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Dependent on team

Software Development Engineer
Former Employee
Worked at Amazon for 2 years
January 14, 2021
Seattle, Washington
3.0
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros
  • A ton of learning.
  • Amazon Web Services is such a huge service, and the work that you do has the opportunity to impact millions of customers.
  • Bright, motivated, and helpful peers.
  • Stock is great.
  • Can switch between teams easily.
Cons

Pretty much no perks (frugality). You don't even get free Amazon Prime. The only employee perk you get is 10% off for the first $1000 of purchases made within a year (so a total saving of $100 each year).

Stock vesting is back-heavy for years 3/4 (5%, 15%, 40%, 40%).

Work culture is heavily dependent on the team (my team would keep pinging teammates past 7 PM almost daily).

Job satisfaction and career growth are tied very closely to managerial style.

Advice to Management

Amazon is still a very competitive workplace. It is not as terrible as news articles made it out to be in the past, but some aspects still exist. Stack ranking was merely moved from the team level to the org level. Managers still have to defend their engineers during the stack ranking process, which inevitably leads to defending their favorites.

Not a fan of the very top-down approach of management.

Please get some actual perks for full-time employees.

Additional Ratings

Work/Life Balance
3.0
Culture and Values
3.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
4.0
Career Opportunities
4.0
Compensation and Benefits
3.0
Senior Management
3.0

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