Amazon Software Development Engineering reviews

3.5

57% would recommend to a friend

(6,798 total reviews)
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Andrew Jassy

40% approve of CEO

54% positive business outlook

Software Development Engineering employees have rated Amazon with 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 6,798 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Development Engineering professionals have a good working experience there. Amazon is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Development Engineering professionals compared to other employers within the Informationstechnologie industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

7K reviews
4.0
May 1, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are a bazillion different projects to work on, and 95% of them are solving interesting, difficult software engineering problems. Compensation package is great. What I like best though is that everyone here is smart and motivated. Almost no slackers. Everyone is talented and (at least on my floor) works hard. Obviously it's a huge company, so my experience is just a small sample, but I'd recommend you give it a shot. Just be prepared for the rigorous computer-science-heavy technical interview. A little preparation is all it takes - there are books available on interview prep that cover all aspects of what to expect...

Cons

Learning curve for their home-grown tools can be steep. Nothing seems to work exactly right at first, but it just takes some practice (plus RTFM). Also, the culture is fairly Darwinian, so you are expected to figure things out yourself. a lot of the time. There is no "five minute rule" where you get to ask someone for help if you are stuck for more than 5 minutes (which is too bad when it stretches to 5 hours ...)

3.0
Apr 30, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Initially competitive pay for college grads * A well known company

Cons

* long hours * very political review/promotion process * essentially any code you write (even outside of work) is owned by Amazon * uses open source, does not contribute to open source * a lot of bureaucracy * very little engineer autonomy, your roadmap is set (and constantly changed) by VPs and PMs who are making decisions based on what, politically, is best for their careers

2.0
Apr 24, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart people. Lots of work to do. Being in Seattle the salary looks good. Stock options are decent.

Cons

Darwanian culture. You have to be good at arguing and have to really shout your way into things if you really wanna succeed. There is nothing call work life balance. They just make you work.

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