Amazon Web Services reviews

Writing culture not for everyone. you'd be pretty limited as a non native speaker or if writing is not a strong point Politics are incredible. If you're not experienced in big company politics, you're going to get taken for a fool very quickly The quality of leadership is below the standard expected. Rampant over promotion in the past decade is evident across AWS. Many non-Amazonian L7/L8s with low quality credentials.

Every rumor you’ve heard about Amazon is completely true. What a nightmare of a year it has been. I have finally made it out and have come to warn anyone interviewing for this company to run the other way. First off, the culture is insanely toxic and competitive. With frequent layoffs and people being fired left and right, everyone is constantly on edge. This leads to people doing whatever they can to make themselves look the best, to justify the need for their positions. They will tear you down in front of leadership as well as behind your back. Managers are not there to help you, they only want their metrics to look better. Nobody at Amazon can be trusted, not your manager, not HR, not your colleagues, they are not your friends. That being said, the people are extremely painful to be around. Nobody has a personality. Morale is low, at the office people will be openly talking about how much they want to leave. Everyone I have worked with is actively interviewing elsewhere, even people I’ve met in passing in the cafeteria are open about wanting to leave, which is even more difficult coming from Amazon. Amazon on the resume is not a benefit. Knowledge of the toxic culture is so widespread that many companies will actively not hire ex-Amazon employees to avoid the culture being spread to them. The systems are extremely dated, and tasks are very manual, which seems outlandish for such a massive tech company. I’ve heard from many “Amazonians” that this is a universal pain point, no matter the org. There are minimal checks on manual tasks, so if something is missed due to human error, prepare to get shamed in front of everyone you’ve ever worked with. They will call you out and make you explain yourself for something that has no impact whatsoever. They will be rude about it and make you question your intelligence. Never in my life have I questioned my intelligence or self worth before coming to Amazon. And now for the sexism. I blamed myself for not being able to “raise the bar,” but the critiques on my work were outright unfair. I was onboarded with outdated materials and expected to perform to the same standards as my coworkers who had a year of tenure after 2 weeks. Systems and processes kept changing and I had little to no guidance. I was told by my boss that they had received “negative feedback” about me that I “ask too many questions” and to stop asking questions and “take ownership for my own work.” Toward the end of my experience, I finally spoke up to my boss about everything, and pointed out data showing that I was not underperforming versus my male colleagues during their first months. My boss openly admitted that I had been singled out by leadership because I was a woman. My boss supposedly had been sticking up for me for months once they realized what was happening. The teams in India specifically were pushing for me to be overly critiqued in hopes that it would lead to my termination, solely because I am a woman. Weirdly, this made me feel a little bit better knowing it wasn’t because I was stupid, it was because I was a woman and they associate women with being stupid. Which is just as unfair. My time at Amazon impacted my mental health tremendously. Unfortunately, my story is not unique and there are many women/minorities who sue Amazon annually for discrimination. If for some reason you do join Amazon, you better negotiate your pay! Whatever pay you come in with is going to be your pay forever. The annual raises are $1k and they make it virtually impossible to get promoted. To move up, you must complete a “promo doc” which involves doing the work of the level above you for 18+ months, then writing a 15-20 page thesis about why you deserve the promotion. This takes about a year to complete and has to be unanimously approved by an array of leadership you’ve likely never interacted with. If one person says no, you’re off the docket until the next year. The jump between levels only results in a $5-$10k bump in base. They mainly reward you in stock that you don’t earn for an additional year or more post-promotion. I have watched my extremely deserving coworker go through this process for the last 11 months and have to rewrite the document 8 times. Promotions are solely based on this document rather than the quality of work you are actually doing. Lastly, when I put in my notice to leave the company, my boss took it incredibly personally and acted if they lost all respect for me. My boss asked me twice to submit my computer early and use my PTO days for the notice period, which I declined to do. I found out my boss was talking negatively about me to colleagues, which was surprising because prior to this we had a good relationship. Reminder, your boss is not your friend. In summary, Amazon might offer you more money than wherever you are today, but trust me, it is not worth it. I ignored the rumors and the warnings from friends and family who had worked there previously to make a few extra grand. I thought maybe that was specific to certain orgs and mine was different. I have learned that “good” organizations are rare at Amazon among the thousands that are identical to mine. I can confidently say that it was not worth the stress. Through this experience, I have learned so much about what “success” truly looks like (to me) and how much I value happiness. Company culture is very important to me. I am excited to be moving on to a firm that values me, where I will feel confident and comfortable expressing ideas. I hope the same for everyone reading this.