Exit Review in exchange for an honest review.

Kristi Coulter recounts her boundless ambition that led her to climbing the corporate ladder at one of the world's most profitable companies. This was a mix of Amazon corporate gossip and well-thought out analysis of Coulter's own ambition and grappling with her career desires. Additionally, she gives some thought to her positionality as a white woman in a predominantly white male workplace.

I enjoyed the corporate gossip and inner look at some of Amazon's earlier days, product development, and overall toxic culture but this was by no means an expose of the likes of Bad Blood or 24 Hours (Enron Scandal). It was a much more personal look at one woman's experience rising through the corporate ranks and how her race and gender interplayed with Amazon's culture. I think people who work at Amazon, are considering working at Amazon, or just generally enjoy memoirs (me!) would enjoy this as I did.

Great book! I couldn’t stop reading it, mainly because of how well it was written. Nothing huge happens here, but it’s still somehow very fascinating.

There needs to be more of this. I love how it opens - "people don't believe me when I say my coworkers kept bottles of booze on their desks" - and that's just getting started. I love her writing style and we need more of this type of memoir. What a place to work! Coming off the heels of working for an Elon Musk type, Exit Interview is both comforting and a surreal/wild ride! LOL.

I was looking forward to this a lot -- I read Coulter's "Nothing Good Can Come of This" just before I quit drinking and more than any other personal writing about recovery, it stuck with me.

I was so excited for this memoir because I too was a latecomer to big tech -- after a career change in my mid-30s I found myself in a situation very much lile Coulter's: making more money than I ever imagined I would, but immersed in a corporate culture that was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. Parts of this resonated so much that it was almost painful to read at times. I can't think of anyone else who has better captured how this kind of job and company can take over your life and identity if you let it.

This book was painful but necessary. Kristi provided such a raw and honest look inside of her career and life, Amazon as an organization, and the truth about technology companies and their evolution in the 10s. When I say that it was painful I mean that she was demanded to give so much of herself and she clearly suffered for so many years. I think she tried to emphasize how this was normalized and how so much of the work pushed her in ways that fueled her... but the sexism and total disregard for work-life balance she encountered was still astounding. Sometimes I had a hard time keeping track of all of the names and different departments and how they operated but the overall story tracked well. It's one of the most captivating memoirs I've read.

In 2006, Kristi Coulter’s dreams of being a writer have petered out, and she’s languishing in a stagnant job at a media company. When a position opens up at Amazon, she moves across the country to take on a crazy new job at this fast-moving tech company. In Exit Interview, she details with hilarious precision the insanity of her 12 years as an Amazonian.

I’ve loved Kristi Coulter’s writing ever since I read “Enjoli,” her star-making self-published essay on women and drinking. I read her previous essay collection, Nothing Good Can Come From This, in college, and have been following her work ever since. So when I saw an ARC for her new book, I jumped on the chance to read it, and I’m so glad I did! Exit Interview is equal parts funny and terrifying, with Coulter’s signature wit and simmering anger. She expertly picks apart the double bind of “femaling in the business world” with clarity. Also, it was fun to write in my Kindle notes “so trueeee” whenever she made an acerbic remark about PNW culture (the dessert bar at Sleeping Lady really is legendary). This book is definitely 4 out of 5 Jeff Balls.

I started at AOL in 1998 (back when @aol WAS the internet). @kristicccoulter started at Amazon around the time I quit (was gratefully exited) from my 5 years with 12 bosses. I related hard to her story. Emotionally abusive and mostly incompetent men constantly getting promoted around me and above me, not being allowed to have an empty office because they might need it for a VP (aka a man) and a new strategy every week that meant lots of fire 🔥 drills at 6:30 pm. All that chaos led me to starting @shefinds because I never wanted to work in a chaotic corporation again. This #exitinterview is an amazing read for those of us who’ve been through the bald bad man internet boss wringer (at least eight of my 12 bosses were bald men…) Available now for purchase or from your library!!

I may be the perfect demographic for this book, but I can say I truly loved it. I loved seeing the journey of her career, the lessons she learned, and ultimately the big choices she had to make. As a young Amazonian woman myself who also found herself with a problematic relationship with drinking but now recently sober, I was so incredibly validated by this book and Coulter put into words so many thoughts and feelings I’ve been struggling to parse through over the last nine months. I would highly recommend this to anyone, but I will especially be bringing this up to my female coworkers who share many of my battles. Thank you, Kristi, for giving us words through your memoir.

Thank you to the publishers for the opportunity to check out an ARC of this book through NetGalley!

I always love a good memoir especially when it's written by a women. This one piqued my interest because it was about the authors time at Amazon. I am always fascinated with the tech industry and especially people who were there at the start of the a company that turned into something huge.

I wouldn't say I walked away from this book learning that much new, but I did appreciate the authors perspective on being a women in a workplace. I think she touches oh some real common themes that all women struggle with when working around men.

I'm not sure I would pick this up again, but at the end of the day I did enjoy it! 3.75 stars.

