Amazon.com Reviews

I have been working at Amazon.com full-time for less than a year

Pros – so called brand - nothing else

Cons – # 1 -> Risky for outside hires
You see Amazon recruiting all the time. Reason is high attrition not need for employees.
Out of every 100 external hires, 30 quit before 1 year; 80 quit before 2nd year end and only 7% remain till the end of 4th year when the RSUs vest

So if you are an outside hire chances are 0.3 that you will have to quit before 1 year denting your CV. Too high a risk

# 2 -> Be ready to be micromanaged

Jeff Bezos is a infamous micromanager. 90% of managers in Amazon micromanage. You will be told what to do - including fonts in word documents, type of excel to create, what type of comments to provide

# 3 -> Nobody will care for you

HR is non-existent in this company. Leadership principles are a big hoax. Only on paper, none followed. Managers interested only in furthering their own careers. No meaningful career discussions possible

# 4 - > Career levels -> You will be below the ones that joined out of campus or stayed many years in Amazon by a drastic margin

Career Levels in Amazon are:
Level 4: SDE - 1
Level 5: SDE - 2, TPM, Manager - II, Product Manager
Level 6: SDE - 3, Sr Engineer, TPM-III, Manager-III, Sr Product Manager
Level 7: Principal Engineer, Principal TPM, Senior Manager - Software Dev, Senior Manager - Product Management (They will camouflage this in the external market as "General Manager" to hoodwink ppl)
Level 8: Director
Level 10: VP (There is no level 9)
Level 11: SVP
Level 12; Bezos (CEO)

For internal campus hires
Level 4 - usually a SDE stays 2-3 years before making to Level - 5
Level 5- Level 5 to 6 is tough and can take upto 3-5 years.
level 6 to 7 is also 3-5 years

For external hires (outsiders)
Level 4: Folks with less than 4 years work ex OR with salary lower than max band of Level 4 will come here
Level 5: Folks with salary less than max of Level 5 OR with upto 9-10 years are hired here
Level 6: Folks with less than 15-16 years are hired here
Level 7: need 15+

So net-net if you are at level 6 outsider - you could be director at Travelocity while a campus hire can be there within 5 years
VERY bad for outsiders

A director at Yahoo may join at Level 7 and report to a joker with no ppl manager skills 10 years younger to him.
(Associates team in Bangalore is one such team - worst to work for)

# 5: Pay

They design pay with base pay + sign on
Sign-on is for first year and second year - it is a trick to ensure you run on treadmill for 2 years and your salary at beginning of 3rd year can be less than the first year if you are not promoted

# 6: Recruiters lie
Due to high hiring bar and bar raiser interviews, they reject most that interview. This means recruiters are under tremendous pressure to get candidates in. Some positions are open for 6-12 months and finaly moved back to Seattle.
So recruiters lie left, right and center to get candidates in.
Don't trust the recruiter

#7: Lack of social etiquette
It is Amazon's official line that since ppl are overworked they don't socialize and develop social etiquette. Typical Amazon manager (those who grow from within) are abrasive

Net-net bad place to join for anyone experienced. Risks outweigh benefits.
Infact unless they offer 3X pay (which they won't), not worth joining Amazon. Recommend this company to your worst enemy

Advice to Senior Management – Be honest and ethical

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Amazon.com as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Work Culture is so flexible. Work-Life Balance is good. Compensation is also competitive compared to other companies. Challenging work for sure.

Cons – Some times you can get much work load.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Amazon.com as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Brilliant colleagues, flexibility, robust development environment

Cons – For freshers, too many dependencies on other people/teams and nobody has got time to resolve them. You gotta fend for yourself, which can be considered as a pro in itself.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Amazon.com full-time

Pros – - Good Salary. Thats all. But you need to sacrifice many other things on the cost of that.

Cons – - I wonder how so many people have given such a good rating. Yes, if work is the only thing in your life, this may be the place for you.
- Quality of work is extremely bad. Its all about coordinating with other teams and getting things done. You will hardly get to use your creativity.
- There is panic and chaos all around. No office culture. People shouting, listening music on high volumes.
- Situation at Chennai is more bad. Very bad facilities. Non-ethical place.
- People just come here for a brand name and start contemplating for a change within few months.
- Freshers may still sustain. But extremely bad for people who have come from a company with decent work culture.
- Have a long list of negatives. But I hope this much should be enough for prospective employees to take a decision.

Advice to Senior Management – Amazon is growing very rapidly. But the culture is not sustainable in a long term. Needs a big change.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Amazon.com as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Competitive salary, good work life balance, fast growth.

Cons – If you are working in hyderabad office you might not get to work on good projects. Also, there is no such thing as culture. Not much fun, no perks at all. Boring life at office.

Advice to Senior Management – It will help to be less frugal and make amazon a more fun place to be at. Creating great culture will take time.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Amazon.com full-time

Pros – Good benefits and great salary

Cons – Work Life balance is missing

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Amazon.com

Pros – Senior Management are always willing to listen to ideas. If it has any meat, you can approach senior leadership with a detailed analysis and it actually leads to actionable decisions.

Cons – Although not prevalent, politics can play spoilsport and lead to redundancy. Lots of man hours wasted by competing departments producing the same stuff.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Amazon.com for less than a year

Pros – No problem with leaves.Can take as many, with the consent of the manager
Good pay and allowances
Nice infrastructure

Cons – Night shifts poses a great problem

Advice to Senior Management – Nothing as such

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Amazon.com full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – - Smart people, you will be surprised the time and effort the company invests in finding people
- Decent pay, average of the industry set of competitors, could be better
- Work smart, hard and long. As Jeff says, 2 of the 3 won't work :-)
- Strong sense of accomplishment when work is done

Cons – - Too exhausting at times
- Management may not be transparent always
- Some managers would qualify politicians (really). Stay away from them and just exchange smiles, nothing more
- Recognition. There are few people waiting to shoot using your hardworking. Wonder how they got hired!

Advice to Senior Management – Don't lose the great people. Figure out how to really use peer feedback to weed out the political ones and your will have the best place to work in Bangalore. You are close already.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

I have been working at Amazon.com full-time for less than a year

Pros – - No politics
- Encourage new ways of solving problem
- Never compromise on standards

Cons – - Can be draining your brain at times

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company