A Mixed Bag (Amazon Pharmacy)
Pros
Disclaimer: Amazon is so big that it may be slightly different elsewhere in the company outside of Amazon Pharmacy - Always projects to be worked on because leadership is betting big on healthcare. This can be great for your career if you're looking to grow fast. - Exposure to some of the more modern cutting edge technologies (ex. AI) as Amazon is constantly looking to improve - Lots of opportunity to have impact at scale given Amazon's customer base - Plenty of senior experience within the org for design reviews and guidance - Pay is above average and stock has generally done well If you're mainly looking to grow your career and make a lot of money, Amazon might be a good fit for you.
Cons
- Work life balance can get tough during project launches - Tech debt from rushed launches - Lack of transparency within the org - Poor handling of return to office and layoffs - Limited benefits compared to other big tech companies Working in a rapidly growing org in Amazon has the drawback of too many projects to do and not enough people to do it. There is a constant cycle of a project being scoped with an unreasonable immovable deadline, the team prioritizing only the bare minimum and rushing to meet that deadline, and tech debt being produced as a result of shortcuts. Because of this there isn't much focus on long term sustainability and as a result oncall can be tough depending on the team. This has been brought up a few times but since these timelines are set by leadership and there's so many layers until you reach them with little transparency, nothing has been done about it even with the best intentions of middle management. Pre COVID when Amazon was taking big bets it was an exciting time to be a part of that growth. But when the economy got tough years later and layoffs were prevalent in the tech industry, it was a harsh reminder of what Amazon valued (hint: not the employees) and what they would do to save money: - Tens of thousands of people laid off - Mandating employees return to the office where their team is located to force people to uproot their lives or voluntarily leave Amazon (note that 30,000+ people signing a petition and protesting for remote work did not sway leadership), - Only providing agile desks for 80% of the team headcount (where is the 20% going to sit??) - No comp increases for L6+ one year, - etc. etc.
