Pros
The stock compensation. However be aware, if you join before Jan 1, in your next review period you won't get awarded any stock grant. The initial stock grant vests in 4 years. 5% 1st year, 15% 2nd year, 40% 3rd year, 40% 4th year. Future stock grants vest in 2 years. If you are really ambitious and willing to work hard, I mean not have a life , 65+ hours weekly, pay for your own Blackberry then you will get promoted fast. That is if you don't piss anybody off. But hey if you are wiling to do the time...
Cons
This company is an insane asylum of ideas. Just have to see which one sticks... Recruiting here is awful. We try to go to UCLA/Cornell and hire engineers at a support engineer III level/software engineer I level regardless of whether they have a BS or MS. Hiring an industry SDE II or III is awfully hard since they expect individuals with 5-10 years of experience to still be able to answer college grad questions. And Amazon is all about pager duty. Many SDEs here also have an inflated sense of worth. Since we can't hire enough to barely account for attrition, SDEs here make all the rules. Compensation is actually mediocre given how much one works. Senior management is highly variable. Some are remnants of start up Amazon. If you get one of those, you are SOL since they have no managerial skills whatever. Others are good.
