Fantastic opportunities to make an impact on your career and customers, but don't expect anyone to hold your hand. - Anonymous employee Amazon Employee Review

4.0
Mar 26, 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazon Kindle is an ambitious, forward-thinking place to work. Amazon isn't just creating "me too" products, but is instead paving interesting ground with new initiatives. It's rare in industry to be able to work on V1 consumer electronics products at huge tech companies, whereas Amazon widely publicizes many job reqs for new "secret" projects. I worked on the FirePhone, which although it did not sell well, was still a valuable learning experience and one that has positioned me to more or less be able to get a job "anywhere" in tech. The work environment is fast paced, but this is somewhat expected as nobody joins a digital products org expecting to take it easy. The work environment is process-light, collaborative, and focused on results versus process. There's typically a sense of the team solving a challenging problem together and celebrating as a unit. Performance reviews are 360, so it's hard to get away with being a jerk to your team or trying to capture glory. Salaries are great here. Amazon uses a base + RSU's model to determine total comp, so consider the entire package versus base salary. RSU's can be a significant portion of comp, and Amazon stock has been traditionally on the rise. The engineering leadership org is expected to be highly technical as well as effective as managers. There's no room for "high level" leaders: my VP is probably one of the most technically gifted people I have ever worked with. Unlike in some companies where you may have to dumb down presentations the further up the chain you go, at Amazon you'll often find that senior leadership exceeds your own technical bar. Overall, every company has its pros and cons of course, but the main appeal of coming to Amazon Kindle is the opportunity to work on something big that you'll be able to actually ship in a fairly short timeframe, and it's something that will often find its way to your friends and family. Amazon offers a great tangible experience shipping a product, and is a valuable resume builder.

Cons

Amazon is generous about salaries, but frugal about perks. We do still get big monitors and SSDs and other critical stuff, but Amazon's general philosophy is to pay their employees enough that employees can electively spend money on snacks and other non-essentials. We have vending machines, and you'll sit in coach when you fly. If you're looking for a company that will pamper you, Amazon's not it. Additionally, Amazon thrives on "ambiguity" -- this trait is often assessed during interviews and engineers are expected to be able to make progress in a fast-moving, highly agile environment that may not have specs or clarity. This may be challenging for those who come from a more traditional task-oriented or dictating organization. If you're proactive and can make reasonable decisions in the absence of certainty, you'll tend to do very well, but don't expect that there will always be someone available to hold your hand.

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May 22, 2026
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CEO approval
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Pros

Decent pay. Great Benefits, Room to promote

Cons

Long hours, day to day can be challenging

5.0
Jan 10, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Really smart people, a lot of opportunity for growth, always encouraged to be innovative, think big, and create something new. Competitive salary and benefits with other major tech companies. 100% self motivating work environment. No dress code and 4 legged friends are welcome.

Cons

You have to be self motivated. NO ONE will hold your hand and tell you that you're doing a great job. If you need constant affirmations from management, this company isn't for you.

3159
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