Amazon

Amazon is a large company with a lot of great technologies. If you want to work in a specific technological field, odds are Amazon has a team that fits you.

If you are new to development (recent college graduate), there is a decent learning curve, but lots of tools to help you out. A large community of developers are also available to help you ramp up to be more confident with the immense number of tools Amazon leaves at your disposal. After a year or so, you will have developed skills in tons of useful technologies and be much more confident in your engineering skills.

You are an employee of Amazon; you are not its friend. It does not cherish you. It does not make sure you are comfortable. It does not hold your hand. It will do exactly what is necessary to make sure you think twice before leaving and nothing more.

You want holiday vacation? Amazon will give you exactly what is federally required (6 holidays per year). You happen to be on-call (respond to events 24/7) for that holiday? Too bad. You don't get a bonus and you don't get it back.

You want a raise? Amazon will be as shrewd as possible to make sure it doesn't have to pay you any more than necessary.

You want company perks? Hah! How about 10% off the first $1000 you spend at Amazon? Amazon wants its money first.

After working at Amazon for a good chunk of time, I can confidently say that these are my main complaints:

• I am just a money-maker for them. No feeling of loyalty.
• On-call is brutal and no extra compensation is given.
• Minimal perks, benefits, etc.

Speaking for myself and others, it would only take a few small steps to make your employees more satisfied:

• Give a better sense of company loyalty (branded bags, clothes, etc.)
• Holidays in line with other large development companies
• Compensation for on-call during holidays