For many students, the journey to a successful career is often filled with detours, exploration, and moments of realization. For Clint Felch, a 2019 graduate of Great Bay Community College, that
journey began in the real-world environments of commercial fishing and construction.
Today, Felch serves as a Supply Chain Manager for Amazon on its External Fulfillment team, where he helped design and build a national network to outsource much of the company’s North American freight, warehousing, and fulfillment operations to independent companies.
When he reflects on his trajectory, he cites Great Bay as the essential foundation of his success.
“Great Bay is probably the most important stepping stone in my career,” he said. “It gave me all the confidence that I needed. Before, I didn’t think that I would have an opportunity to get into any type of school, and Great Bay really opened that door for me.”
Felch didn’t go to college after he graduated from high school. He worked in commercial tuna fishing and later in his family’s construction business. “I applied to a few colleges, but I realized it was not for me. So I had a few gap years,” he said.
When he enrolled at Great Bay in 2017, he felt better prepared for the challenge of college. “I had always heard college was so much different than high school, so I wanted to see for myself. It was a test. Was this something I could do? Was it something I would enjoy doing?”
He aced the test.
He chose Great Bay because of its affordability, enrolling as a liberal arts major to explore his interests before settling on business administration—and graduating without student debt. “Because it was affordable, it allowed me to figure out what I wanted to do in life,” Felch said. “You have smaller classes, and you can build a very good rapport with your professors. All of them were very helpful in wanting to see me succeed.”
After Great Bay, Felch transferred to the University of New Hampshire, where he earned his bachelor’s in business administration with a focus on management and operations. As he approached his graduation from UNH, he was preparing to scale up a commercial painting business he had started when a message arrived on his LinkedIn account inviting him to interview with an Amazon recruiter.
“Six days after graduating from UNH, I started my career at Amazon,” he said.
He quickly rose from managing 150 hourly associates in his first position to leading inventory control and managing other salaried leaders. Today, as a Supply Chain Manager in the External Fulfillment space, he helped the company plan and build 30 third-party warehouses across the country, with a goal of reaching 50 within the next five years.
It’s work of massive scale and impact. In his current role, Felch oversees the shipment of billions of packages.
His success stems from his entrepreneurial instincts, his education and training, and his ability to help others succeed.
Felch offered straightforward advice to current Great Bay students: Identify what you excel at and become the best in that specific area rather than spreading yourself too thin. He also emphasized the importance of networking and finding strong leaders who can guide professional growth.
“I don’t know if it was luck that I got a message on LinkedIn from an Amazon recruiter, but the way I look at it is, you make your own luck. I never anticipated working for a corporation or working in New York. But that’s the power of education. Without my education, I would not have had any of these opportunities. It all started at Great Bay.”