Amazon

A few things stand out to me:

1. The thing most Amazonians I know like the most is the Ownership culture. Individual contributors are authorized, expected, and encouraged to come up with ideas, launch them, and see them through to the end. Ownership is a way to disperse decision-making authority downwards so that decisions can be made much faster, not as a way for managers to cover themselves for mistakes made.

2. Along with the Ownership culture, Amazonians are given the opportunity to define their roles and activities to a remarkable extent. Of course, every team is different, but my experience is that at least towards the senior levels of the SA community, individuals have the ability to act with a lot of autonomy, making choices on what to focus on and how to achieve their goals.

3. Change is a constant. Within AWS, the market and field of cloud computing are growing and changing so fast that there is always a new challenge to take on. Successful Amazonians tend to be people who like to tackle challenges and then move on to new ones.

Two of the common complaints I've heard in my time at AWS:

1. The downside of the Ownership culture is that people who don't thrive in somewhat ambiguous environments can find it hard to find their footing. Management at AWS is a little different than it is in other places, and some employees may feel that they aren't getting the direction they are used to.

2. The pace of the environment is fast and can be overwhelming to new employees. The field of Enterprise Cloud Computing is fairly new, and the platform is expanding at an amazing rate which drives constant change. If you aren't the kind of person who can adapt and learn quickly, it can be a tough environment to thrive in.