Hello Amazonians, I am currently considaring accepting a job offer in Finance in Seattle, however i have a concern on the working enviroment and culture there, it is not clear to me how does it look like I see in glassdoor too many contradicting feedbacks between the worst and the best, also some of these reviews maybe outdated and not reflective to what is going on these days. Please help me with your honest opinion on how life looks like inside the company
I will not bother much about glassdoor, if you are an individual who like to take ownership and drive things you will be happy. Also at what level are you joining, company treats well folks joining at 6 and above. I have not seen much complains from those levels.
Most of the reviews you see will be from SDEs, who have a hard life. I have no idea if the Finance department is the same way though.
6 is the golden level. Nobody got piped at L6 ever.
This depends entirely on the manager. I’ve gone from excellent managers to terrible managers within the same org. That said, where there’s this much smoke, there has to be fire. The perception of Amazon work culture as bruising, combattive, and toxic is largely true. I can’t speak for other companies (I moved to Amazon from the non-profit sector), but too many managers here are simply put cruel people, and it all starts at the top. Don’t join Amazon unless you have a tough skin and can stomach this. Even if you get Mother Theresa as your first boss, you’ll likely be working for a sociopath at some point, and HR won’t help you out of it.
Shit this is probably why I get by fine as an SDE, coz I'm really a heartless bastard
That is a great feedback, thanks for that. But how is the job stability in general, is there too many layoff every now and then or people just leave based on their decision?
I’m at AWS and think it’s way more laid back then the startup I came from. I have a flexible schedule, autonomy, and enjoy the people I work with and manager. I was honestly shocked that it wasn’t as hardcore as blind leads you to believe. I enjoy coming in and think it beats the crap startups I have been at previously. Me: L6 in biz dev
Those who have left my org for AWS tell me it’s the promised land. It defies all logic that the part of Amazon that’s most business critical would be the most laid back, but that seems to be the case.
Same. L6, AWS, it’s not bad. You’re always busy though. I was practically retired at Microsoft. But now I have way more 💰
It 100% depends on your manager. Every team operates like a mini startup and managers are basically kings. If you have a shitty king, life is gonna suck.
Truth
This is 100% true and is the main reason you see such a mix of positive and negative reviews. It’s worth noting that when the manager is good, you avoid many of the big company frustrations, while having all the big company benefits, because each team has so much autonomy.
Check out this post! "Your experience working in Amazon in 4 words (Amazon)" https://us.teamblind.com/s/zRUXi8m5
I worked as a contractor for Amazon in 2 different projects and they were day night. One (the first one) was amazing, managers, team, dev's, everybody AMAZING. I went back to another project and I lasted 3 weeks 😅 A nightmare! The closest I have been to slavery. Toxic people, no time for bathroom, your manager would email you if you are 1 min late or for none senses...
Honestly depends on your leadership and manager. Been on both sides of the coin, definitely now on the better side since I’m still here. On the whole, if you’re driven and love embracing challenges you would love working here. I’ve never been bored at work and with the right leadership, I’ve always been given really challenging work that helps me grow. Definitely a little hardcore as a company and pushes you but in a good way.
also not all true. I’ve been on a team that was absolutely the worst accepting any change.
^which is why my first statement says it depends by and large on your leadership and your manager. I’ve been in a shitty one and wanted to leave but considered a team change due to circumstances that eventually worked out well and I’ve experienced both the best and worst of Amazon.
Well according to Blind it's basically one step removed from a prison-hard labor camp because nobody wipes their ass for them and they only have free bananas.
We wipe each other’s asses. #ownership #earnTrust
This ^