Heyo. I worked at Amazon Music for a year right out of college. I agree with Adys; your experience will vary dramatically from team to team. I started out on a small team working on the content...
Heyo. I worked at Amazon Music for a year right out of college. I agree with Adys; your experience will vary dramatically from team to team. I started out on a small team working on the content management system for Amazon Music; it was super low key, my coworkers were awesome, and my manager was totally fine. After a few months I got moved to a two-person team (!!!) that was supposed to be building small user interfaces for the inputs to the ML systems that another team was building. This… was not a reasonable setup. Two people could not possibly spin up the systems they needed from scratch in the time they (specifically our product manager) wanted. No one seemed able to recognize this; instead, only one month into the existence of the team, our product manager should show up at my desk, unannounced, asking why more progress hadn’t been made (and, frankly, being fairly condescending about things he clearly did not fully understand).
As far as I know, that experience was nothing compared to some of the horror stories from the retail site or AWS roles. But it was enough that when a recruiter reached out from another company, I was pretty ready to bail. Looking back, it was a pretty resolvable situation, but my manager was entirely unable (unwilling?) to have our backs in a meaningful way.
As Adys says, though, this isn’t unique to Amazon. I’m at the New York Times, now, and I love it, and I think on the whole it is a much better, healthier, and more productive work environment, but I also do know that there are teams here with similar problems. I think the difference is mostly that here, when someone outside of that situation hears about it, their response is “holy shit that’s miserable, can I talk to my manager/director/VP for you and try to figure out if we can do something?”, whereas at Amazon, the vibe was more… “ha, yeah, isn’t product the worst?” (it’s not/shouldn’t be, I love my product manager!)
Hi wulfsta, I wasn't an SWE but I was a BIE that worked closely with several developer teams. I'll echo adys' advice that "it depends on the team". Generally, the closer you are to AWS the better...
Hi wulfsta, I wasn't an SWE but I was a BIE that worked closely with several developer teams. I'll echo adys' advice that "it depends on the team".
Generally, the closer you are to AWS the better you'll have it, and the closer you are to retail the worse it is. There will be office politics no matter where you go, but in my experience Amazon can be worse in terms of PIP sabotaging, and promotions are an especial struggle.
I'd say if you're young and up for a challenge, go for a brief stint, maybe 1-3 years. If you're not desperate to jump start your career, or even slightly worried about the stress, don't do it. I had a good coworker-friend suffer a stress induced heart attack, and full-sobbing-breakdowns weren't an uncommon occurrence in the office. Avoid retail/logistics at all costs. The horror stories are usually a little blown out of proportion, but very much based in reality. PM me if you have any questions or would like more details.
Also, it kind of sucks working for one of the most public billionaires who's also a piece of shit. Take into consideration how you'll feel about the work at the end of your career.
Yeah, thanks for mentioning that last bit. I eventually left big tech altogether exactly because I couldn’t stomach the people and companies I was providing value to. Not everyone has the...
Yeah, thanks for mentioning that last bit. I eventually left big tech altogether exactly because I couldn’t stomach the people and companies I was providing value to. Not everyone has the privilege to carefully choose their employer, but if you’re considering a job as a SWE at Amazon, you might! And if you do… maybe consider somewhere else instead. Amazon does a lot of cool things, but also a lot of terrible things (and so do Google, and Facebook/Meta, etc, etc). Not to say that my current employer (who’s been actively fighting our union effort for a year now) is spotless, either! But I feel a lot more comfortable about continuing my 3-year tenure here than I ever did about my brief stints at big tech companies.
I myself don't work there but know many people who do. The short answer is "it depends on the team". I've heard stories of annoying office politics, burnout, shitty contracts, but I've heard those...
I myself don't work there but know many people who do. The short answer is "it depends on the team".
I've heard stories of annoying office politics, burnout, shitty contracts, but I've heard those for all big companies. I've also heard stories of absolutely exceptional opportunities for exceedingly smart people, so YMMV.
You potentially getting a job there? My advice is go with the interview, and if you get as far as an offer then see how you feel at that point. If you already got the offer and are still unsure, well...
