Another is Amazon a good place to work thread
I've read through a few old posts that talk about the work culture/environment at Amazon, and most of it has been negative, more negative than many other organisations. so, questions - 1. has the Amazon culture improved in 2019? 2. would you recommend working for Amazon? 3. does the culture vary between tech and non-tech roles? 4. what titles/levels are considered senior at Amazon? 5. does the impact of culture vary if you're hired at a more senior position? Total comp: nothing that Blind will be envious about
Good question. Do a search on amazon culture plenty to review on here, some dated but some the points ring true to me. After reading all the headlines and posts here, this is my takeaway: your life and work at Amazon will largely depend on the team you will be on - this is a big company. I would still go through it and get a feel of the people during interview.
So OP, in all honesty it is team dependent. Also, believe it or not but Amazon is resume booster, if you find good work and can survive 2 years, you will find easy to jump on higher salaries. Third, if you don't get to work on scale at current job (distributed systems), Amazon can provide you that. If you are early in career and care more about learning than WLB, you should spend 2 years at Amazon and jump with all learning to higher comp. Also, engineering standard is better than 95% of tech companies. You can't always keep comparing things with Google or Facebook if you don't even have offer from them.
Thanks Koala - not comparing to the rest of the FAANG gang, but comparing to top companies across the board across different industries.
If you are comparing across different industries, much better than Wall Street. The amount of posts related to Amazon are high because Amazon has lot of employees. You don't hear much about other companies because their employee base is small hence less complains. But if your luck is bad you can get a shitty manager even at best places. Not saying Amazon is best place, but it's not as worse as portrayed. It's just like any other US corporation. If you are looking to learn, no doubt Amazon will provide you lot of opportunities.
1 Yes 2 Yes 3 Yes 4 Anything with the title Senior is consider senior..... L6+ 5 Idk I'm a low level dude
Thanks. You seem pretty structured though - a good skill to have. Would a senior program manager be the same as a senior manager? I've heard it's not and each may be at a different level (anywhere from L5-7)
Good question. No they are different. A senior individual contributor (IC) is usually L6 while a Senior Manager is L7
Amazon culture is toxic as hell and it's only worsening as nothing is done to stop the disease.
I have heard most of toxic teams are in Seattle and Bay Area, is it true? Or it's toxic throughout US?
I can speak only of a Seattle office team that I work for and a couple others that my friends work for.
Amazon is massive company with so many diff orgs. It's highly dependent on the org, and then more importantly your team/ manager. I've had multiple managers, all of who have been really great and not overbearing in their managing approach. My personal experience of Amazon has been nothing but good things
Thanks. How common is working remote/off-site/from home at Amazon? Is the company setup to facilitate such flexibility?
From what I've seen, in my teams, and teams around me, it's pretty easy and typical to work from home occasionally. All you need is your work laptop and some wifi and you have access to everything you'd have access to in the office
1. Amzn culture was never bad. They have alot of employees and the disgruntled ones are the loudest. This may not hold at the FC level. 2. Yes 3. Unsure. I work in tech, but I would think probably more stressful in nontechnical role. 4. L6+ 5. Yes, senior is better, but mainly because they understand how to work inside a large company.
Dude no. You can’t speak for “culture” across a 600,000 person company. It’s team dependent. What does exist across those 600,000 is the LP’s which is corporate tripe used to make people fall in line.
I never saw anyone use the LP to "make people fall in line." I'm not sure what that would even look like. Yes some people do have bad experiences when it's a large company, I literally said that right at the beginning of my post. That is true for every big company.
Yes and no. My life at Amazon is very easy. I usually work < 40 hours/week, low stress. Good money. I know there are many teams where I'd be interviewing for jobs even if it meant half the pay. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. If you have an offer, you take it if it improves your circumstances. Once you're at Amazon, you can choose to leave if you get another offer that improves your circumstances. Most people on blind just complain, or talk about how working a 6-figure job where you don't take naps all day is slavery. Whatever. This is not worth 2 seconds of thought if you haven't even applied. You just have no idea how big the company is. Submitting an application is effortless these days, assuming you have a resume.
Org? Retail?
Amazon is a good place to work for if your TC increases by taking the Amazon offer. Tell us your offer breakdown
No offer. I haven't even applied for a role, but see several that I could consider. But hearing/reading about the work environment makes me wonder whether it will be a good fit, and if I should invest time in pursuing roles with Amazon. Particularly, I've read that the culture is often unprofessional where folks don't show up to meetings, hang up while in the meetings, decisions aren't made but alot of meetings/planning activities occur etc. Someone also used the word "total chaos" to describe the company culture. If I put the money aside, I have a very little appetite for disorganized workplace and non-seriousness.
Lol. No dude, increased compensation is not the only metric.