Amazon

Amazon is doing every business these days, so there are opportunities to learn and build anything you'd like. The kinds of problems I work on are very unique and hard to find anywhere else.

People working here are usually super smart and creative.

Stock is doing great, which is why a lot of folks are still here and why the company has been able to hire at such an amazing rate over the last few years.

Contrary to what I read in a lot of forums, in my experience work-life balance has been great. I work my own hours, and my managers have been supportive of everyone's schedule. Amazon is a really big place, so YMMV.

Amazon doesn't have as many perks as other top companies.

PTO policies are my main complaint. They take 6 holidays that are official at many other companies and give them back to you as floating personal days. Together with vacation days, you get 21 days time off plus a few federal holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Years, etc.).

On-call rotation and operating the software you build is not for everybody, but the learnings are very rewarding. It has made me a better engineer.

Focus on retention. I feel Amazon loses a lot of mid-level engineers to companies with better pay and perks after putting all the effort into training them. The path to Senior/Principal engineer is better now but needs to keep improving.