Amazon

This is a good place to get your feet wet and get into the industry for Data Centers. Most people come here for 2-4 years, get ready for the next promotion, or take one here and then leave for better pay and benefits somewhere else. This is a great stepping stone company.

Managers are paid well, or average to above average.

This place is poorly run.

Benefits are good but average in comparison to other tech companies, and the 401k match is pathetic at 0.5% for each percent put in up to 4%, for a total of 2% put in.

Health, Dental, and Vision provide good coverage, but past that, it's nothing exceptional. Vacation Time/PTO is average.

The industry compensation is average or below average.

There are two levels most people fall into: L3 or L4, with a few L2s and L5s in lower management. L6 is where the pay increase is really noticeable.

I came in as an L3 and was told many times how that was an error. I promoted in just under a year with quite a few projects under my belt and got a 16% raise and some stocks. The issue is the stocks were nowhere near what people who came in at L4s got. L4s coming in get close to $60K in extra compensation over 4 years. When I promoted, I got $15K over 3 years.

What kind of person would be willing to do the same job as their peers and get paid $10K less a year while providing better performance?

There really is no rhyme or reason to L4 or L3. Some managers just wanted to cut costs and couldn't think of any practical engineering or innovative solutions and decided cutting labor costs by making half the staff at each Data Center's L3s would be fine. This has resulted in atrocious retention and the level of knowledge within AWS dropping year by year.

Get rid of the half L3 and half L4 building staffing requirement. There is no reasoning for it.

Make performance matter again. Come annual review, people might actually put in an extra effort.

Stop changing policy so frequently. It is bogging down workplace productivity with no proof that there is a reduction in errors.

Other tech companies roll out policies on an annual or semi-annual basis, allowing them to prepare training and allow more time to digest the information.

Five changes at once in prepared training with documents is much easier than one change every month in some random email generated by a manager on some whim.