Pros
- Fast paced work, - great opportunity to learn technology for someone starting their career - used to be (pre-2011) a large company with a statrup mentality and culture In my seven years with the company, I have learnt probably 11-12 years worth of stuff. The company moves at a cut throat pace and if you keep up and stay enthusiastic to learn and grow along, its a great experience in terms of how much knowledge you acquire on wide array of technologies (backend service, web UI, systems and infrastructure, android/mobile, AWS/Cloud.. you name it.. they got it all)
Cons
- Middle management sux, and just too many managers - Has transformed itself into microsoft v 2.0 - Career growth is not based on merit or work throughput. - Rife with favoritism and empire building - Please your manager attitude at every level - all the way up to SVPs Most of my cons here is post 2011 Amazon Its a mad race out there, and all people talk about and care about is "how do i get to the next level", "whats in it for me".. This is a disease and has successfully eroded the erstwhile amazon culture fortress (builders can build, and innovate) The best way to describe the daily life is - swimming in a shark tank, where the sharks are not visible, they dont come to the top.. as long as you swim like mad youre good, once you are out of breath or even trying to just relax your hands a bit (totally intend to swim back up) yore dead.. eaten by the sharks. The legion of sharks meet once a year in a dreadful meeting called OLR and decide the fate of poor souls using a system of stack ranking which honestly doesnt make any sense to me so far.. Customer obsession - which used to be the most common trait, has been replaced with "Manager Obsession". Every person dances to the tunes of his/her manager to make sure they keep their job, get promoted etc.. Honestly there is simply too much powers given ti managers, there is no room for reasoning and hence the whole churn and brutal employee exit rate.. It takes a while before you realize you are working your socks off for peanuts and the distant carrot of vesting stocks.. wipe your eyes and you see the fact that youve missed to omuch of yourself and your life working there..