Amazon reviews

3.5

60% would recommend to a friend

(209,062 total reviews)
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Andrew Jassy

50% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Amazon has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 209,062 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Amazon employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Tecnologías de la información industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

209K reviews
5.0
Sep 21, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazon is packed full of opportunities. There's plenty of space to grow both personally and technically and challenges abound. The real beauty of the place is that individual groups and teams are given nearly full reign in how they operate as long as they produce the desired results. This level of freedom means that those teams which require strict SDLC methodologies to meet high availability requirements can apply those, while teams who do not require as strict of a methodology are also free to explore agile approaches. There are lots of available tools for working in certain ways, but teams are not required to use those tools and are welcome to use others of their own choosing. This freedom keeps the work environment fresh and interesting, even as Amazon has grown into a truly large company. The other aspect of Amazon that is truly rewarding is the "ownership" attitude that is fostered. Not code ownership, per se, but rather company ownership. Any employee is encouraged to think about how the project they are doing improves customer experience, drives down costs, and overall improves the business. Anyone can say "I don't think that this is a good customer experience," and people tend to listen.

Cons

In short: Chaos. We haves it. I've personally witnessed complete priority shifts take place in 24 hours. If you are the kind of person who will be upset if the project you were working on for the past 2 weeks (or months) suddenly gets tabled in favor of some super ultra high priority mission, you won't like it here. Personally, this doesn't bother me. Both the tabled project and the new one will generally be interesting, and if the tabled project had a real business need behind it, it will come back around to completion one day down the road :).

4.0
Sep 20, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I get to work with very bright, very customer focused people, who are also genuinely decent and caring individuals. I get to work on some amazing technology and I can see how it will change the world when it is in the hands of our customers. Senior management is smart, intense, focused, and driven by results. They are also very accessible via email, and will take the time to respond. There's a total lack of politics, game playing, and manipulation. The product cycle is short, so the work you do today will be in the hands of customers tomorrow. You can bring your dog to work. Having fun and helping to make Amazon a fun place to work is a core value and doing this right can even have an impact on your review.

Cons

Make no mistake, you will work hard at Amazon. This is not a place for slackers or for those who want to work 40 hours per week and then go home. The email load can be intense and the pace of the business means that you are expected to respond quickly. If you can't think, respond, act, and perform at web speed then you will get run over. Amazon's now legendary emphasis on frugality means that you will be working at a so-called door desk, and that you may be crammed into a small office with a couple of other people.

2.0
Sep 14, 2008
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There aren't too many rules or established ways of doing things so if you're the type who wants to try out new things, write new code or that kind of thing you'd love it. You wont hear No as long as it doesn't cost the company money. If it doesnt cost any money then you can do virtually anything you want. Probably half the cool stuff on our site comes from ideas people had and tried out on their own. It is definitely a good place for people without much else going on in their lives because your not going to have time for any thing else.

Cons

The hours are very long. Expect 12 hour days at a minimum and you will work every weekend, except they give everybody a laptop so you can work at home so some of that 12 hours is at home at night too. Everybody has a blackberry because its expected that you be available at all times, even when you're on vacation. If you want a work life balance, start running in the other direction. Its basically an environment of work the person as hard as you can as long as you can, and when they collapse and die, people say they just didn't have what it takes.

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