Amazon Software Development Engineer (SDE2) reviews

- Working double shift to meet the deadlines - Worst work life balance - 24/7 On call - Heavy pressure - No entertainment - Gloomy workspace

Short-term thinking: management gives you a lot of freedom but ultimately only care about the metrics they're reporting to their boss every week. Management is encouraged to be very brutal on their reports in reviews. They have quotas for how many bad/negative reviews they need to write. Very few promotions are handed out so you'll be competing against other under-leveled engineers. It's as much based on the number of years as anything. You'll have to wait your turn. Managers are very inconsistent with technical ownership. Some get involved with architecture and care deeply. Others don't show up when invited technical meetings or asked to help with disagreements. You're likely going to have to deal with both at one point or another as managers seem to move around and quit often. Most teams require you to be on-call. You'll get called-in to support other teams even if your own service is reliable. Poor benefits compared to any other tech company.