Amazon Software Development Engineer reviews

3.5

51% would recommend to a friend

(3,319 total reviews)
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Andrew Jassy

35% approve of CEO

49% positive business outlook

Software Development Engineer employees have rated Amazon with 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 3,319 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Development Engineer professionals have a good working experience there. Amazon is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Development Engineer professionals compared to other employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
3.0
Oct 27, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people you will be working with are amazingly clever. The "bar raising" approach they bring to interviews really has done a lot to keep the employee base competent. You will be building software used my hundreds of thousands of people.

Cons

My only real problem with Amazon was the massive time drain and how it ate into my personal life outside of "work hours"; 60-70 hour weeks were the norm. The team I was on owned a very high profile though and others didn't seem to have this problem. I suspect that this was a perfect storm of my own tendency toward working a lot, a manager that always wanted more, and the company culture -- maybe if you are a bit better at separating work and life or the team you're interviewing with is a bit more slack you won't have the same burn out I did. Just a note: I lived across the lake which meant an additional 1.5 hours each day on the bus. While it is more expensive in the city it's probably worth it in the end. After Amazon was done with me those hours on the bus were pretty valuable.

5.0
Oct 23, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good compensation package, no state tax in Washington. Competitive with Google and Microsoft. A lot of exciting teams to work on, which was surprising, especially to those that view Amazon as a "bookstore." Teams are usually small, divided into two pizza teams, meaning that each team can be fed by two pizza. This is nice.

Cons

Employees don't get their own offices, which can sometimes make it hard to program. But of course, this is the case at most programming companies, so it's not really Amazon specific. They have no offices in California, so you pretty much have to move to Seattle.

4.0
Oct 11, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There is no micromanaging on my team, and I'm free to make whatever corrections I deem are necessary. If I see a problem and decide it needs fixing there is nothing in my way, and I enjoy this freedom.

Cons

On-call duty can be painful at times. Essentially house arrest for a week at a time once every two months can be frustrating. This can vary greatly from team to team, however my team is particularly bad.

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