Amazon.com Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Amazon.com full-time

Pros – Task Based,Open Culture and no politics

Cons – High Pressure work environment,high stress

Advice to Senior Management – More focus on Work life balance needed

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

Current Employee – been working at Amazon.com full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Many new starters who think it`s great that they`ve got in through the doors of Amazon

Cons – So many people leaving. People who only started a few weeks before and many employees who`ve been there years are also leaving the uncaring atmosphere. Some staff will leave to go to other jobs but I`ve never known so many people leave to do NOTHING! They have no job to go to, they simply cant take anymore of working for Amazon and feeling like they`ve been chewed up and spat out. That says alot about a company.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop this "you dont like it? We`ll find somebody else who does" attitude. You`ve lost many amazing people over the years because you treated them so badly.

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

Former Employee – worked at Amazon.com full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good brand on your CV
Overview of different approach to ordinary problems (Amazon way is so peculiar that your experience won't be of any utility in another corporation), this should go in the Cons!!
Initial enthusiasm
No dress code

Cons – Work life balance is non - existent. The amount of work will grow with time as the Company is growing at incredible pace. Still you will have to perform to advance but also to simply keep your job. This means working long hours every day and all the weekends with the Company laptop, that all the employees have. Working smart means passing the ball that would not compromise your performance but most important you network, of course at detriment of the less connected colleagues. In this way your surviving will depend on your ability to step on the heads of the most "weak" employees, creating an awful "dog eat dog" environment. Political wars beetwen managers can last months and normally end up in the resignation of the looser and the elimination of all the looser followers. The aim of many managers seems the survival in the Company at total detriment of the efficiency of the systems, in this way, problems are left unresolved due to lack of support in the resolution until they become a case, old owners let go and new owners, more politically placed provide an adequate (or not, this is not relevant) solution. Must be a case that the majority of people leave before the 2 years of permanent employment, before the vesting of the Shares, so that the Company keeps the majority of the shares inhouse. Many people leave with no other job at hand, as mental sanity become more important than having an employment.

Advice to Senior Management – I believe the Company is exactly where it wants to be.

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

Current Employee – been working at Amazon.com full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good brand name to work for.

Cons – Pathetic culture-no work life balance/poor pays shares are deceiving/Extremely political

Current Employee – been working at Amazon.com full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Amazon is a great place to learn from smart people, particularly at our remote development site. There's a lot of opportunity for motivated engineers to learn a lot about all aspects of software development and make a direct difference to the business.

Cons – Opportunities for promotion or different work are limited at our remote development site. And dealing with people in other sites is a common source of stress.

Advice to Senior Management – "Think big" is a core competency at Amazon. Senior management may be thinking big, but it would be nice if they shared more about the vision with us as it's not always clear.

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

Former Employee – worked at Amazon.com full-time for less than a year

Pros – Employees are empowered to make important decisions, it did not feel political, decisions acted on quickly and performance is measured objectively. Good career prospects

Cons – At least the UK offices are UGLY and they make no effort at all to improve them.
Pay is just barely in the market range.
Overall very frugal.

Advice to Senior Management – There is a point on diminishing returns when saving money is more expensive than spending it. Example if a decision gets delayed because it is hard to get travel approval.

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

Current Employee – been working at Amazon.com full-time for less than a year

Pros – awesome technology company at leading edge of cloud computing

Cons – low career progression, odd style of management, poor compensation

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

Current Employee – been working at Amazon.com full-time for more than a year

Pros – great product to work for
great and passionate people to work with

Cons – All directions and decisions are being made in Seattle, or if you are lucky, in Luxembourg - so you might have a say in it (i frankly never had)
Actual results do not matter, just show off, change some numbers and you will be a star
If you are bad, you will be treated badly. If you are good, you'll get more work, and probably will be treated less badly
The training are made by in house employees who want to train. You want to learn SQL? good - let me train you. If you want external training - you'll have a bad time
Frugality is one of the cornerstones of Amazon. But if you get a cheap laptop, no training, less budget to hire people ... it's just frustrating and makes you inefficient

Advice to Senior Management – Frugality is blocking a lot of work and creates frustration. Ease up
Listen to your employees - and if you listen, do care
Do not reward arrogance

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Amazon.com full-time for more than a year

Pros – Smart People and big business challenges

Cons – Not enough hours in the day

Advice to Senior Management – Keep investing for the long term

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

Current Employee – been working at Amazon.com full-time

Pros – A very strongly shared culture and ethos, great growth potential for the company and personally.
A matrix organisation where you you can move between roles and teams based on merit and success rather than your CV.

Cons – Not many people are going to say "thank you" or "well done", you've got to take all the praise you can when you can!

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