Amazon

• Working with very smart people, you will learn a lot.
• Being able to work on systems at a large scale is challenging and rewarding.
• There are a lot of good internal training resources.
• It is good to have on your CV. You will find it easier than the average candidate to land interviews at other companies.
• It offers one of the best compensation packages in London.

I definitely recommend working here for at least a couple of years if you're able to meet the bar and handle it, as it's amazing for long-term career growth, but it is not worth staying.

• It can be very stressful and demanding. Honestly, it's not good for your mental health to work here long-term.
• A lot of internal tools are archaic, and you won't necessarily be using industry-standard technologies outside of AWS products. For example, there was no exposure to Kubernetes in my case.
• The promotion process is long-winded and manager-dependent. If you're not given opportunities to work at the next level on projects, then you will struggle.
• Depending on the organization, it can be very US-focused. Expect meetings out of hours, and it can take days to get traction on problems that could have been solved on the same day in the same time zone, as other teams are more focused on their own priorities.
• Sometimes it takes a lot of meetings and document reviews to get anything done.
• Five days in the office is ridiculous, as most competitive companies at least offer hybrid working, and there isn't enough meeting room space in the office for it.