Interesting and challenging but lots of politicking
Pros
- My manager is great and genuinely cares about my career development. She is also flexible about WFH, vacation, etc. - I get to work with a lot of smart people who mentor me and challenge me to be better. People are always happy to help me improve my ideas, writing, etc. - There is a ton of internal movement so if you want to try something new or work for Amazon in a different country there are a lot of opportunities - Despite a lot of bad press my work/life balance is pretty good. I'm sure that's not true for everyone, but it is for me. - I bring my dog to work everyday (one of my favorite benefits). The benefits are just generally pretty good
Cons
- Despite branding itself as a no nonsense, non-bureaucratic company, there are a lot of politics around who gets to work on what projects, which projects get approved by senior management, etc. - The promotion process is unclear and often seems arbitrary and political. - Internal communications are pretty bad. When an employee attempted suicide at work last winter there was no internal communication to employees (except for a page on our internal website listing employee resources). - Sometimes the culture around the LPs (leadership principles) reinforces bad behavior. "Ownership" --> being territorial about a project so that you can get all the credit. "Bias for action" --> not doing enough research and making a stupid decision. - Even though it has a reputation of pushing out low performers there are still plenty of them at Amazon.
