Amazon reviews

3.5

60% would recommend to a friend

(209,034 total reviews)
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Andrew Jassy

50% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Amazon has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 209,034 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Amazon employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

209K reviews
4.0
Dec 17, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazon is doing lot's of cool stuff...but lots of boring stuff too. There are really well run teams...and very badly run teams. The experience for software managers and engineers is all over the board, from really run low operational load teams to teams where people burn out after a year. - Amazon is built, quite deliberately, to be Darwinian. You can generally expect that anyone who's been here for more than 2 years is competent and motivated or they wouldn't have survived. You can count on them as long as your priorities are aligned. There aren't many slackers here, and they don't survive long. - We work on so much stuff that there's always an opportunity to find amazing cool stuff to work on (note that it's an 'opportunity', one that you have to pursue) - A chance to make a huge difference - A place where you can learn a lot about all kinds of things, both technical and about yourself - Amazon encourages high mobility - even your manager can't prevent you from moving to another team within 6 weeks (normally, more than a few months under unusual conditions). - Your friends and family have actually heard of the place you work and have at least a vague notion of what Amazon does without you having to explain

Cons

- You're responsible for your own career progression and finding the places and teams that are doing the stuff you want to do. No one is going to take you by the hand and help you with that. - Amazon is built, quite deliberately, to be Darwinian. The strong survive and the weak perish (metaphorically speaking) and the 'bar' is constantly increasing. The level of performance that would have been acceptable five years ago will get you canned today. It's a kind of crucible that'll help you develop a harder edge, if you can survive, that can serve you well in your career and in life, but it's often not a pleasant experience. I wouldn't recommend it as a place to work for just anyone.

4.0
Mar 23, 2017

We are now in a world where we are condescended to by our inferiors

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

This company gets A list performance from C list employees. The culture is quick and hard charging. You are always working in relevant and meaningful projects.

Cons

Maybe because the company recruits C listers who have neither merit (intelligence, strategic vision) nor pedigree (academic or professional accomplishments), most of those who become successful do so in treacherous, low cunning ways. Imagine the Lannisters in Game of Thrones attacking the Starks in Game of Thrones; or Rawls and Burrell attacking McNulty and Daniels in The Wire; or Barrow and O'Brien attacking Mr Bates in Downton Abbey. This is every day leadership behavior at Amazon. The culture at Amazon is so infested with these middling talent weasels who have juked the stats and schemed their way to positions of power that new employees coming in actually start thinking that this behavior is normal and expected if you want to "manage people." The work itself was stimulating and fulfilling, but the sneering condescension of the d bags that cheated and skated their way through high school and party colleges, then just converted their winky nod nod good 'ol boy shenanigans into a "ask no questions, have no introspection" company culture have made manifest some of the worst criticisms of capitalism. Any left leaning political aspirant would look at this business organism and immediately have content to lash out against the corruption that can come in free enterprise where hard work is not rewarded, and the connected, incestuous, privileged class lounge their way to wealth while treating their employees and customers like some kind of filth their shoe picked up on the street.

5.0
Feb 23, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I've been at Amazon for a month now, and I've seen none of the horror stories being communicated to the public, although Amazon is a large enough company that I'm sure there are good pockets and bad pockets. Everyone here is really smart, and wants to succeed both personally, and as a company. People collaborate and help each other, focus on data, and truly focus on the customer. Every company I've ever worked for talks about how important the customer is, but on day 2, they're forgotten. Amazon seems to genuinely focus on what's best for the customer, and it's awesome to be in meetings where people actually bring that up, and make decisions focused on long-term customer satisfaction. The opportunities to learn here are literally unlimited, and the opportunity to take on new responsibility is as well. I honestly believe you can be as awesome as you want here.

Cons

No cons, so far - seriously. Like I said, I'm sure Amazon has some bad pockets in it here and there, but this is an amazing job, an amazing opportunity, and the biggest thing I have to complain about is that it's a little chilly in our building. I can live with that. Does Amazon demand high quality, measurable results? Yes! Is it hard work? Yes! Is it rewarding? Yes! So I'm not calling that a 'con'. Work/life balance seems comparable to other places I've worked - not worse.

Viewing 37 - 39 of 209,034 Reviews

Glassdoor has 250,347 Amazon reviews submitted anonymously by Amazon employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Amazon is right for you.