The contracts Amazon offered (at least as of two years ago) were heavy on the starting bonus and grant of stock that you gave up if you quit before two years.

The contracts Amazon offered (at least as of two years ago) were heavy on the starting bonus and grant of stock that you gave up if you quit before two years. It was apparent from the job offer terms that they didn't expect people to stick around for much longer than that. Most of the future compensation was the promise of more stock grants. No guarantees, and your long term financial future was betting on investors continue to write Bezos a blank check. To me, Amazon looked like working for a big company with many of the drawbacks of working for a startup. I didn't come away with the impression that you could make a career there. That's working well for them I guess, but they're well known for their ridiculous employee turnover rate.