4 ms·

I've heard so many bad things about it. Someone always eventually chimes in with "it depends what team you're on" but somehow I don't find that very comforting.

I've heard so many bad things about it. Someone always eventually chimes in with "it depends what team you're on" but somehow I don't find that very comforting. My point is programmers already shouldn't want to work there, but it's Amazon, so.

jrs95 9y ago
I have as well, a coworker of mine at my last job came from Amazon. He said he only stayed as long as he did so his resume wouldn't look bad for quitting after just a couple months. I can't help but think that this is related to the mediocre (imo) UX of a lot of their products. Both AWS and Alexa seem to take the approach of just jamming as many features in as possible without much regard to user experience. It seems like a business/economics view of things is overwhelmingly dominant, and the human element is ignored. But I could be extrapolating too much.
- thrownawayaway 9y ago
  Now if only Android phones stopped becoming Android bricks after a year or so of mandatory app updates, I might actually start to think Google is getting better about their UI.
- whipoodle 9y ago
  Maybe... I work somewhere that works very hard to provide nice UX for people. It's a shitshow. But I'd still much rather have this job than work for Amazon. Basically the longer I work in this industry the more thoroughly convinced I become that nobody knows what the hell they are doing.
  - jrs95 9y ago
    Yeah, I pretty much agree with you on that. I don't think it's just this industry either. I've had jobs where I've been amazed that the business can even continue to exist with the amount of disorganization and lack of any real coherent strategy. From a theoretical standpoint, you'd expect them to be eliminated by competitors...but in practice, since hardly anyone knows what the hell is going on, that just doesn't happen.
  - megaman22 9y ago
    I'm constantly amazed that anything computerized works at all, ever. People think I'm foolish or some kind of a Luddite for wanting dumb, electro-mechanical appliances and vehicles. But once you are familiar with how the sausage is made...
thrownawayaway 9y ago
Ironically, the worst job I've had in tech was getting blind allocated onto one of Google's brainfarts. My point? It always depends on what team you're on... Or what's worse? Your manager is a tech ignorant Stanford MBA at Amazon or your boss is an out of touch Stanford grad rest and vester at Google?
notyourwork 9y ago
> My point is programmers already shouldn't want to work there, but it's Amazon, so. I don't understand how you can make a blanket statement like that. Why should programmers not want to work there?
- sp527 9y ago
  Amazon has developed a public reputation for being an intense environment where employees are generally overworked [0]. Unsurprisingly, (based on conversations with engineers I know there) it varies depending on your team and even geographic location. But, based on the anecdotal data and the reporting that’s been done, it sounds like you can end up really miserable if you get screwed. [0] https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?referer= https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amaz...
  - notyourwork 9y ago
    You can end up really miserable at any company that has a toxic team. This isn't unique to Amazon. I tend to think companies are on a spectrum where you have a few bad apples, a few exceptionally great teams and a most fall into the average like everywhere else in the world.
    - ntsplnkv2 9y ago
      Many companies don't have the reputation Amazon does. Not everything can be explained away with "it can happen everywhere." There's too many stories, cases, and anecdotes about working there to ignore.
    - jrs95 9y ago
      It doesn't even take an entire toxic team! One bad person, usually a manager, can fuck the whole thing up.
- whipoodle 9y ago
  Because it seems like a nightmare based on many things, but, again, you always get the people that are like "my team is amazing and full of geniuses who ship everything on time and never disagree". Look, if you want to work there, go nuts. It seems like a mostly bad place to me. I'm sorry for that "blanket statement". (Of course if I said it seems like a great place to work that would be just fine.)

jrs95 9y ago

I have as well, a coworker of mine at my last job came from Amazon. He said he only stayed as long as he did so his resume wouldn't look bad for quitting after just a couple months. I can't help but think that this is related to the mediocre (imo) UX of a lot of their products. Both AWS and Alexa seem to take the approach of just jamming as many features in as possible without much regard to user experience. It seems like a business/economics view of things is overwhelmingly dominant, and the human element is ignored. But I could be extrapolating too much.

thrownawayaway 9y ago
Now if only Android phones stopped becoming Android bricks after a year or so of mandatory app updates, I might actually start to think Google is getting better about their UI.
whipoodle 9y ago
Maybe... I work somewhere that works very hard to provide nice UX for people. It's a shitshow. But I'd still much rather have this job than work for Amazon. Basically the longer I work in this industry the more thoroughly convinced I become that nobody knows what the hell they are doing.
- jrs95 9y ago
  Yeah, I pretty much agree with you on that. I don't think it's just this industry either. I've had jobs where I've been amazed that the business can even continue to exist with the amount of disorganization and lack of any real coherent strategy. From a theoretical standpoint, you'd expect them to be eliminated by competitors...but in practice, since hardly anyone knows what the hell is going on, that just doesn't happen.
- megaman22 9y ago
  I'm constantly amazed that anything computerized works at all, ever. People think I'm foolish or some kind of a Luddite for wanting dumb, electro-mechanical appliances and vehicles. But once you are familiar with how the sausage is made...

thrownawayaway 9y ago

Ironically, the worst job I've had in tech was getting blind allocated onto one of Google's brainfarts. My point? It always depends on what team you're on... Or what's worse? Your manager is a tech ignorant Stanford MBA at Amazon or your boss is an out of touch Stanford grad rest and vester at Google?

notyourwork 9y ago

> My point is programmers already shouldn't want to work there, but it's Amazon, so. I don't understand how you can make a blanket statement like that. Why should programmers not want to work there?

sp527 9y ago
Amazon has developed a public reputation for being an intense environment where employees are generally overworked [0]. Unsurprisingly, (based on conversations with engineers I know there) it varies depending on your team and even geographic location. But, based on the anecdotal data and the reporting that’s been done, it sounds like you can end up really miserable if you get screwed. [0] https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amazon-wrestling-big-ideas-in-a-bruising-workplace.html?referer= https://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/technology/inside-amaz...
- notyourwork 9y ago
  You can end up really miserable at any company that has a toxic team. This isn't unique to Amazon. I tend to think companies are on a spectrum where you have a few bad apples, a few exceptionally great teams and a most fall into the average like everywhere else in the world.
  - ntsplnkv2 9y ago
    Many companies don't have the reputation Amazon does. Not everything can be explained away with "it can happen everywhere." There's too many stories, cases, and anecdotes about working there to ignore.
  - jrs95 9y ago
    It doesn't even take an entire toxic team! One bad person, usually a manager, can fuck the whole thing up.
whipoodle 9y ago
Because it seems like a nightmare based on many things, but, again, you always get the people that are like "my team is amazing and full of geniuses who ship everything on time and never disagree". Look, if you want to work there, go nuts. It seems like a mostly bad place to me. I'm sorry for that "blanket statement". (Of course if I said it seems like a great place to work that would be just fine.)