Amazon reviews

See review titled "Please understand what you are getting into" The above review is spot on. The average Area Manager's total compensation package is $100+k/year. Take that number, divide it by 60-65 hrs average off-peak work week and 80-85 hrs average peak work week and be astonished at the hourly rate of pay. Yeah, that is why most managers never do that exact thing. The company is growing so quickly, they recruit recent college graduates. I have nothing against college graduates, an AM has to be one, but an experienced manager is now expected to guide 200 hourly associates and teach "green" managers how to manage. Throw in high production standards and other high stress factors and your head will spin. Amazon rarely gives yearly base pay raises which even begin to keep up with cost of living increases - they issue stock instead. I was the top performing manager at our FC and received a 1% pay increase. Interested in a promotion? Get in line behind the "Pathways" managers. These folks, regardless of performance, will be promoted or placed in the path of least resistance. Some were very good, but many more could not handle the daily stress of the shift. Out of the original 23 managers hired for the start-up, only 3 remain with the company as of this posting. We were to open the FC with 50+ managers, our first peak consisted of 31 managers, leaving those 31 to pick-up the hours of the missing 19. Please don't let the dollar signs dictate your decision. Sign on the dotted line and kiss work/life balance good-bye!

Obsessively driven co-workers with no lives. You will be expected to work 45-50 hrs a week just to keep up. October to Dec 25 is treated as crunch time because of the holidays. Mandatory Oncall from 1 of every 4 weeks to 1 of every 8 if you are lucky. Developers are 30% tech support for their service, 40% business analyst and 30% developer. You will spend far more time learning the intricacies of shipping boxes through UPS than working on "cool" things and you will be expected to feel passionately about those boxes. Standard "lean" process speeches from senior management over and over. Priorities change at the last minute. Chaotic undirected environment with everyone competing for air time. You have to learn a thousand buggy in-house made tools You will be a cog in the machine. Squeak and you will be replaced by a new college grad. There is a reason nearly everyone there is under 30, think about it.