Amazon

Fast-paced, smart co-workers, opportunities for ownership and leadership.

Expect to work on the latest technologies.

Data-driven.

As with any company, there are a few kinds of people at Amazon: those who sail through well, and then move on to other opportunities and always have a positive feeling about their short stint.

Others start seeing the cons and start planning to get out.

A few stay around and do well for themselves.

Depending on which group you fall into, the cons will be magnified. There seems to be one focus: the bottom line and making sure your boss and their boss are happy. It's Kafkaesque.

This is a result of the top-down culture, where everything coming from the S and D teams is sacred and non-negotiable.

There is very little time to learn, and the focus is on delivering products. If not you, someone else will do your job.

The leadership is uninspiring, and the projects, depending on your group, aren't exactly cutting edge.

Depending on which group you are in, throwing more money at customers sometimes seems to be the next big innovation – another way to get more customers to sign up for Amazon and for Prime.

Understand what actual innovation is.

Understand the different ways people work and work to build an environment conducive to the growth of your engineers.

Look after the needs of your engineers and show some real leadership and respect rather than forcing non-negotiable goals and measuring everyone against them.

Focus on work-life balance.

Sending out "please work overtime" messages over and over again to a team that is already overworked is not only unprofessional but shows a lack of empathy, understanding, and a disconnection with your team.

Learn ways to motivate people rather than talking about goals from the Kafkaesque "upper management."