Vantaggi
Amazon was a great place to grow a new career, and there was a lot of opportunity for me to try new things. When I found a good team and stayed there for a few years, it was very rewarding, and I was able to track the results of my team to the performance of my overall organization and the company. I think that is rare in tech. I stayed for more than 10 years because the culture was results-driven and it (at least theoretically) rewarded experiments and risk taking.
Svantaggi
The culture began to shift a few years ago, when there was significant growth across the company. New employees brought baggage and processes with them that created unnecessary red tape, and the focus was no longer on customers. Employees were stepping all over each other because there were so many people doing the exact same thing or highly related things, resulting in tons of politics and backhanded "partnerships." I worked for several teams over the years, and work/life balance was never a priority. Every new opportunity resulted in more hours, more pressure, more politics. The review system rewarded the wrong things--politics and yes men, not results and leadership principles. For me, it was not worth sticking around for the "golden handcuff" stock options.