Amazon

I joined Amazon about 2 years ago and, like most, I read the reviews on Glassdoor and got so scared.

Amazon is a big company. Everyone who has worked for large companies knows that there are always pockets of bad teams or bad matches between a hire and the company.

It's also more common for people to write bad feedback than good feedback. As an example, it's rare to have a good experience at a restaurant and go write a good review on Yelp. You will usually go and write a bad review when you didn't like something.

Back to the topic! I'm having an amazing time at Amazon. I manage two teams of developers, haven't had any attrition, the team is happy, and all of us work normal hours.

We often have social events, and there is very minimal top-down guidance about how the team works and what we should focus on. We build our own roadmap and think long-term.

It really feels like working in a startup but much more stable.

If you have the chance of working at Amazon, ask lots of questions about the team you're going into, be passionate about the space you're working in, and you will have a great time.

Oh, and if you by any chance join a bad team, after one year you can internally transfer without any problems.

Main cons is similar to what I mentioned above. There is the chance of joining a bad team, like in any other company. At least remember that you can switch after 12 months.

My main advice would be to add one more SDE level between 2 and 3.

The second advice would be to investigate why some teams (and they're a minority!) are having problems with hours worked and bad middle management.

I would also suggest streamlining the recruiting effort across Amazon. Some teams do 2 phone interviews, some do 1, etc.