I’m currently considering switching from Microsoft to an Amazon Alexa smart home team. My main concern is Amazon’s repetition for a demanding and cut throat work environment compared to Microsoft. Does anyone have any experience or insight in comparing the two work cultures (specifically Alexa smart home team)? I don’t mind putting in the extra hours but I want to do so because I’m passionate about what I’m working on, not because I have to to stay afloat.
Switching to what level at amazon? L6 and above is chill life.
I’m on one of the smart home teams and my life is pretty relaxed. It does vary by team (there are a few hundred folks in smart home). Managers seem to be stressed (at least mine does).
I searched LinkedIn and seems to me there’s tons of managers at Smart Home, even more than SDE. Is that true?
The smart home teams I've worked with (and I worked with them closely last year) had the absolute worst management. Churn and turnover rate were through the roof, and all long term goals were cast aside for short term gains. Having to comb through their codebase makes me cry. They're probably why I won't touch Alexa with a 10 foot pole now.
I’m in the Alexa SH Machine Learning team, it’s amazing here. Problems are challenging and interesting. My manager is awesome. Not sure about other teams.
I know people in the Alexa team and apparently it’s quite relaxed. Definitely not as cut-throat as AWS or other divisions.
This sounds right, I was in Amazon before and have friends in Alexa.