Amazon Software Development Engineer reviews

3.5

55% would recommend to a friend

(3,330 total reviews)
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Andrew Jassy

39% approve of CEO

54% positive business outlook

Software Development Engineer I employees have rated Amazon with 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 3,330 company reviews on Glassdoor. This indicates that most Software Development Engineer I professionals have a good working experience there. Amazon is rated in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) by Software Development Engineer I professionals compared to other employers within the IT (Information Technology) industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
3.0
Oct 24, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

New exciting technology, problems and challenges. Lots of smart people. Now focused on improving developer experience and making improvements to development ecosystem.

Cons

Frugality taken to Cheapness and not investing in right things internally. High turnover rate until recession hit. Pretending to be a start up but really a corporation with increasing bureaucracy and HR ridden rather than the feeling of a company where people know each other. Not focused on individual development and growing people to next level. Have a lot of mini-cultures so a diverse culture in different department and organization which is good if you are under a progressive management hierarchy or hell if you are in the wrong organization. Do not recommend Operations organization to software developers very hectic and heavy on supporting old legacy hacked low quality software.

2.0
Jul 3, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good Salary, Interesting Technology & Problem Space

Cons

Middle Management (Directors and Senior Managers) is typically hired externally with the candidates making unrealistic promises. Typically, they grab a difficult project and commit to unrealistic deadlines, then death march the employees through these missed deadlines and finally are let go for failure to meet goals, having alienated their subordinates. I have been under three separate senior managers who followed this pattern and have seen countless others outside of my command chain.

4.0
Jun 5, 2009
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They work you hard, which occasionally leads to burnout, but the work tends to be quite interesting, which makes the whole process satisfying.

Cons

Minimal perks, frugal is an understatement, but occasionally it's to the point of penny pinching. Depending on your team, there may be as little as no team building type activities, though I've heard tales of other teams that do beer and boardgames and pizza quite frequently

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