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Amazon President and CEO Andy Jassy delivered that message to graduates of the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering on June 7, 2024. His point was not that every graduate should chase a dramatic startup or master every new technology. It was that a first job, an early rejection, or someone else’s opinion does not have to become a permanent career—or financial—identity.
For graduates entering a volatile technology labor market, Jassy’s advice is most useful when treated as a practical framework: explore deliberately, take risks you can afford, keep learning, build trust, and revise your plan as circumstances change.
What Jassy told the UW graduates
The speech took place at Alaska Airlines Arena in Seattle. UW’s account says about 650 graduates attended the ceremony, while the Allen School expected to award more than 770 degrees during the 2023–24 academic year. Jassy was speaking to that specific class—not to all computer-science graduates everywhere. Read the Allen School’s event recap.
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Coverage of the address often condenses it to three phrases: take risks, keep learning, and write your own story. Those are accurate, but the broader advice also covered uncertainty, failure, attitude, reliability, teamwork, and sustained effort. Jassy drew on a career that included ambitions to become a sportscaster and experiments in television production, consulting, investment banking, sales, coaching, retail, and new-business ventures before he joined Amazon at 29. GeekWire’s report includes the speech’s career anecdotes.
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You do not need your career figured out at 22
Jassy’s first reassurance was that graduation does not require a lifelong answer. A computer-science degree can lead to software engineering, infrastructure, security, research, product work, technical program management, developer relations, startups, or roles outside conventional technology companies.
Trying a role and deciding it is wrong is not automatically wasted time. A failed interview, short-lived job, or project that loses its appeal can provide information about the work, manager, industry, or lifestyle you actually want. Exploration is also a personal-finance decision: the safest experiment is one that preserves an emergency fund, limits expensive commitments, and leaves room to change direction.
“Write your own story” means agency, not total control
Jassy used that phrase as the speech’s organizing metaphor. He argued that a teacher, boss, peer, or family member should not be allowed to define a graduate’s potential. He recalled a childhood judgment about his athletic ability that he later contradicted through high-school and college sports.
The useful interpretation is agency. You control many choices, effort levels, responses to feedback, and decisions about what to try next. You do not control layoffs, discrimination, visa rules, family obligations, health, the economy, or whether an employer recognizes your work. “Writing your own story” therefore includes revising it when conditions change—not pretending that external constraints do not exist.
Take the shot, but make the risk intelligent
Jassy said he regretted missed risks more than failures and described difficult experiences as “proudest scars.” For a new graduate, that can mean:
- Applying for a stretch role when you meet the core requirements.
- Asking a question that may reveal a knowledge gap.
- Presenting an idea before it is perfect.
- Volunteering for unfamiliar work.
- Building and shipping a project instead of preparing indefinitely.
Risk tolerance is not a moral test of ambition. Applying for a job is a relatively low-cost risk; quitting without savings, health coverage, or an immigration plan is materially different. A startup decision may affect debt repayment, caregiving, housing, or a partner’s income. Before a major move, estimate your cash runway, insurance needs, relocation costs, and fallback options. Thoughtful courage is the goal, not recklessness.
Become a continuous learner
Jassy described learning aptitude and willingness as a career differentiator and warned that people begin to “unwind” when they stop learning. For computer-science professionals, learning may involve a language or framework, cloud infrastructure, artificial intelligence, security, privacy, distributed systems, product judgment, communication, or business context.
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That does not mean chasing every fashionable tool. Tie learning to a role, project, or demonstrable capability. Code reviews, incident retrospectives, users, mentors, and teammates are learning sources too. Amazon later summarized similar themes in a March 21, 2025 article, but that corporate post is later corroboration—not the original commencement speech. See Amazon’s later summary.
A practical three-month learning cycle
- Choose one skill connected to your target work.
- Build or improve something that uses it.
- Request feedback from a manager, professor, peer, or user.
- Record what changed in your approach and what to learn next.
A finished project, production contribution, research artifact, technical explanation, or meaningful open-source pull request makes learning visible. A pile of unused certificates does not necessarily do the same.
Attitude, trust, and teamwork are career skills
Jassy’s advice was not solely about technical ability. He emphasized doing what you promised, working effectively with others, caring about the organization’s mission, bringing constructive energy, and remaining dependable and “can-do.” These behaviors compound because managers are more likely to give important work to people they trust.
That is not a demand for toxic positivity. Constructive professionals can raise concerns, document risks, challenge poor decisions, and set boundaries. “Control your attitude” should never be used to blame someone for layoffs, discrimination, unsafe work, or bad management.
Hard work needs a sustainable definition
Jassy argued that excellence in programming, business, sports, writing, teaching, and other fields generally requires sustained effort. The sound version of that advice is deliberate practice, feedback, and finishing meaningful work. It is not a mandate for unlimited hours.
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Consistent effort differs from chronic overtime; high standards differ from impossible workloads; commitment to craft differs from loyalty to one employer. Rest, recovery, and financial stability support a long career. If a workplace treats every mistake as disqualifying or expects permanent availability, its “risk-taking” culture may not be genuine.
Apply the framework without ignoring your finances
| Jassy’s idea | Practical behavior | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| Take risks | Apply, ask, build, present, volunteer, and experiment. | Ignore debt, health, visa, family, or ethical constraints. |
| Keep learning | Set a recurring goal and seek feedback. | Chase every trend or buy credentials without a purpose. |
| Write your own story | Review your direction and revise it periodically. | Pretend outside conditions do not matter. |
| Accept failure | Separate controllable factors and change the next attempt. | Assume every setback is automatically valuable. |
| Work hard | Practice consistently and finish important work. | Normalize burnout or exploitation. |
Six actions to take this month
- Choose one bounded experiment. Try an open-source contribution, research project, infrastructure task, security exercise, or product prototype with a deadline and a defined downside.
- Protect your runway. Keep essential expenses, insurance, debt obligations, and family responsibilities in view before accepting a lower-paid or higher-risk role.
- Ask one useful uncomfortable question. Clarify expectations, request feedback, or ask how a team handles mistakes.
- Ship evidence. Finish a project, technical write-up, pull request, or portfolio artifact that shows what you can do.
- Schedule learning. Reserve a recurring block for one role-relevant skill rather than trying to master everything.
- Write a failure review. After a rejection, abandoned project, or incident, note what was outside your control, what preparation was missing, and what you will change.
The limits of executive career advice
Jassy’s experience gives the advice weight, but his path is not a universal template. Access to time, money, networks, geography, health care, and immigration options affects who can experiment safely. Individual effort cannot eliminate structural barriers or guarantee a job.
The strongest takeaway is therefore modest and actionable: preserve your ability to choose, keep adding useful capability, and do not confuse an early chapter with the whole book. A career can be changed without being improvised recklessly.
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