Current environment at Amazon

I just recently left AWS after just shy of 3 years. The environment when I left was pretty bleak, but that could be because I left just after the layoffs (due to the return-to-team initiative, “forcing” me to move cities). Moral was low and people were really dragging their feet. From my contacts still there, it seems like burnout continues to be a real problem, despite/because of the attrition from layoffs and RTT/RTO.

Overall my experience was fine, but it will vary depending on the team you end up on. I can also only speak on AWS, as Amazon is essentially a different company. The tech and tooling is dogshit (except for some of the new stuff in Rust). Getting anything done is like walking through molasses, but the deadlines are scoped as if you can walk normally. Some managers are chill, others aren’t. Getting a promotion is a major pain in the ass, and they love down-leveling on hiring, so avoid that trap.

My suggestion if none of the above bothers you is to avoid any high-profile team, such as S3 or EC2. They know they attract everyone who wants to put it on their resume, so they have some of the worst culture I’ve ever seen (on-call you don’t sleep for that week).

I worked in AWS for four years. While there I worked for two different teams.

The first team was the worst job I've ever had. I broke four molars in a year, grinding my jaw in my sleep.

The second team I had a great boss. Still one of the best I've ever had. But even at its best - I would never consider working for Amazon again.

I have a whole rant if you want one, but suffice to say that in Seattle - where Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and Google all have campuses - Amazon is widely considered the worst of the lot.

Amazon: Worst life balance. Worst dev equipment. Burns people out and uses golden handcuffs to trap new hires. But hey, sometimes the desks are made of actual doors and 4x4s.

Microsoft: boring and political AF, but you can get a private office.

Google: restaurants and best dev equipment, but the work is largely dull - they have enough world-class experts in X that you probably won't get to do anything interesting.

Meta: is contributing to the erosion of our civil society. But a lot of cutting edge VR/AR stuff is happening out here, so that's cool.

If you want stability and comp, I'd recommend applying to Meta or Microsoft. Both pay as well or better than Amazon and have a harder time with recruiting, making them slightly slower to churn through employees.

Alternately, if you pursue Amazon, note the following:

1. Do. Not. Spend. Your. "Signing Bonus". It is a trap. If you leave within 2 years of hiring, you have to pay it back.
2. As soon as you start and get settled in your housing, begin prepping for your next job hunt - just in case. A FAANG on your resume is recruiter-nip. Getting big company interviews becomes much easier if you land a job at any one of them. If you have followed Step #1, you can easily parlay an Amazon position into a much better position elsewhere.
3. Some people love Amazon - it's possible you could be one of them! It doesn't hurt to interview. If the job fits and you're careful to avoid the golden handcuffs, landing at Amazon definitely opens doors.

Finally, there's nothing special about the "Big Leagues" - 99% of the job is still glorified string manipulation. Don't let that idea intimidate you. Most of the best engineers I've worked with were at small companies (5 out of the 6 or so that come to mind - only 1 was an Amazonian engineer). I saw plenty of bad code inside the walls of Amazon - the industry skill level really is a lot more flat than companies like to pretend.

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