Amazon.com Reviews in Dublin, Ireland Area

Pros

Amazon gives an opportunity to work on systems at incredibly huge scale.

Cons

The company is very frugal on investing in the work environment.

Pros

Good name to have on CV
Scale,scale and scale - gigantic network with over 1mill servers
smart people
interview process - relevant questions, friendly and professional atmosphere
role changes every 6-12 months - from coder to sysadmin to netadmin, etc...

Cons

low pay compared to rivals in Dublin (Google, MS, Facebook)
ridiculously poor benefits - cheapest health cover and worst pension scheme one can get on the Irish market combined with 3x years salary in case of death...
no work-life balance - 10-12 hour days are the norm, 24 hour on-call shifts on consecutive days are not rare either
no parking spaces for employees
overtime is not paid - time in lieu is dependent on manager
revolving door - main theme: stay for 2 years then leave and join the better paying Internet giants in Dublin (Google, MS, Facebook).
poor facilities - place looks like crammed call centre in a third world country

Avoid the following teams: DevSupport, NetOps, TechOps

Pros

Challenge. You'll always learn something new. It also looks good on the CV. Global mobility is not just a phrase but a real option for anyone.

Cons

Work/life balance. You're working most of the time and the for the rest you're on call. Your efforts often don't get recognized.
The fact that Amazon hires only the best (and this is well communicated to employees, too) creates an environment when most of your colleagues think that they are better than the rest. You're working with really bright people, but many of them don't accept the fact that their colleagues are just like them in this respect.

Advice to Senior Management

If you can manage your projects successfully that doesn't necessarily mean that you can manage people.