Amazon Senior Program Manager reviews

Amazon is Darwinian in its employment practices. If you don't catch on quickly or don't try hard, you're going to be performance managed out. I've worked in several departments and Amazon will almost always weed out the slower, weaker employees Amazon still feels like a startup, especially in its emerging markets and newer business arms (just with billions in venture capital from itself). Work/Life balance is VERY hard to find in the more technical and operational roles within the business, but Corporate Work/Life Balance is FAR better than in the Fulfillment Centers

The majority of leadership at the L8 level have no business being leaders. These people are intelligent people, who have accomplished a lot as individual contributors yet lack the requisite people skills to interact with employees. I wish I could say that what you read online isn't true, but it is. Leaders in Amazon do not play by the 14 principles, instead what I've seen is a great deal of ego and my way or the highway. Secondly, the people they favor tend to be people who are yes men. Therefore the concept of "have backbone, disagree and commit is overshadowed by the unwritten 15th principle "whatever your boss suggests, just say yes". This is not a scalable / sustainable model as the people that really are top tier contributors, leave because of the pathetic leadership and the toxic culture they create. The people in my department that are L7's only stay because they do not have other options, or are at the end of their career's and do not care.