Has the culture @amazon improved over the last few years? Or, perhaps, is it's reputation overblown? - Specifically Eng in Seattle
It's interesting that this still comes up after almost two years. My response to all the sde candidates I interview is go see for yourself: go walk around the Amazon campus, stick around until 5 or so. Read the look on people's face. Watch how many people leave. Watch if they talk to each other and what the topics are. What you will probably observe is the west coast culture of 9-5, or people talking about ideas and architecture and projects.
Some improvements, but it's been forced on the tenured who tend to be the perpetrators. Tons of resentment and passive aggressive undermining like I've never experienced in my 20+ yr career. If you don't have support in the senior ranks, you have a big nasty hill to climb.
agreed, vastly different between teams and manager to manager. I will say the "culture" tends to be rammed down your throat a bit more than at other companies no matter which team.
Still comes up because it's luck of the draw if you end up on a great team with a supportive manager who isn't more concerned with their progression than yours. While that makes a good confident talking point, you'll learn very little (about a team) by walking around and observing body language and random conversations.
Agreed
They have made a number of PR moves since the New York Times article of August 2015 however if I recall the CEO was oblivious to that side of Amazon. As long as Bezos is there the nastiness in the culture won't go away
This is an interesting comment. I am a big fan of Amazon as a consumer. And so was interested to read those articles a few years back. But I did wonder if it was really a requirement of success or just a mix of the right/wrong people. I.e I love eating baked goods, but I'm not a fan of getting to work at 3am. But starting that early is a requirement for those businesses to succeed
@Mqof84: They are wonderful to customers because they give Amazon money. However when Amazon has to give money to people (employees, sellers, contractors) they are pretty tough. I don't think being a dick is a requirement for success. The ability to execute is what counts.
Jeffb never had a boss. I don't think he's intentionally driving a "bruising" culture. It's impossible to relate to the plight of the common worker unless you've been one. He relies on the S team for this type of guidance, or enlightenment, so if there's blame to be had it should start there.
Thanks all for the perspective
As long as the tail heavy vesting and stack ranking (it just went informal, still here) exists, desperate management will do desperate things to improve their short term performance to stay till all the shares vest on the 4th year.
Yeah, it's a dog eats dog world
I have friends who have worked at many teams within Amazon and it seems that hq in Seattle is hardcore and tough but their acquisitions elsewhere (e.g. A9 in the bay or their game studio in socal) are a lot better culture-wise.
I’ve been at Amazon for almost three years. I haven’t noticed any significant changes beyond the revised performance review (it’s all bunnies and rainbows now--and frankly a lot less useful, because the real reviews still happen behind closed doors in OLR each year) and promotion processes, but I’ve been on the same really great team in a pretty decent org the entire time I’ve been here. I’ve seen a lot of the things people have described, but haven’t directly experienced much of it myself. A couple observations I’ve made along the way: The more valuable you are, the better you’re treated (and paid). FC associates are treated as completely disposable. High performing developers are treated pretty well. Everybody else falls somewhere in between. Amazon is irritatingly cultish about the leadership principles, and two of the most important ones are “have backbone” and “bias for action.” You can be successful here without throwing people under the bus or being an asshole, but that means you really have to stand up for yourself. You can’t be afraid to tell somebody to fuck off (in professional terms, of course) or live in fear of losing your job. That attitude will earn you a lot of respect as long as you’re also “right, a lot.” Amazon’s culture is unusually receptive to self-promotion...which is fine if you’re legitimately good, but also leads me to my next point: The hiring bar is a mess. Amazon has some of the best talent in the world mixed in with scores of people that a lot of their supposed peers would never even talk to. Due to a combination of insane growth and relatively high turnover, Amazon has adopted a startup-like “hire fast, fire fast” mentality, which has led to an influx of fairly low performers that are ultimately either run out because they just can’t cut it (in healthy orgs with competent management), or successfully adopt the sycophantic mindset of kissing ass and backstabbing their peers (which works well enough in dysfunctional orgs with an equally inept reporting chain). It’s particularly bad when they find their way into the management ranks, and a lot of these people are the sort who will toss blame on others when things don’t go their way, which naturally includes situations where they get PIP’d or managed out. Naturally, Amazon picks up a lot of Microsoft’s dregs (and vice versa). Microsoft had the same stack ranking/backstabbing culture for decades--which almost certainly still persists in various corners--and a lot of managers and PMs who came out of that are naturally finding their way into Amazon and continuing on as always. Compared to the worlds of management consulting (where I spent some time), high finance, or law, Amazon is still a cakewalk. I’d chalk up at least some of the whining to people who just don’t have much perspective. All of that said: IF you’re legitimately good, and IF you’re savvy enough to pick out the right team and org, you can have a great time here. I have no regrets (and yes, I was aware of Amazon’s rep before I came in).
that was pretty insightful
Thank you for your thoughtful and honest opinion, post like yours is the main reason why a platform like Blind is so good for the working people. Thank you again!
Same as always. Worse.
Left 6 weeks ago from Aws to google.