This is the best book about women and work that I've ever read. Amazon is certainly singular in many ways, which Coulter illustrates, but women working pretty much anywhere and at any stage in their careers can likely relate to the baseline neglect, harassment, undermining and disrespect we face in the American workplace. I appreciated her ability to detail the timeline of her career, but make it a story I cared about. Kristi is super smart, and her combination of intelligence, wit, honesty and vulnerability really drove this one home for me.

Brave, funny, bewildering!
It is a privilege to read these most honest details & Kristi is a FANTASTIC writer. I think this will be one of my favorite reads for 2023.

If you are going to burn down the patriarchy on your way out the door, you might as well do it with a wry and knowing sense of humour. Coulter does just that when she describes her 12 chaotic, hair-raising, maddening, frustrating, rewarding and challenging years at Amazon. Coulter started in 2006 when the Kindle (on which this book was read) was barely an idea in Bezos' not yet buff head. She had her hand in many Amazonian (yes that's a real term) innovations, including Amazon Go (Fresh), Amazon Publishing, and more. I personally am glad Coulter was part of the behemoth because without her increasingly empathetic and desperate attempts to push back at its patriarchal and megalomaniacal atmosphere (how can she get a promotion - "change the world" - um ok! will do!), I shudder to think about what other damage Amazon could have done to its employee cohort. The narrative thread connecting Coulter's start with her exit (the title of the book gives away her ultimate fate) is just how unreceptive the working world was, is, and continues to be to women. Perfect read for anyone who has ever struggled in a dysfunctional corporate environment and made it out alive or who is looking for the strength to escape. Thanks to Farrar Straus & Giroux and NetGalley for the E-Arc.

I couldn't put this down. I appreciated the humor, honesty, and candid approach Kristi Coulter uses to describe her tenure at Amazon. I heard rumors about Amazon's toxic workplace, so reading a first hand account of the experience was infuriating and also not surprising. Coulter explores her ambition and how it came in conflict with the impossible standards Amazon put into place that perpetuate bad behavior and limit opportunities for women.

Thank you Netgalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD for the advanced reader copy.

A pitch-perfect, wonderfully written and oh so honest memoir of the author's career at Amazon - truly left my blood boiling about what she went through. So grateful that she left nothing out (biggest question is how she can publish this, sell on Amazon, not get in trouble) but again grateful for her honesty. I was infuriated on her behalf up until the bitter end - but so happy she has found her true path now as a writer, a very talented one that I will watch for future releases (and will read her first book soon too!). Thanks NetGalley for an advance copy - this book releases this week so others can enjoy it very soon!

EXIT INTERVIEW by Kristi Coulter is a spirited and relatable discussion of employment at Amazon from 2006 to 2018. Coulter, a gifted writer, begins by describing the all-day interview process; although she seems surprised by some questions (e.g., How many gas stations in the US?). Coulter uses the subtitle "The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career" and she writes about the evolution of her feelings towards the organization for which she works and the content, decisions, and impact of that work. Some chapters looking specifically at events associated with female employment since 1972 – simultaneously disheartening and amusing, these are fascinating compilations of national (passage of the ERA; Ferraro for VP), local (harassment at Amazon), and personal (family dynamics, childhood games) occurrences. Her insights on gender are thoughtful; they are not overly strident, but they do allow readers to appreciate the inherent biases that are present in society and particularly (and unfortunately!) in the tech sector. Hopefully, some readers will recognize themselves and pause for deeper reflection. Her own father seems unable to acknowledge the prejudice she faces daily. Likewise, her own capitulation to work pressures and toxic workplace expectations should provide an opportunity for further introspection by all of us. Obviously, it is not just the warehouse conditions at Amazon that are prompting injury, burnout, and exit interviews. 4.5 stars

I really enjoyed this book! Kristi has an interesting perspective, and the book is filled with funny stories about her personal life and the part she played in the growth of Amazon.

Thank you to the publisher and #Netgalley for the advanced copy!

I absolutely loved this book! Even though it is about the author's experience working for Amazon corporate, anyone can relate who has worked in Corporate America (well - any large dysfunctional organization for that matter) and is trying to assess how bad is is really and whether to stay or go. Organizations have a sneaky way to incentivize you to hang on longer for what may happen in the future (promotions, etc.) that don't always transpire and additional hurdles are added (like her boss telling her that in order to get promoted she would need to "just change the world." -- I did not know whether to laugh or cry -- because these are the kind of vague answers I have also heard from some bosses over the years and it is ridiculous- not measurable, not specific, not actionable. This book was cathartic for me in some ways because it enabled me to look back at my career (the highs and lows in many industries) as will as relate to what the newer generations of the workforce are experiencing. Coulter's candor and inner thoughts appear throughout the book and I really appreciated her openness and honesty and doubts. She does not shy away about the personal cost of trying to achieve perfection and live with the uncertainty and doubt. Unfortunately what she describes as a toxic workplace is not just unique to Amazon and the sexism she experienced in her career (including at other companies) still exists. I highlighted a lot of passages in this book because they resonated with me so much. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux, MCD for an ARC and I left this review voluntarily.

“Exit Interview" is a delightful read on the lengths people will go to for success in corporate America. Engaging and zany, Coulter will keep you laughing and turning pages until you've reached the last one. Highly recommended. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.