Strong people, sterling no-nonsense business education
Pros
Very strong customer oriented culture and sense of purpose. Lots of special things going on. Very innovative and will take business risks. Very data and goals driven and holds its people accountable. B and C players do not survive long. Being successful here is resume gold. Our senior management go on to CEO and executive roles elsewhere. Does fairly well at avoiding cronyism and organizational disease for a large corporation, due to unique mechanisms such as "bar raisers" for hiring, promotion process, OLR, etc.
Cons
Pressure of being held accountable and to understand owned businesses is hard to withstand for some. Most top performers go through 3-6 month correction period on joining the company as a playbook that serves you well outside of Amazon will not necessarily work in Amazon's unique environment. Promotion process overdone and heavyweight. Strong culture of writing doesn't work for some.
