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Don't work here if you came from a startup environment

Software Engineer II
Former Employee
Worked at Amazon for 2 years
November 1, 2016
Seattle, Washington
1.0
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookDoesn't Approve of CEO
Pros

Smart co-workers. Having Amazon on your resume can enhance your career opportunities.

Cons

From engineer to senior managers, even PM, none of them care much about UI/UX. Quoting from management, "I don't care about how the product will look like, just make it work first, we can worry about UI later." Speaking of "working backward" that the company often encourages, in the Amazon way, it is to write a 10+ page design document, spend 10 hours reviewing it, and rewrite your document several times because your manager doesn't like the introduction paragraph. Then later, at some point, someone says, "The navigation flow is not clear to me."

The attrition rate is ridiculous. The people who did the welcome lunch for you most probably won't be the same ones doing the farewell lunch. 50% of people leave within the first year, 80% within the second. From my experience, I'd say it's more than that.

Instead of real engineering work, if you prefer to spend most of your time writing emails, doing operational work, and playing corporate games to get the promotion, then Amazon is probably for you. Oh, and good luck sticking with the same manager who can vouch for your promotion. Either you change the team, or they change the manager for you.

Advice to Management

Heavily invest more resources on tooling and infrastructure.

Encourage a more engineering-driven culture within the company.

Please don't treat everyone like an easily replaceable cog. There is a reason that the attrition rate is high, and don't pretend that's normal.

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