Amazon Software and Development Manager reviews

3.3

46% would recommend to a friend

(486 total reviews)
avatar

Andrew Jassy

26% approve of CEO

72% positive business outlook

Software and Development Manager employees have rated Amazon with 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 486 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software and Development Manager professionals have a good working experience there. Amazon is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software and Development Manager professionals compared to other employers within the Tecnologías de la información industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

486 reviews
5.0
Oct 21, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Amazon is an amazing company - I haven't seen anything like it. It's a place where you're encouraged to "Think Big" while still having to focus on the details and deliver results. There are truly incredible people working here, and it's easy to reach across the organization and benefit from their knowledge. This is a company where displays of true ownership are rewarded. If you see a problem or an opportunity, don't wait for someone else to give you permission to look at it - go and see! Sure, you shouldn't go off for two weeks working on something new without telling anyone, but management is open to hearing about ideas about what needs to be done. The Vancouver office is a "remote" office in that it's a few hours away from the corporate HQ in Seattle, but the culture here is very much Amazonian. The leadership principles are consistent across the company (although occasionally open to interpretation), and as we continue to grow the office feels more and more like a "1st class" Amazon office every day. Amazon has had a bad reputation about operational load, but I can only speak to my own experience - the load is minimal. It is very rare that someone on my team gets paged because of an issue, and almost always that takes place during business time. Having the team handle operations, instead of sourcing it out to a dedicated support team, instills a strong quality ethic in the team and as a result the software is of much higher quality.

Cons

Amazon is great place, but it's also a huge and varied place. Your Amazon experience will depend largely on two things - how much of a self-started you are, and what team you're on. There are a lot of opportunities, but you need to reach out and grab them. Very little will be spoon-fed to you unless you are at the lowest levels, and even then there is an expectation of motivation and initiative (or "bias for action"). Waiting for the action to come to you is not a successful strategy, be it interesting projects, new technologies, promotions, or anything else. Amazon is relatively decentralized, meaning that it's up to each organization, division, and even manager to run their group the way they want. Sometimes things will be circumstantial - inheriting a legacy system, etc. - but often a manager's or organization's policies will greatly impact how much you like work here. Luckily, people are relatively free to move around within the company, so unhappy teams will bleed developers to teams with better reputations.

4.0
Oct 7, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. High Quality work 2. Freedom of execution 3. Great team mates

Cons

1. Increasing work pressure - Sometimes 2. Frustrating and irrelevant insistence of high bar

Viewing 457 - 459 of 486 Reviews

Glassdoor has 251,476 Amazon reviews submitted anonymously by Amazon employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Amazon is right for you.