Pros
My favorite things about the Amazon culture: - Fast paced. You can come up with an idea and implement it quickly. - Focused on data. - Flat, consensus-based decision making structure. - Business decisions / debate are communicated via written documents, not verbal Powerpoint presentations. This is an incredibly strong way to make decisions and communicate. - My particular piece of this giant company has a friendly, supportive, non-stressful work culture. - A ton of lateral career opportunities. I started as a warehouse manager, became a program manager, and plan to become a software engineer or data scientist. I don't think there are many companies where you could make such significant moves over time. - Every senior leader I've known has been respectful and also seemed extremely competent.
Cons
- Ambiguity. A core tenet for employees is that they need to "deal with ambiguity." It's always there, and for me, it's not fun. - A significant portion of your compensation will be in AMZN restricted stock units. This has worked out well for us, but assuming an efficient market, this is not as good as cash. If I wanted AMZN stock, I would rather get paid in cash and then go buy it on my own.
