Here's what people say about working at AWS, Amazon's profit-pumping $12 billion cloud business
AWS did $3.2 billion in revenue last quarter, up 55% year-over-year. That's only 10% of Amazon's total revenue ($32 billion), but AWS is the company's most profitable business with an over 30% operating profit margin.
When you're growing that fast, work could get overwhelming. That means some people are required to be on late on-call duty, while working long hours.
"Being on a fast growing service, work can be intense sometimes and on-call can be hectic." — Manoj Kumar, Software Engineer at AWS Elasticache
Still, AWS seems to keep a flexible work culture so people can maintain a good work-life balance.
"Despite what old reviews might say, you can, in fact, have work life balance at Amazon. I have two children under the age of 5, my spouse works, and we have a life. Moreover, Amazonians are there to help you learn how to find that balance." — Glassdoor
AWS pays pretty well too. According to Indeed.com, average salary for AWS jobs is $107,000, 86% higher than the national average for all jobs.
But most people seem to appreciate the fact that they get to work with exceptionally talented people. AWS basically created the cloud computing industry, so you get to learn a lot about the business.
"AWS management invented a new industry, built a business from zero to billions of dollars, are much ahead of any other cloud provider, shipping multiple features everyday. They must be good :)" — Anonymous
AWS is the market leader in the cloud computing space. So if you're the type who finds it rewarding to see your work used by many people, this is your job.
"Working at AWS gives you satisfaction of working with a leading cloud provider which is so much ahead of other cloud providers. It feels great when you see that other groundbreaking enterprises/startups are using your platform to build upon their critical systems." — Manoj Kumar, Software Engineer at AWS Elasticache
But that doesn't mean it's the right fit for everyone. Work could get hard and there's a lot of pressure involved.
"It is uplifting and sometimes disappointing and sometimes overwhelming. It grows you and challenges you and humbles you and sometimes knocks you on your ass. It is not for everyone. :)" — Matt Walters, Software Development Manager at Amazon RDS
Some people find their work mundane because they're working on infrastructure service instead of a sexy consumer app.
"One of my friends who was a SDE (Software Development Engineer) had the most mundane tasks ever. He actually quit as well and went to work somewhere for a little less money, but doing some far more rewarding work." — Former AWS engineer
There could be a lot of politics involved because there's so many smart, aggressive people at the company, as one anonymous employee wrote on Glassdoor.
"Worse still is the politics. When you hire a bunch of smart, aggressive people, and put them in an environment of outsized expectations, throw in a bunch of re-orgs and changing management, and sprinkle with uncertainty and constantly changing priorities, you inevitably get people back stabbing each other and throwing others under the bus to appear smarter and more worthy of promotion." — Glassdoor
Amazon is notoriously famous for its secretive work culture, even internally. That could cause headaches around finding the right information.
"Internal Documentation is messy. It's being worked on, but it's hard to search and find relevant information. I feel sometimes that too much is kept secret, but there is no pretense with it as that is made clear to customers and they're fine with it. Though, sometimes it would be easier to explain why something broke for a customer if I could share additional details.
Sometimes, communication between internal teams and support can suffer from interpretation issues and lag. Also, the mechanism by working in that manner is a chore since due to switchover." — Glassdoor
AWS's work culture is perhaps best summed up by Gartner's analyst Lydia Leong, who told Fortune, “Amazon is not a place of whimsy or fun. Amazon is a culture of self-driven workaholics."
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