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Amazon Web Services

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Toxic to its core - Operations Amazon Web Services Employee Review

1.0
Jul 17, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I used to believe that working for the leading web provider would have allowed me to learn and grow, as well as benefit from having the experience on my resume…have not found that any of that is true. In my role/org, there really isn’t a single redeeming thing that I can identify other than collecting a paycheck.

Cons

The absolute toxic culture that is pushed from the top down. Leadership Principles used as weapon but never reciprocated by leadership…..do as I say, not as I do…leadership non- existent. While claiming inclusion, diversity and equity, I found them to be the least inclusive of any company I ever worked for. No concept of diversity of thought. You MUST confirm to Amazon-ease/way of thinking OR be connected. I've had far more autonomy and "bar raising" opportunities/outcomes outside of AWS and have learned far more from every other employer before AWS. The idea that they strive to be the world’s best employer is a bad joke. Saw very little innovation in my group, continually rolled out homegrown solutions that simply didn’t work and actually create MORE manual intervention. Pay for the first 2 years was OK due to signing bonus, but then falls off a cliff with no adjustment to RSUs and with stock tanking, will take a massive pay cut (15% + in my case). BTW, when I raised this concern during initial offer, the recruiter assured me they would adjust RSUs for any major decline in stock price. I asked for the language to be included and told they couldn’t add it, I should have known better then and walked away…several colleagues told me they had similar experience. Benefits fall far below industry standard as well. I could write volumes if just how bad the experience was…I would simply NEVER recommend AWS/Amazon to anyone. Truly awful organization.

Explore other reviews about Amazon Web Services

5.0
May 24, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

good working place and great colleagues

Cons

too much remote team , no office collaboration

4.0
May 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Operated in systems that had real scale, operational constraints, and production consequences.

Cons

Working at Amazon Web Services gave me strong exposure to distributed systems, operational ownership, and production-scale infrastructure, but there were definitely tradeoffs as well. One downside was that, like many large organizations, ownership could become fragmented. You often own a subsystem or workflow rather than an entire product end-to-end, which can limit exposure to broader architectural decision-making unless you deliberately seek it out. There was also significant process overhead. Design reviews, operational processes, dependency coordination, and organizational alignment were valuable for learning rigor, but they can slow iteration compared to smaller engineering teams. Another challenge is that large internal ecosystems can abstract away infrastructure complexity. AWS has extensive internal tooling, deployment systems, and operational platforms, which are powerful, but some of that experience does not transfer directly outside the company. I also found that operational work could dominate engineering time at points. Handling production issues, retries, integration failures, and on-call responsibilities teaches reliability engineering well, but it can reduce the amount of time spent on deeper technical exploration or greenfield development. Finally, there is the perception aspect. AWS is a strong name, but experienced interviewers know there is wide variance between teams and roles. The company name opens doors, but ultimately you still need to demonstrate technical depth, ownership, and strong engineering judgment independently of the brand.

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