Pros
Most employees are independent contributors and expected to be “owners” of their work. This creates an entrepreneurial culture that attracts smart people who want to solve problems and get things done - I rarely encounter a person that’s “phoning it in.” If you’re intelligent, a strong writer, desire a high level of autonomy and tolerate ambiguity well, you’ll thrive here.
Cons
The company is struggling with an identity crisis and needs to let go of certain elements of the original “startup” culture that lead to early success. AWS desperately needs more cross-team collaboration, annual planning and budget allocation for marketing efforts as the team is siloed and completely understaffed as compared to other cloud providers. Leadership wants to continue doing things the way they’ve always done them and expects different results.