Hiring process is poor, with CXT communications often out of sync with hiring team you work with. Get used to the communication chaos/confusion as it continues in the working environment.
On-boarding and generally everything at Amazon is self service, with no-one taking responsibility for anything in general, therefore feels a bit soul-less. This causes an unneccessary admin burden on employees as they spend a lot of time trying to find information and negotiate the overwhelming number of teams, locations and tools for required data/information.
As Amazon is vast, seems a lot of luck involved in where you land and the team you end up with around you.
Rented offices leave a lot to be desired in terms of atmosphere and maintenance, with equipment (kitchen appliances, doors, bathroom facilities) regularly failing.
In general, there is a lack of bookable meeting space for the number of employees, so be prepared to sit at your desk on conference calls having to speak louder than the person at the desk next to you or above all of the background noise.
On a dialy basis, in meetings, there is so much praise for the slightest comment/input that the culture comes across as forced/fake, with any praise and recognition losing its true value. Often meetings will be used up discussing the slightest achievements, rather than communicating pertinent information or discussing issues that really need addressing.
Employees mention the 'leadership behaviours' regularly in business discussions, seemingly more for their own individual visibility and promotion than actually believing in and acting upon them.
Be prepared for employees duplicating work, which leads to 'in-fighting' over the work available, because if you don't have any work you might be surplus to requirements…
A lot of internal tools and processes do not work properly and are constantly 'worked around', partly by interns, until they are all of a sudden not supported when interns leave. Working with these non-functioning tools/processes is a constant battle. Trying to improve the majority of processes/tools requires work to be completed by the 'tech' (software) teams, however due to poor backlog prioritisation, only major projects get worked on (in 1+ calendar year!), and the majority of smaller but fundamental issues never get resolved and continue to persist and get built upon.
All in all not what I'd expect from a 'tech' company or Amazon.
