Vantaggi
I get to witness some good software processes that help to ensure work quality. You are encouraged to voice out your thoughts, opinions, but of course back it up with data and constructive solutions always. There are endless stuffs to work on; challenges to overcome, unchartered work that no one has done before. If you are one is a self-starter, one who strives in "no one know this, you have to figure out yourself" situations, you got this. Take it in a positive way, there are many problems in this world that no one has a clue how to solve. Someone has to take it on head on after all. I cannot say much for the rest of Amazon, however there is no talk down approach from management in my current team. Counting my blessing on this. Yes, we are frugal, no free lunches but we have occasional Friday happy hours, team activities to bond us. Most importantly, we get to meet some of the smartest, hardworking folks in Amazon.
Svantaggi
It is true that our work performance are measured by how many lines of codes one is changing, how many code reviews one has done, how many tickets solve one has solve and many more. Most say data don't lie, true to that. But do consider data don't speak the stories or reasons behind it. A doctor who has a death rate in his hand, does not mean he is not a good doctor. He might be sought after because many terminally ill patients go to him for final hopes. Likewise, a developer who did not do much code changes, because he might be too busy working on one of the "no one want to get involved" tickets that don't get measure in the performance metrics. My point is we are humans, not just some data points. Improve on that.