Pros
Amazon.com is a strong business fueled by a virtuous cycle. Sales growth drives increased network density which improves cost per package fueling more sales growth. AWS is Amazon’s profit engine while growing rapidly and losing leadership to Azure. Alexa is strong as well although also looking vulnerable to Google. With growth comes opportunity. The workforce is young and high energy. You’ll find sharp folks in all organizations. Decisions are made quickly especially when reversible. Jeff is obsessed with delighting customers and long term in his thinking. Peers tend to be sharp, but a step down from the other tech firms I’ve worked for. Pay is fine- comparable to other top tech companies but lower after adjusting for cost of living. Benefits are somewhat typical with the exception of vacation and sick days. Both lag behind top tech peers. The Seattle campus is beautiful and modern. There are plenty of food choices including a good food truck scene. The buildings are dog friendly which keeps things cheery.
Cons
I joined Amazon because I found that Jeff’s leadership principles and vision resonated with me. I find those principles poorly lived at Amazon, My impression is that the company grew too quickly and failed to maintain standards in doing so. For some context, I’ve worked in high tech since 2000 and have worked for three tech titans, all number one in their fields. Amazon has lower standards than all three. I’ve seen the worst tech of my career at Amazon. I’ve seen the worst data, data management, and systems at Amazon. The comparisons are quite stark. Entire tech teams here would have been summarily fired at prior employers. At Amazon, they linger despite low standards and repeated failures. While Jeff is quite long term in focus, business unit heads can be very short term. Emphasis is placed on the number of projects completed in a given year. (Congratulations on busy!). However, very little planning is done beyond the current year and next to nothing is discussed on long term vision. Tech teams design to the current years’ projects which may not be aligned with the long term. Much of the tech work is wasted year over year. Rapid growth has led to a very inconsistent culture. It’s unusual to work with anyone who has been at Amazon more than a couple of years. What is valued becomes subjective with little in the way of common standards for employee assessment. Managers have nearly unilateral control over performance reviews which creates a culture of manager pleasing. This leads to bad decisions as employees do not challenge their hierarchy. Hubris is the Achilles heel of any successful company. Amazon is no exception. Folks expect newcomers to be awed. I was, but not in a good way. I find the company does little to study and adopt external best practices. The company practice of raising the bar with each external hire can mean you can find less capable folks at more senior grade levels. Don’t expect your grade level to change as a result. You can only be promoted within your current role. If your boss is not interested in having you as a peer, you’ll have to take a lateral and then earn your promo there. Some managers do consistently push their teams to their physical limits. Health and marital problems are commonplace as a result. I’m the longest tenured team member at one year due to this. The following three longest in seniority are all looking for other jobs. Amazon doesn’t seem to see high turnover as wasteful. Nothing seems to be done with managers who have 100% turnover every year. Low standards leave little to learn from. If you’re driven by intellectual curiosity and personal growth, you may need to look elsewhere.