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A strange mix of tech and corporate culture

Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Amazon for 6 years
March 8, 2022
Seattle, Washington
3.0
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo CEO Opinion
Pros

Supportive of engineers and legitimately tries to support and retain them. Unique problems that train engineers to think big picture when working on a problem. A lot of teams across a variety of industries means you can work in a wide range of fields.

Cons

Large scale of Amazon means slow pace of projects and heavy bureaucracy.

Cult-like adherence to Leadership Principles, to the point where they will be used against you at some point.

Silos of development between teams mean that working across teams is slow and painful.

Poor work-life balance.

Heavy corporate interference with projects, which tends to be haphazard and damaging to engineering goals.

Advice to Management

Start from the engineer and work backwards.

Understand what makes a good system and the challenges that any given engineer will face.

Think big on long-term projects and think beyond the launch.

There are a lot of systems within Amazon that are poorly built, require heavy maintenance, and consume unnecessary dev hours.

Provide training to engineers on systems design.

Think of your engineers as your customers, because if they can't do their job, then Amazon will cease to function.

Additional Ratings

Work/Life Balance
2.0
Culture and Values
3.0
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
2.0
Career Opportunities
5.0
Compensation and Benefits
4.0
Senior Management
1.0

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