Pros
The pay is excellent, and benefits are good except for vacation time. Engineers are given a lot of independence. Some of the work is interesting.
Cons
All of the terrible things you’ve heard about Amazon’s culture are true. It is an absolute nightmare of a workplace if you have any desire to be treated like a person. The unreasonable expectations and sociopathic culture make it extremely difficult to maintain a work-life balance. The idea that Amazon “strives to be Earth’s Best Employer” would be laughable if the reality weren’t so soul-crushing. As an individual in more than one “diversity” category, I found AWS to be extremely hostile. In meetings the loudest voices always win out. People in privileged groups and positions of authority very frequently interrupt or dismiss people, and as anyone in any under-represented group will tell you, the effect of this disrespectful culture is to drown out to voices of minorities in the workplace. It doesn’t help that management is full of old men who lack kindergarten-level listening skills.
