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Amazon Web Services

Part of Amazon

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Great Pay, Not Great Balance - Software Development Engineer II Amazon Web Services Employee Review

2.0
Apr 4, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

AWS pays great, there's no hiding that. You will work for it.

Cons

Toxic culture. Cut throat performance reviews. Mandatory stack ranking with managing out poor-performers. Lots of politics. Many long days and weekends. No boundaries with work-life balance. Oncall shifts can consistently have you sleep less than 4 hours a night.

Explore other reviews about Amazon Web Services

5.0
Jun 22, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Strong engineering culture, competitive pay, great learning opportunities, and excellent internal mobility across teams.

Cons

Work-life balance can be tough, on-call rotations are demanding, and the pace is fast with high expectations.

3.0
Jul 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Strong place to be early in your career as it provides valuable training and the brand recognition can create strong future opportunities. - Is great if you’re interested in what you’re doing/selling

Cons

- 5 days in office is not great for work/life balance - If your manager doesn’t like you, good luck! - 401k match is lower than most companies - Base salary compensation is weak compared to other big tech - Leveling/career progression is near impossible due to reorgs leading to a promotion “freeze” - Role can evolve over time in ways that may not align with original job expectations

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