Amazon

You learn a lot about how Amazon operates:

• The "Leadership Principles"
• Processes at their scale
• A broad set of tools

There is also a surprising degree of autonomy in some senses, but it also means that everything is your job – everything. This can even include doing financial analysis for potential solutions and having to make a business case.

The downside is that there is also a finger-pointing culture. So you are responsible for everything (much of which you likely never did before, let alone within their 'peculiar' processes), and if something goes awry, I've had a manager throw me under the bus for overlooking something.

It is also worth pointing out that I've heard the culture can vary fairly drastically depending upon which "Org" you are in. AWS = hell from what I understand, but Amazon has so many different projects that the cons may not all apply to.

• Arbitrary changes to requirements.
• Backbiting and infighting culture across teams.
• Poor development tools; they have their own code review tool that is terrible.
• Decisions made by leadership to advance careers over meeting customer needs.
• Can expect unreasonable hours. I had a manager in an 11-hour time zone difference who would regularly ask to meet late in the evening for me in the US.

Team leads should act as a shield and buffer between other leads and higher-ups, and help facilitate cross-coordination, procurement of resources, etc. I have literally no idea what my manager did, other than put together nonsensical PowerPoints and schedule meetings.