Good place to learn, but they do not value employees
Pros
- Good opportunities to advance your technical and product skills - Solid compensation, although the growth is largely driven by stock gains. - PMTs are given a lot of ownership and autonomy. Good relationships across product and engineering allow you to get technical work done smoothly - Customer obsessed culture gives you the right to support your arguments with data and customer feedback, even if slightly outside your wheelhouse
Cons
- Management does not value their employees. Senior leadership will throw tantrums about timelines without trying to understand root causes, and ask people to work weekends and holidays to meet their expectations. This is acceptable as it "raises the bar" for teams in Amazon culture speak. Many decisions taken top down due to "disagree and commit" leadership principle and escalation culture. This also leads to constant stress across team. - Career growth is difficult since recent flattening actions. Many L7 PMT managers got pushed down to IC roles, creating a large band of L7 ICs and slowing promotions for all. Performance is not rewarded adequately, and you are constantly considered to do other peoples job to "take on scope". Raises have basically been stalled since 2023. - The promotion prospect is frequently dangled in front of you but the process is 1-2 years long once your manager commits. Managers have to write documents to justify your promotion, it is not always in your hands. Frequent "re-orgs" which change your direct management hinder your career growth as your new manager is often not as motivated to write your role leveling or scoping document (two docs your manager must write and take up to leadership for approval of your promo).
