Amazon

Amazon is a fast-paced environment that allows one to learn a lot from developing large-scale software. The company does care about its customers. You can often end political arguments by focusing on the customers. You will work with a bunch of smart, talented people. The work-life balance is decent, but it also depends on the team you are on. Senior management has been pretty good at listening to people below them and giving the workers the proper support they need. Senior management also has a pretty good idea of how to progress the team for the future.

The biggest downside is carrying a pager around. Depending on your luck of the draw, you could be working on holidays. Some teams within the company are not as responsive to taking ownership. I've also seen many talented SDE 2s that have worked at Amazon for many years that have not been promoted to SDE 3. It seems that jump is a huge roadblock for the SDE career path. The health benefits are not that great when compared with some other companies. Also, the company's only perk is a 10% discount towards Amazon.com purchases up to a total savings of $100 a year. Even if one of the company's core values is frugality, this is too frugal.

For the most part, I believe in the senior management at Amazon. They are fairly approachable, and you also feel you can escalate an issue to them and have them actually listen. The senior management also does a decent job of giving praise when an individual has done something to deserve it. That type of recognition is always good to have.