* You don't have a cubical. You have a desk and a rolling cart with a dozen other people in a cubical. Invest in some good headphones.
* Seattle is expensive and the locals hate Amazon for driving up rent prices
* Sales tax is 10.9%
* Commute is terrible if you live outside of downtown or SLU. The city raised sales tax to pay for more buses a couple of years ago, and are now cutting routes. Amazon does buy a monthly bus pass for all employees.
* Benefits: Below-average time off, only 6 holidays, 10% Amazon.com discount is capped at $100, which is now less than a Prime membership, and the 401k match is 50% up to 2% of your income.
* Be ready to learn new internal tools and processes, and be flexible when they change.
* Your experience is directly related to your management team. So pay attention when you interview. Choose a position with a great manager and coworkers.
* You need to be intelligent, ambitious, and hard-working. You won't last long if you just do the bare minimum.
* The workload ebbs and flows and it's up to you to stay ahead of it so that you're not rushing at the last minute before a release. Though sometimes, there's nothing you can do (re:Invent).
I can't stress enough how important your manager is.
