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Software Development Engineer

Software Engineer
Current Employee
Has worked at Amazon for 1 year
November 8, 2015
Seattle, Washington
3.0
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEO
Pros

It is a very challenging environment. A lot of code needs to be implemented fast and deployed fast to meet customer needs. The whole company is very customer-obsessed and always ready to respond to customers as the highest priority. It is a great place where you can learn a lot in a short period of time. When you need help, a lot of people and a lot of departments are willing to help you get things through. Most of the people are smart and super diligent. My manager probably only sleeps for 4-5 hours and is constantly working everywhere.

Cons

All condemnation of work-life balance is wrong, because there is NO LIFE at all. After 1.5 months of working 12 hours a day, 6 days a week to meet a hard deadline without payroll for extra hours, now the consolation is I can work at home on Sundays or on weekday nights till 11 PM after I leave work at about 6 PM. Although, my manager works even longer and my colleagues are similar.

Advice to Management

It is great practice to be customer-obsessed, but to treat your employees better would be really nice.

I like this high-pressure environment because I experienced worse and learned a lot. But even then, sometimes I feel I was burned out, which makes me make silly mistakes and write low-quality code.

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