Amazon reviews

The rapid growth of Amazon and increasing head counts have put a lot of pressure on the buildings which house Amazon employees. Many Amazon buildings are packed. Seating is cramped and elevator rides can be too close for comfort. Career growth is hard. Starting developers enter at SDE 1 with a clear path to SDE 2, but from there on out it's hard to get to SDE 3 or above. Employees on immigrant work visas like H1B should know that Amazon does not start your permanent residency process till you hit SDE 2 (level 5). This is where sometimes politics rears its ugly head. You might find really hard working engineers play the game. Amazon does not give you additional perks if you compare it with companies like Microsoft or Google. Apart from the 10% discount on Amazon purchases (capped at $100) and few team outings you won't get much. Don't expect to get the latest Amazon gadgets for free.

For a company with $100B in Revenue, the systems and processes are extremely sub par. That translates into a lot of work by people that should be handled by software. Cronyism is rampant. Political backstabbing and positioning is a fact of everyday life. Greediness permeates and poisons an already ugly culture. Employees are in encouraged (expected) to believe that Amazon is so much more than this era's Sears and Roebuck. The human component of management is lost here. People management skills are not developed here like other companies I've worked at, resulting in a lot (a lot) of people managers who shouldn't even be in charge of deciding what's for dinner. Decision making is centralized with the S Team( senior leadership team that meets with Bezos) This means that getting approval, which is delegated to managers in other places I've worked, for simple things takes way too long and impairs business and creates apathy among employees.