-Acquired by Amazon in 2008, however, still retains a little fam biz vibe. A small circle of pre-acquisition managers run the show and most others hired externally are caught in a two or so years turnover cycle (note: restricted stock awards are doled out over 3 years). Look long and hard to the left and right during orientation, most people in the room will not be there around the 2 year mark.
-Purportedly has documentation on career tracks, but in reality, career progression over the long run is a mythical creature. Promotions up one career level within a 2 year timeframe is common. The substance of such achievements, however, is diluted by small raises and potentially small changes in day-to-day responsibilities.
-Many lower- mid-level managers expend a lot of energy on managing up and accumulating perceived personal achievements that more senior managers may choose to recognize. Many times, individual contributors are likely to be used to further achievement theater rather than concrete business results or to create more robust customer-facing offerings.
-Many functions are exceedingly overstaffed, resulting in micro-ownership and frequent stalemates should disagreements occur. This is a serious issue as roll out of customer-facing product features and offerings can be minimal to nonexistent year-over-year despite the company fielding an employee base well north of 1k. As can be expected, development or improvement of skill sets are hampered under these scenarios.
-Senior management exhibit tremendous risk aversion. The decision-making process consists of a handful of C-level managers sounding off on proposed business initiatives with little to no prior due diligence. High level meetings can end without firm conclusions reached. Initiatives may not be reviewed or revisited for quarters. Though never explicitly declared, the company's mandate is more or less to not rock the boat while maintaining robust growth. Large-scale projects that may threaten the status quo may still be green-lit but the likelihood of cancellation grows as the release date nears.
-Ultimately, the company has had only one perceivable product for 20 years: audiobooks. Depending on your function, this may be a real limitation to career development and exposure to interesting domains. The company likes to project itself as a tech company. However, there lacks R&D efforts into the cutting edge. The average tech talent would struggle in more competitive tech companies. The same applies to the product management and design functions. On the flip side, those with weaker resumes can potentially use the company to build some minimal skill sets and move on to greener pastures.
