Pros
Huge company - Lots of opportunities if you want to change your career path or switch teams Name recognition - nice to have a big company like Amazon on your resume Flexible work options - You can work from home without missing too much (team-dependent and job-dependent) Benefits - The bus pass and 10 percent off discount off of the website are good perks. Health insurance was decent. Kitchenette was available and clean. Some teams/organizations have free food in the kitchens. Pay - Salary was above average for the area, but still not as much as other big tech companies.
Cons
Huge company - You can't turn your head in South Lake Union without seeing an Amazon employee wearing a blue badge. The company is expanding extremely rapidly, and while they are building new office spaces in downtown Seattle, work spaces feel cramped. You'll feel like a number at company meetings. Work-life balance - On-call rotations are a norm because of the companies notion of 'ownership'. Though I was an software developer, managers are also subject to being paged. My shift usually started between 9 and 10 am and most days didn't end until after 7pm. This was normal for all of my team members. Of course, this is also very team-dependent. Benefits - The retirement plan is lackluster compared to other tech companies. New hires only get two weeks of paid vacation (10 paid days off not including weekends and holidays). That's lower than all companies I've researched. Not only is it lower than other companies, you are not given your vacation days upfront. You a portion of them per month. Also, Amazon (in the U.S.) only recognizes 5 holidays, versus most other companies which I've seen with a minimum of 8 paid holidays). Your happiness here is directly influenced by the team you're put on. If you don't like your team, you can either leave the company or wait out until the first anniversary of your employment. After one year of employment, you are allowed to switch teams (if you have a good performance review). You might still need to interview with the team that you plan to switch to.
