What It's Like To Work In An Amazon Warehouse

Earlier today, Amazon announced it's looking to hire more than 5,000 people for full-time jobs at 17 of its fulfillment centers throughout the country.

Amazon has 80 fulfillment centers worldwide. Those centers are responsible for filling and shipping out orders.

Its largest center, located in Phoenix, Ariz., is about the size of 28 football fields.

Working at Amazon's fulfillment doesn't sound nearly as bad as working at an Apple manufacturing facility in China. But that doesn't mean it's a walk in the park, either.

One Amazon employee sent an email to Gawker late last year, describing his job working at Amazon's fulfillment center in Tennessee.

Here are some of the highlights, but be sure to head over to Gawker to read the full email:

• Most people are hired through a staffing service, rather than Amazon itself.
• The interview process is about three or four hours long.
• You could easily spend most of your 15-minute break walking through the warehouse just to sit down for five minutes.
• The job is to scan and count the number of items in each cubby. Employees are expected to count 125 cubbies per hour.
• Amazon's fulfillment centers have a diverse group of workers. "From a dude that looks like a college professor to people living in their car to grandmothers to mohawk punks and on and on."

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.