Innovation doesn't go further than striving to fall short of Amazon without company operations blowing up. Earlier, I mentioned there are learning opportunities if you're interested in distributed systems, but those chances are limited by brain-dead operations work.
Politics - Get on the wrong side of certain people, and you're pretty much cooked. Say goodbye to promotion prospects and hope your LeetCode skills haven't gotten too rusty.
Mid-level management is comprised of brain-dead spreadsheet fillers who are paid a quarter million dollars. If AI is advancing to replace developers, let's replace them one time.
Be prepared to handle almost any problem, even if you have never interacted with a particular part of the system or the product, in highly stressful situations. How many times are you willing to sacrifice your weekend for at best a "kudos" email from your co-worker, but in most cases, it's to make sure you're not fired for "lack of ownership".
The benefits, in comparison to other companies, are lackluster.
Constant shift in priorities
The team you work on determines whether you work 20-hour weeks or 80-hour weeks.
Stock is in flux, and now fewer people are invested in the product than before.
