Blog # 223 I talked about Back in Vegas for a hot minute. In this blog I want to talk about when Zappos creates the offer during NHT.

NHT or New Hire Training required all employees to undergo a 4-week training course on how CLT works. The first 3 weeks were all about the company and its culture, the customer service program, the inventory system. We would be working with an experienced CLT employee to answer any questions and coach us through difficult situations. The final week was all phone time. After this was completed, we had to head out to Kentucky and go through Warehouse training. I would be going through training with Richard, but we had a China trip in July to go to first.

Fred was the first to go through the training in August. Fred, Alfred, and Tony (or Fat as they liked to be called when together) all signed up. They took all their pictures down from internal programs so they wouldn’t be identified. Alfred & Tony decided to take their turns in October. At the end of the Bootcamp in October they initiated an opportunity for candidates to quit and get paid $100 to do so. This would eventually grow to a one month’s salary to quit in 2019.

So, it’s July and our China trip was fast upon us. I would be going ahead of Richard to firm up some things with our factories. Fred wanted me to live in China for a while, but I didn’t want to do that at this point. I started taking Mandarin through the Pimsleur system and was getting pretty good at it with basic conversation. To test my learnings I even negotiated some gifts at a better price at a local store.

Richard liked taking a bus to get the full “China experience” from Hong Kong to Dong Guan but since I was alone, I decided to take a car. I must admit it was a much nicer experience and easier to go through customs and the border. The Zappos tour group was going to Shanghai which was why I was by myself the first 4-5 days. They would meet up with me later and we would take them to the factories to see how the shoe making process works.

I get to the Haiyatt hotel and since I had been going back and forth every 6 weeks from the states, everyone knew me there. That was funny and scary at the same time. The trips helped me sort my life out a bit since I was experiencing such a change. It also made me realize the importance of travel. Travelling gives you the experience of other cultures and helps you realize we are truly one race, the human race. I felt very fortunate to be able to experience this valuable life lesson. I was so tired I decided to just order food to my room. Tomorrow night I would go to my favorite Japanese restaurant in the hotel and do teppanyaki.