Amazon

Amazing customer focus. I've worked for some top companies, and I've not seen customer focus like in Amazon.

Pays slightly better in cash than other similar companies; this comparison falls flat if you bring in other benefits into the picture (Amazon has nothing there).

If you like rapid changes and find excitement in firefighting, you'll like the work in most teams.

Absolutely no work-life balance. You are basically expected to work weekends often, and it is assumed that you will join late-night calls every day.

On Call. If you're interviewing with them, ask them about it. They generally don't mention it to you till you've joined. Your mobile number is entered into the system, and anytime there is an issue in production, you will get a message and you are expected to log in and take a look within 15 minutes. This could happen anytime while you are on-call; 3 am or when you are with friends on weekends. Oh, they'll give you a data card, so you can carry your laptop wherever you go and log in and work when they ask you to. One thing that makes it slightly better is that the team takes it in turns, so you are on-call about one week every month (this will vary by team size and other factors).

Absolutely no respect for personal space. I was called 8 times from the office (about work) when I had explicitly told them I was out of office attending a funeral. When my friend's dad was hospitalized, he was asked to send a report within an hour, despite the fact that he was in the hospital with his father.

Minimal benefits. Amazon takes frugality to an extreme. If you even make the mistake of joining there, "Frugality" is one of the core principles/values that they will advertise during your new employee orientation, and you will hear this word a lot during your stay at Amazon.

A minor gripe – their stock vesting cycle is designed so that you lose a lot of stock whenever you leave the company. Here's what you get after completing:

• 1 year - 5%
• 2 years - 15%
• 2.5 years - 20%
• 3 years - 20%
• 3.5 years - 20%
• 4 years - 20%

So, anytime you leave, you lose all stock awarded within the last year, 95% of the stock awarded between 1 year and 2 years ago, 80% of the stock awarded between 2 years and 2.5 years ago, and so on.

I quit in around 1 year and 11 months. Three weeks more would've given me a considerable amount of stock, but I decided not to wait; it was that bad.