Pros
1. The people at Amazon are amazing; the culture among the lower level staff is great. Almost everyone is incredibly friendly, very helpful, and very hardworking. There are a lot of people who are stars; they can do any task no matter how complex, and they are always willing to help you out or share their knowledge. 2. Many of the people managers are also wonderful, they care deeply about their employees and their development, although they are limited by Amazon's organizational structure.
Cons
1. Amazon's organizational structure is incredibly frustrating. The DA position was created with no upward mobility in mind and as such it is almost impossible (and always time consuming) to move up in the company. Amazon makes employees interview multiple times in order to move beyond a certain level instead of just taking into account the strengths and skills of worthy people and promoting them. There are also so few positions available to so many talented people that almost no one who deserves a higher position gets one. 2. Amazon cares little for its Data Associates. DAs are grossly underpaid for the work that they do, especially when compared to other similar positions in any other company in the surrounding area. Amazon counts on their brand recognition to draw in workers instead of maintaining any kind of competitive compensation or benefits. The organization also promised very flexible hours when I first started but when I left they had done a complete 180 and cracked down on time sheets, instituting a very inflexible set hours structure. Employees were given no other benefits to compensate for the loss of flexibility. 3. Others are treated visibly better. DAs working in the same building as SDEs (or even seeing communications from other sites) can see how vastly inferior they are treated. SDEs are often provided catered lunch at events, larger salaries, and are treated with much more respect. DAs are often offered the leftovers from SDE events but cannot expect the same level of catering at their own events. They are made to obsessively time track to account for every single second of their day, whereas the SDEs are free to do as they wish. 4. The role of DA has changed dramatically overtime but no changes in pay, benefits, opportunity, or recognition have reflected this. The DA position was originally created to be a glorified button pusher, just entering in data with little critical thought. Now a high performing DA is expected to specialize in various complex work flows, organize small-to-mid level projects, communicate cross-site, be able to train others on various workflows, and develop new and up and coming projects. The wage has remained the same since the DA position was created though the position has become more of a workflow specialist or coordinator position. Upper level management seems to neither understand nor care for this, as the same compensation is still being offered, the job description remains the same, and DAs continue to be undervalued and underdeveloped.
