Pros
Getting straight out of college and getting 4 years industry experience in one year. The amount of experience you get from this place is phenomenal, because it is so fast-paced. The trainings are great. They send you to different cities for multiple trainings and its nice to meet new people and see interesting places. The compensation is crazy. I was a university hire so when I saw the amount of money Amazon was willing to give me, all of the other offers went out of the window. Along with the large signing bonuses, it makes it hard to even compare them with any other offers you get as a senior in college. I was making way more money than any of my peers were making and the signing bonus, I was almost embarrassed to tell my friends in fear they would be envious. After you work for Amazon for any amount of time, your appeal to recruiters go sky high. Recruiters know that Amazon offers incredible training for its workers and that the managers that work there will not be there for very long. I worked at Amazon for only 4 months before recruiters from other companies were contacting me about other job opportunities.
Cons
Where do I start. Every single negative review you have read about being an Area Manager at Amazon is true. I was that college student who saw the light at the end of the tunnel when I received that phone call from Amazon saying, "You got the job, here is your huge offer and we expect you to make some sort of decision in 3 weeks." You're put in a small, cut throat building and told you will only have to be there for 12 months. You think, well 12 months, that's easy right? No not right. You'll literally be counting the seconds until you're able to leave and then when you want to leave, there are multiple obstacles you have to go through in order to even be considered. You're better off asking the recruiter of any launches before telling them your preferences and see if they're willing to disclose that information. *Launches are in huge cities and when you request to go to one, its pretty much 100% youre going. The job is tough. It requires a certain type of personality to work at Amazon. You will be constantly thrown under the bus and called out on multiple channels on things you aren't doing right and when you do achieve almost impossible tasks, you have to throw it in your Sr Mgmts face in order to get some sort of praise for it. The company does not care about your needs or your associates needs. The Area Manager has the toughest job in the place yet is always criticized for missing deadlines by support staff who are consistently trying to find more things to put on our plate. You work 12 hour days and 50-60 hour work weeks. And peak is a stress filled nightmare. It goes by fast but its constant reminders of 'meeting expectation'. The associates are treated like a number and not people. We emphasize how customer centric we are yet our employees are our customers too, and we don't focus on them hardly ever.