Personally, I'm a risk-taker. When opportunities present themselves, I'll often just dive right in. I'd do it. But also, I wouldn't, because I don't do big companies. But if I were the kind of person to apply for this type of job, I'd do it.
Heyo. I worked at Amazon Music for a year right out of college. I agree with Adys; your experience will vary dramatically from team to team. I started out on a small team working on the content management system for Amazon Music; it was super low key, my coworkers were awesome, and my manager was totally fine. After a few months I got moved to a two-person team (!!!) that was supposed to be building small user interfaces for the inputs to the ML systems that another team was building. This… was not a reasonable setup. Two people could not possibly spin up the systems they needed from scratch in the time they (specifically our product manager) wanted. No one seemed able to recognize this; instead, only one month into the existence of the team, our product manager should show up at my desk, unannounced, asking why more progress hadn’t been made (and, frankly, being fairly condescending about things he clearly did not fully understand).
As far as I know, that experience was nothing compared to some of the horror stories from the retail site or AWS roles. But it was enough that when a recruiter reached out from another company, I was pretty ready to bail. Looking back, it was a pretty resolvable situation, but my manager was entirely unable (unwilling?) to have our backs in a meaningful way.
As Adys says, though, this isn’t unique to Amazon. I’m at the New York Times, now, and I love it, and I think on the whole it is a much better, healthier, and more productive work environment, but I also do know that there are teams here with similar problems. I think the difference is mostly that here, when someone outside of that situation hears about it, their response is “holy shit that’s miserable, can I talk to my manager/director/VP for you and try to figure out if we can do something?”, whereas at Amazon, the vibe was more… “ha, yeah, isn’t product the worst?” (it’s not/shouldn’t be, I love my product manager!)
Hi wulfsta, I wasn't an SWE but I was a BIE that worked closely with several developer teams. I'll echo adys' advice that "it depends on the team".
Generally, the closer you are to AWS the better you'll have it, and the closer you are to retail the worse it is. There will be office politics no matter where you go, but in my experience Amazon can be worse in terms of PIP sabotaging, and promotions are an especial struggle.
I'd say if you're young and up for a challenge, go for a brief stint, maybe 1-3 years. If you're not desperate to jump start your career, or even slightly worried about the stress, don't do it. I had a good coworker-friend suffer a stress induced heart attack, and full-sobbing-breakdowns weren't an uncommon occurrence in the office. Avoid retail/logistics at all costs. The horror stories are usually a little blown out of proportion, but very much based in reality. PM me if you have any questions or would like more details.
Also, it kind of sucks working for one of the most public billionaires who's also a piece of shit. Take into consideration how you'll feel about the work at the end of your career.
Yeah, thanks for mentioning that last bit. I eventually left big tech altogether exactly because I couldn’t stomach the people and companies I was providing value to. Not everyone has the privilege to carefully choose their employer, but if you’re considering a job as a SWE at Amazon, you might! And if you do… maybe consider somewhere else instead. Amazon does a lot of cool things, but also a lot of terrible things (and so do Google, and Facebook/Meta, etc, etc). Not to say that my current employer (who’s been actively fighting our union effort for a year now) is spotless, either! But I feel a lot more comfortable about continuing my 3-year tenure here than I ever did about my brief stints at big tech companies.
I myself don't work there but know many people who do. The short answer is "it depends on the team".
I've heard stories of annoying office politics, burnout, shitty contracts, but I've heard those for all big companies. I've also heard stories of absolutely exceptional opportunities for exceedingly smart people, so YMMV.
You potentially getting a job there? My advice is go with the interview, and if you get as far as an offer then see how you feel at that point. If you already got the offer and are still unsure, well...
Personally, I'm a risk-taker. When opportunities present themselves, I'll often just dive right in. I'd do it. But also, I wouldn't, because I don't do big companies. But if I were the kind of person to apply for this type of job, I'd do it.
What's an SWE in this context? Google is suggesting Swedish Amazon workers.
Software Engineer
Unnecessary shorthand strikes again!