Amazon Software Development Engineer reviews

3.5

55% would recommend to a friend

(3,330 total reviews)
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Andrew Jassy

39% approve of CEO

54% positive business outlook

Software Development Engineer I employees have rated Amazon with 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 3,330 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Development Engineer I professionals have a good working experience there. Amazon is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Development Engineer I professionals compared to other employers within the Tecnologías de la información industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
2.0
Mar 22, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Salary is probably on the high side compared to other hi-tech companies for the equivalent positions, though no where near compared to Google or Facebook. Company outlook looks good.

Cons

Work/life balance is probably the worst for SDE's in the hi-tech industry. Oncall experience can be really bad and you have to work at nights but yet the manager stills expects you to work next day during day time. Work is fast-paced and majority of projects are short-term thinking. They just want to lure the customers in and worry about the rest later. Health insurance benefits is on the bad side compared to other hi-tech companies. The signing stocks grant may be attractive but don't expect the same after 4 years. Basically you should look for jobs elsewhere after 4 years unless you perform on the top 10% compared against peers. I have unfortunately worked for some mean managers who clearly indicated that you have to work overtime on a regular basis to get work done, no matter how unreasonable the schedule is. The commute becomes bad now since they moved to SLU campus.

3.0
Mar 17, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Fast moving, aggressive road map and interesting projects

Cons

workload is high, compensation is no longer very competitive

2.0
Mar 16, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Get hands dirty on work millions use on daily bases. Unlike Microsoft, this company across the lake does ship code.

Cons

1. Very twisted compensation package. You are evaluated based on salary+stock, which should be 'given' although not vested, but the management sees that as 'you are well compensated' and would give away next to nothing for the hard work next year. 2. Terrible on-call. It's really a nightmare. Work-life balance is as bad as the worst story your friend told you. IT'S ALL TRUE. 3. Very bad benefit package. But you knew it when you got the offer, so can't complain too much about it. 4. Middle management is not transparent at all. You see the tree but not the forest. Sometimes they'd lie about promotion/compensation to get you work extra on top of already overloaded work-life balance. But it could be just my case.

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