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    Amazon Detroit Reviews

    Updated February 12, 2018
    12 reviews

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    Detroit, MI
    4.2
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    Amazon Chairman, President, and CEO Jeff Bezos
    Jeff Bezos
    8 Ratings

    12 Employee Reviews

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    Pros
    Cons

    • 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)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "If you love a fast paced environment, you will love Amazon!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Senior HRA in Detroit, MI
      Current Employee - Senior HRA in Detroit, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      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.

    2. "World Class Company"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Sales Representative in Detroit, MI
      Current Employee - Sales Representative in Detroit, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      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.

      3. Join the Amazon team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "Amazing place to work - Incredible talent and exciting growth"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Principal Solution Architect - Tech Leader in Detroit, MI
      Current Employee - Principal Solution Architect - Tech Leader in Detroit, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      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.

    4. Helpful (2)

      "Account Executive"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Account Executive in Detroit, MI
      Former Employee - Account Executive in Detroit, MI
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook

      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.

    5. Helpful (3)

      "If You're Looking For a Challenge Look No Further"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Onsite Medical Representative in Detroit, MI
      Current Employee - Onsite Medical Representative in Detroit, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      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.

    6. "Manager"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Manager in Detroit, MI
      Current Employee - Manager in Detroit, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      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

    7. "Great Company, Better Office"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - SDE2 in Detroit, MI
      Current Employee - SDE2 in Detroit, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      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

    8. "Software Engineer"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Detroit, MI
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Detroit, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      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.

    9. "Distribution Center"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Work From Home Agent in Detroit, MI
      Current Employee - Work From Home Agent in Detroit, MI
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook

      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

    10. Helpful (3)

      "Too much Ops with too little training"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Software Development Engineer II in Detroit, MI
      Former Employee - Software Development Engineer II in Detroit, MI

      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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