ProServe: Intentionally Misleading, Poorly Run, Deeply Flawed
Pros
Like anywhere, you'll meet some great and skilled people here. Pay is decent (though it's not hard to find comparable, even from small/mid-sized businesses).
Cons
Management and leadership. It's awful and flat-out dishonest. They'll hire you for expertise, then tell you that your job is to support the sale of AWS services and nothing more. If you're not interested in that pivot, you won't advance and are likely another candidate for the tens of thousands of people they lay off and manage out. And yes, they actively manage people out. It's a fact: they'll hire a coder, tell that coder that their coding expertise is why they're being hired. Once you get the job, they'll change the narrative: if you are primarily interested in writing code, you won't advance to leadership levels (e.g. Level 7). This isn't hearsay, I was told this directly by two L7s. You are forced to pursue certifications that have nothing to do with your job. This is solely to support general corporate certification counts. It has nothing whatsoever to do with aligning skillsets with customer needs. If you fail a certification test, they do not reimburse you, and it is not unusual to be allocated to a project 40 hours a week and be told to get the certification on your own time, without support. The recommended timespan for any of these certifications is 3-6 months, but you are commonly left with a few weeks. Failure to comply is considered a goal failure and compromises your review status. One day leadership will say, "all is well, we have no intention of making any changes or laying people off," a month later they'll do all of it. This is easy to prove (look at Jassy's flip flops). The thing is, it's never "sudden and unavoidable." The statements are made purely to prevent employees for abandoning the sinking ship. HR knew well in advance that AWS would be laying people off, even when we were all told there was no plan to. If you can get the job, good for you. It's not an easy interview loop. But I can't recommend AWS ProServe for anybody other than the person that has lost their taste for working directly with tech and just wants to be another corporate cog.