Pit crew for a race car that doesn - Systems Engineer Amazon Employee Review

4.0
Jul 1, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. It's in Seattle. 2. You get to support the O.G. Cloud. 3. Ultimate mobility - if you see a team you want to join, just start hanging out with them. If you're invaluable to your present team, it just takes a little longer. If you've been around, you've got a great shot at getting on one of the S3 ops teams -- only dev teams get resumes from recent grads. It's really hard, but it's all there, simply a matter of reading. Nothing at all off the shelf any more beside the hardware, all either open source or Amazon proprietary. Best integration of incident management and knowledge sharing, ever -- just read old tickets, all are heavily annotated. I strongly recommend this to cuspy olde UNIX admins, especially self-taught. Most important skill of all == log diving. Enormous and entertaining library of videos from principal engineers to teach the unique architecture. New model to scale to the always-increasing size of the cloud every few years -- you'll know when probability equations start showing up on the whiteboards in the hallway. Nothing wrong with developing or doing ops for other teams - my experience is limited to the S3 team.

Cons

Not just a time-sucker, can be a life-sucker. No one will force or even suggest putting in more time, it just happens because it's completely and utterly fascinating.

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5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Hybrid work (3 days a week), good team atmosphere, small sales teams, limited travel

Cons

a lot of shifts in upper management currently

5.0
Jan 10, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Really smart people, a lot of opportunity for growth, always encouraged to be innovative, think big, and create something new. Competitive salary and benefits with other major tech companies. 100% self motivating work environment. No dress code and 4 legged friends are welcome.

Cons

You have to be self motivated. NO ONE will hold your hand and tell you that you're doing a great job. If you need constant affirmations from management, this company isn't for you.

3159
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