Exit Interview Audiobook By Kristi Coulter cover art

Exit Interview

The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career

Preview

Try for $0.00
Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Exit Interview

By: Kristi Coulter
Narrated by: Kristi Coulter
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $20.24

Buy for $20.24

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

About this listen

This program is read by the author.

A candid, intensely funny memoir of ambition, gender, and a grueling decade inside Amazon.com, from the author of
Nothing Good Can Come from This.

"A unique and brilliant book." —Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks

What would you sacrifice for your career? All your free time? Your sense of self-worth? Your sanity?

In 2006, Kristi Coulter left her cozy but dull job for a promising new position at the fast-growing Amazon.com, but she never expected the soul-crushing pressure that would come with it.

In no time she found the challenge and excitement she'd been craving—along with seven-day workweeks, lifeboat exercises, widespread burnout, and a culture driven largely by fear. But the chase, the visibility, and, let's face it, the stock options proved intoxicating, and so, for twelve years, she stayed—until she no longer recognized the face in the mirror or the mission she'd signed up for.

Unsparing, absurd, and wickedly funny, Exit Interview is a rare journey inside the crucible that is Amazon. It is an intimate, surprisingly relatable look at the work life of a driven woman in a world that loves the idea of female ambition but balks at the reality.

A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

©2023 Kristi Coulter (P)2023 Macmillan Audio
Business Women Funny Witty Thought-Provoking Career
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Critic reviews

"A unique and brilliant book—both a hilarious memoir of one woman's journey through the extremes of corporate America and a poignant and arresting account of what modern work culture can do to the soul. I found myself reading passages aloud to anyone who'd listen."—Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks

"With wry humor, Coulter provides candid insights about life, love, and gender as well as surviving a toxic workplace."Kirkus

“Kristi Coulter has given us the most vivid account yet of Amazon’s chaotic, mercurial, dignity-crushing office culture. Exit Interview is also a very funny and intensely personal depiction of what it’s like to be female in the oppressively male world of technology.”—Brad Stone, author of The Everything Store and Amazon Unbound

What listeners say about Exit Interview

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    129
  • 4 Stars
    15
  • 3 Stars
    9
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    2
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    119
  • 4 Stars
    22
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    3
  • 1 Stars
    1
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    126
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    8
  • 2 Stars
    4
  • 1 Stars
    1

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Touted as a book about women in tech, but ....

Coulter does talk a lot about the experience of a woman working in tech, but this book is about so much more. Also, the futility of the struggle that is corporate work. Also becoming a good German, and following orders. How mediocre managers ruin lives managing everything but people. Well worth the time.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Women, Wine, and Work

I read the author’s first book and loved it, which is also about women, work, and wine. It’s a smart documentary into the life of the ambitious working woman and why we all drink. I enjoyed it and the author is honest and witty.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A mirror of my own experiences

I’m thankful as a woman & Amazon employee that this book exists. Listening to this, I could feel so much of my own experience reflected in the ways she talked about being shuffled, meeting ever changing deadlines, and transforming herself into someone different to fit the culture while also never quite measuring up. Though this book is hyper focused on the Amazon experience, I think many women can probably relate to the feeling of trying to make yourself more digestible for others, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to any of my coworkers-workers or girlfriends grinding through corporate life.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Feast of a Book

Once the story began, I was hooked! I devoured every bit of it. It is not just a singular story about one woman’s experience at Amazon; it speaks to generations of women, hacking their uncharted paths through this world. It is a story of hunger, desire, trauma, love, compassion, and understanding. It is the Serenity Prayer: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, The courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Well done and please keep writing!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Nailed the Amazon experience

At Amazon, I found sobriety. I’m a better leader for reading. Thanks Kristi for forcing me to think introspectively and readdress some of my own flaws.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Relatable as a woman in tech

Love the story, but some chapters are doubled apparently. I heard three times the part about tips on how to be a woman at work, is this on purpose?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

It’s not you, it’s Amazon.

Reflects my experience as a leader at Amazon as if I wrote this book. I cried. If you work for Amazon in a leadership role, read this as a measure of self-preservation. This relatable, witty and sometimes touching story is so worth your time.

The most valuable takeaway for me is validation: I’m not crazy, I’m not weak, I’m not incompetent - it’s Amazon. If you are in by choice, recognize where your limits are and take care of yourself.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

So glad this exists

This book is fantastic and a great read for anyone curious about Amazon, female leadership, career growth, and a very real story. I resonated with so much of this book and saw so much of my own experience in this book. Thank you for giving this story a voice!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Not Just an Amazon Story

I started listening to this account to better understand the culture of Amazon, the nature of assimilating to its corporate "hamster wheel" and, in the process, better support a dear friend who also courageously moved her family across the country to work for Amazon. I was awe before; my respect has only grown exponentially.

Little did I know that this memoir would also tell my professional story, as educator and counselor. The final chapter (and all others) drew me in, exposing how universal the Amazon experience is in reality.

This is a must-read! I laughed outloud many times and learned so much.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

True, kind, smart

Embodied truth-telling. I feel more free within myself for having read-experienced Kristi’s story. This isn’t just a thing my intellect consumed, but the whole of me experienced.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!