Amazon

The interview process was exactly what I was told it would be, and all the interviewers were very pleasant.

I definitely had to spend a good amount of time reviewing both the Leadership Principles and connecting them to behavioral answers, as well as typical technical questions and system design case interviews. However, in my prior position, I was at much more of a business level in tech consulting rather than deep into the weeds in any specific area.

Just make sure to be very quantitative in your interviews.

As for training as an SA, the process is super well-structured for the first 3 months. It's a bit rigorous, but it gives you a strong feeling for what it will feel like to be an Account SA.

In addition, you are required to obtain multiple AWS certifications in the first 18 months, which prepares you very well for the role alongside working directly with the services with clients.

Lastly, you have the option to join a sort of concentration in one (or two) of multiple areas (e.g., AI/ML), so you can choose to dive a bit deeper into that area to learn more and make a wider impact.

Lateral movement as well as continuous improvement and learning are super common, so there are many, many opportunities for career growth.

So far, work-life balance seems pretty solid. However, I just joined 3 months ago, so take this with a grain of salt.

Benefits are not as good as they should be for such a massive company (although the salary outweighs this), which is probably partially due to the "frugality" leadership principle. Also, while I get the cult-like atmosphere is, in reality, very effective for maintaining cohesion and friendly work cultures within such a massive company (I wouldn't change it), the use of puns is out of control.

Less puns and more spending on employees beyond their salary, like work-from-home or commuter benefits, or a better 401(k).