Amazon

• Lots of smart people on SD1-SD2 levels.
• Great tech infrastructure and automation.

Company ideology is broken.

• Every year, all employees will have to pass "Amazon leadership principles" training where they will be told slogans like "Leaders Are Right—A Lot" or "Be Vocally Self-Critical," and so on. This is all BS. The truth is that the only principle which works at Amazon is "I'm the boss, that's why I'm right." So, be prepared that at the end of the year, you'll go on PIP if you would dare to challenge any management decision, whether technical or not.

Actually, that is what happened to me. I discovered that the design of one of the company's cornerstone projects has flaws, so I made a small research and proposed a better and more elegant solution. But since the original project design was "reviewed" and "approved" by management months ago, my proposal was completely ignored, despite the facts that the current design won't support all of the use cases.

Apparently, management didn't want to follow its own company principles. Nobody wanted to go and say "yes, there is a better way." Instead, my direct manager placed me on PIP, and his decision was supported by his manager too.

If you are smart, you don't punish somebody who is pointing out your technical mistakes or provides a better solution, but it is not the case with management at Amazon, and there is no solution to this autocracy. I've contacted org principals on this issue, but they were all reluctant to say anything against the approved design.

And then I realized, management doesn't care about the company, and nobody would ever admit any mistakes, so I left.

• Poor/seniority promotion.

You could be the smartest person in the room, or a top performer in a team, but if there is somebody with the same level who joined the company before you, they will be promoted first. The same applies to SD2->SD3 promotion across the teams in the same org.

In general, SD2->SD3 promotion is almost impossible at Amazon. After almost four years there, I've never seen anybody promoted to SD3. On the other hand, the company tends to hire SD3s from some no-name companies but with the right years of experience (for SD3, it is close to or over 15).

BTW, don't even ask about SD2->SDM1 move. Although those are the same level (5) positions, the company would rather hire somebody from outside.

• Poor benefits.

Only 6 weeks paternity leave, poor 401K match.

• No performance bonuses.

Amazon's annual base salary increase is within 2%, which doesn't even match inflation. And if you think that if you were a top performer for a given year, you will be promoted to the next level, you won't. See promotion cons above.

• Poor bonuses program.

No reasons to stay there for a fifth year. You'll get less stocks compared to your first four years. The stock price goes up, and the company thinks that after four years in service, you should still get your level average salary.

• Annual review.

You have to ask for feedback from at least five people you contacted during the year. Be careful, if you wrote many core reviews for somebody, and that person doesn't accept critics very well, they could ruin your promotion. The same applies even more to your manager. There are under-qualified managers at Amazon. The company tends to hire from outside rather than promoting their own employees, which often leads to a situation where a manager knows less about the current state and yet insists on their own design view.

1. Start following your own company principles.
2. Fix promotion; stop seniority promotion.
3. Abandon the annual review and PIP process.

Instead of comparing people with their team members, compare people with themselves a year ago. People are not apples or oranges; we are all unique.

A person usually doesn't underperform without a reason. Maybe somebody is bored doing the same things over and over again. Maybe somebody is upset because of stupid management decisions. Maybe there is some personal issue a person is experiencing right now.

Treat your employees the way you are treating your customers!

BTW, advice to employees: think about creating your union, even for SDs. Maybe it is better to increase salaries for fulfillment center employees rather than buying a game streaming service for $1B.