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Detroit, MIYou get to learn a lot while working here (in 471 reviews)
Working towards a better work-life balance (in 445 reviews)
Work/life balance seems comparable to other places I've worked - not worse (in 2210 reviews)
No work life balance because of shift changes (in 457 reviews)
I have been working at Amazon full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Amazon provides so many opportunities for growth and development. It is a constantly evolving company and if you can learn, evolve, and adapt to change, you will do very well here!
Cons
Because Amazon is growing so fast, I had a shortened training time and didn't have the best experience, however, in the long run, having to jump in and learn as I went, made me stronger and better at my job!
Advice to Management
Always explain the "whys" behind associate's tasks and responsibilities. If we don't know why we are doing something, it is hard to put the puzzle pieces together.
I have been working at Amazon full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Excellent people to work with.
Fast paced.
Cons
Training can be a bit more focused.
I have been working at Amazon full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Great place to learn and grow and improve your skills. The culture is amazing. You are free to provide feedback to anyone in an attempt to continuously improve our client facing skills and deliverables. You are free to fail as well.
Cons
Immature enterprise client knowledge, but this is changing as we hire more talented industry experts.
Advice to Management
Don't compromise the Amazon culture just to meet hiring goals. If we can't maintain the top talent, then we should not hire.
Helpful (2)
I worked at Amazon full-time (More than a year)
Pros
The compensation and benefits are very competitive.
Cons
- frugality is taken to the extreme, only 2 weeks vacation, parking takes a year or more to get, zero perks (not even free Prime), no fitness allowance, poor 401k
- your peers will stab you in the back, your manager will blame you for their errors, you can't trust anyone
- people who throw others under the bus and take credit for other people's work get promoted
Advice to Management
Take a hard look at the culture the senior manager is creating in the Detroit market. Very Toxic.
Helpful (3)
I have been working at Amazon full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Great pay bump compared to EMS (you will also likely receive a hiring bonus and a RSU award), full benefits which begin on day one, lots of opportunities for professional development provided you're willing to take on safety responsibilities outside of administering first aid (not mandatory but if you want to climb that's the next rung), 4 on/3 off schedule of 10 hour days divided into front half (Sun-Wed) or back half (Wed-Sat), fun coworkers, lots of autonomy.
If you're burnt out on working EMS, have gotten over wanting grizzly trauma cases, and don't mind working in an office setting this is a great job for you. If not you will likely be bored. You will be required to have your state EMS license or your National Registry certification (a recent update) but understand that you will not actually be working as an EMT, and Amcare (the name of Amazon's in-house first aid program) is not a licensed LSA. You will be treating people at the first aid level as defined by OSHA (which is very limiting compared to the road but more than adequate for the typical cases you'll be treating onsite). You will also have a lot of autonomy and there will likely be times when it's just you on your own running the show. When you're not needed in the office you'll be expected to walk around on the operations floor and interact with other employees to help drive the safety culture of the building. If you're self-motivated, a quick learner, and can complete tasks without someone standing over your shoulder constantly you'll be just fine. If you're the type that tends to procrastinate until the last minute you'll find yourself in over your head very quickly.
Cons
The type of building you're in will dictate the staffing model. In some cases staffing can be barely adequate or inadequate to perform the essential job functions of a department which results in longer hours, irregular schedules, and stressed out employees as they try to fill the gaps and keep up with the workload. Internally, Amazon is a very chaotic place to work. The company is growing and changing so quickly that it's hard to keep up on all of the changes constantly coming down the pike. Ask 3 different people how something should be done and you're likely to get at least 4 different answers. Culture is very building, and even department, dependent and as a result can range from great to unbearable depending on your manager. One universal constant at Amazon though is trial by fire. You can count on your onboarding experience to be akin to trying to drink from a fire hose. If you're a quick learner you'll be fine though. It really helps if you're computer savvy.
Strictly speaking from a medical standpoint there's nowhere to actually advance as an Onsite Medical Representative unless you want to get into actual occupational health and safety work. Most either remain in the position and become more involved in helping steer the Amcare program or move into the Safety Specialist position which has nothing to do with medical treatment and focuses entirely on addressing safety and regulatory compliance issues within the workplace because it both pays more and has a lot of room for advancement.
Advice to Management
Formalize the onboarding process and don't allow it to be rushed. Do a better job of communicating important information necessary to perform a job instead of relying on "tribal knowledge" passed down from one person to the next which may or may not be accurate.
I have been working at Amazon full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Good pay, fast paced environment. Good people. You have to make your own mark abd work hard. Lots of opportunities to move up!
Cons
Lot of work, especially prime day. You might have to work different shifts. You have to keep your eye on the prize!!!
Advice to Management
Keep the focus on the people
I have been working at Amazon full-time (More than a year)
Pros
- Wide variety of challenging problems to solve and plenty of work to be done
- The compensation is top notch. Even as a college grad SDE you'll probably be paid what a senior engineer is paid at the other large companies in Detroit. If you stay for a few years you'll be treated with much stock.
- Office is very friendly and there's plenty of community-building events driven by a great office manager
- Yes, you can transfer to Seattle just fine should you want to do that
Cons
- Monthly On call rotations with typically pretty heavy operational load.
- Sometimes recently it seems like empire building is the true motivation behind some decisions (though it can always be framed with some LP like Customer Obsession)
Advice to Management
Favor keeping the small, friendly startup feel of the office over building an empire
Pros
Great work-life balance. Amazon has a great system to feel like you are a part of something bigger.
Cons
Did not get to build meaningful connections that I hoped at a company like Amazon Many of the workers are fairly separated from each other, a fratty atmosphere.
Advice to Management
Remember to keep things running like a startup. As soon as you stray from it, the path goes downhill.
I have been working at Amazon full-time (More than 10 years)
Pros
Need extra employment during the day.
Cons
There are none as long as it's a replicable company
Advice to Management
I have worked in management for 25 years. Very strong work ethic
Helpful (3)
I worked at Amazon full-time (Less than a year)
Pros
Dynamic work environment with
Cons
Too much operational work. It was overwhelming and frustrating to see how much one had to rely on manual processes when some tool development could have saved everyone a lot.
Advice to Management
Focus on tool development. Focus on structured training for ops. If the average developers spend more than 50% of their time outside of an IDE, then something is not right.
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