Pros: Very strong IT engineering, with lots of extremely smart people. There is plenty to learn, and interesting tech challenges. Minimal formalism exists, and engineers often have direct contacts with their business customers. Generally, there is very little balance. Practically everybody I've met in different parts of the organization were true professionals.

Cons: Lack of a formal testing organization. Production support is performed by developers (pager rotation). You'll often get paged in the middle of the night just to find out that something broke somewhere, having nothing to do with what you are supporting, and people have no clue whom to page. Engineers don't last long (many leave in 1-2 years); turnover is pretty high. Benefits are rather mediocre for a large company.

Pros: Lots of tough problems and opportunities for growth.

Cons: Don’t expect your compensation to correlate to performance. More and more office politics.

Pros: Amazon's culture is deeply flawed, with spineless managers who fail to manage up. Instead, they let unexpected goals and multiple responsibilities fall disproportionately on the hardest-working team members. Meanwhile, their favorites are shielded from accountability and consistently receive top ratings year after year, regardless of performance. Managers hold ultimate power, and even when blatant violations of the company's code of conduct are reported with evidence, HR sides with the managers, rendering them completely useless. The lack of fairness and accountability creates a toxic environment where favoritism thrives and hard work goes unrecognized. If you're considering Amazon, be prepared for a culture where politics outweigh merit, and leadership fails to foster a fair or supportive workplace.

Cons: Despite challenges in almost all areas of company culture, the opportunities for personal and professional growth are significant if you can navigate the politics and become your leadership's favourite.