Amazon

Some of the processes in place are really good. They collect a lot of data that can be used to validate any hypothesis before implementing. Some teams have developed really good tech. It seems like most of the good teams are out of India.

I joined as a senior developer.

This review is about Amazon India only, as I'm not aware of other parts. But one common thing about teams across the geographies is that they all try their level best to avoid getting any new work, no matter how important it can be for others and for Amazon to grow. They just don't want to take any work from anyone, even as straightforward as documenting simple things so that others can use it.

Tech people are good, but the managers and their whole hierarchy are not good. There are a lot of inter-team issues, mostly created by managers because they don't have anything else to do. Most managers just ask junior managers to write lots of docs about how teams are performing and to have a lot of meetings. There is no outcome or action item from such meetings. Huge waste of time.

Managers just try to get their promotions; they don't think about the product or take ownership.

Business and product management teams are much worse. They literally don't care about the product or tech team. And on top of that, so much ego. They won't help you out at all unless they themselves need that work done or you are in alignment with their managers.

In Amazon, managers seem so scared, super scared, but actually, there is nothing to be scared of. Most of the work is done by developers properly. But managers don't drive deep into tech, so they are scared.

I think all of the teams working on the website are like that only. If you are joining any team that has a direct page on the website, then do confirm what their real work is. Most probably, they are just getting the data from somewhere and dumping it on the UI.

There are a lot of internal teams, mostly outside India, who are doing the real work; join one of those teams. Before joining, do talk to developers directly. Never believe what the hiring manager tells you.

I'm kind of frustrated by this hypocritical situation here. But I'm here for tech, and tech is what I will do until I'm fully frustrated.

Spend good, informal time with the team and actually solve their issues instead of wasting your and their time.

Actually try to help other teams and work together.

Make the product and tech teams sit together.

Give some power to the product team over the business team.

Make them duly responsible for their own work, but still help each other.