Amazon - Culture and Benefits Forum

[worklifewhat]

Does anyone have recent feedback about what it’s like to work as in-house counsel at Amazon? I read some older reviews and they were overwhelmingly negative, so I’d love to know if people’s experiences have changed. I’m particularly interested in the Seattle “campus.”

[biglaw_advice]

Bringing this thread back after searching through the forum and not finding much recent info. Anyone have any recent insight into working at Amazon Legal? Thanks in advance.

[Lacepiece23]

I heard it’s a tough place to work. Good pay, but sometimes biglaw ish hours. This is super old info and I know you are asking for new information. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

[The Lsat Airbender]

I heard it’s a tough place to work. Good pay, but sometimes biglaw ish hours. This is super old info and I know you are asking for new information. Hopefully someone else can chime in.

Have heard the same. You get FAANG prestige and pay but work noticeably harder(/culture is "harsher") than at the other four.

[Anonymous User]

I have friends working with Amazon's legal team as a client -- the culture is brutal and toxic to the point where the firm literally could not find a single volunteer willing to take a secondment with them in Seattle. Usually folks jump on a secondment as a nice break from the standard biglaw grind.

[Anonymous User]

Spouse works outside of Seattle, and the culture is fine. 8:30-6, very rare weekends.

She told me Seattle is a completely different beast. I would try to work in a different office.

[biglaw_advice]

Really helpful comments from everyone - much appreciated. The comments on brutal culture seem to mirror some of the recurring concepts in the "Everything Store" book (highly recommend!) and the New York Times article linked below on the white collar jobs, in general (though does not really touch on the legal operation).

The position would be a non-Seattle office (would be east coast), so really good to hear that anecdote. Thank you very much.


https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/tech ... place.html

[Anonymous User]

I have heard similar stories about the work-hard culture/close to Biglaw hours for AMZN offices in the Bay Area. This is not necessarily a bad thing in terms of getting to work on cool products that launch but something definitely to consider if work life balance is a strong factor.

In terms benefits, AMZN is known to be much more frugal compared to the other big-tech companies (e.g. not a lot of perks and free food that you see at FB/Google - although it is questionable these days how useful these would be going forward given the need of social distance at work). My understanding is that compensation is not bad but may not increase as quickly as at counterparts unless there's a promotion or the stock rapidly appreciates (which actually has been a good bet in the recent past lol).

[Anonymous User]

Really helpful comments from everyone - much appreciated. The comments on brutal culture seem to mirror some of the recurring concepts in the "Everything Store" book (highly recommend!) and the New York Times article linked below on the white collar jobs, in general (though does not really touch on the legal operation).

The position would be a non-Seattle office (would be east coast), so really good to hear that anecdote. Thank you very much.


https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/tech ... place.html

As a general rule, legal and engineering corporate cultures can be very different. I know that Amazon made some pretty serious efforts to improve their culture (on the engineering side) in response to a slew of negative articles like the one you posted, and from what I've heard, they've improved a lot but it really depends on the team you're on. On the legal side, however, I haven't seen any improvement or that they're even interested in improving their culture. This is all for Seattle, specifically.

[Anonymous User]

I have friends that work there in Seattle. Culture and hours are completely team and manager dependent. Some folks work 9-5, and others work closer to big law hours. It sounds like they don’t see a lot of attrition though, probably because of stock price growth and outsized comp. It’s definitely frugal compared to other tech companies, but work is compelling if you like being intellectually challenged.

[Anonymous User]

I'd be wary of attrition stats from Amazon like the above. I have friends there who feel stuck because they have a fairly draconian vesting schedule for RSUs (very heavily backweighted vs. an even split like most other firms have) and stock makes up a major part of comp there.

[Anonymous User]

I've been contacted about a position there and the comp seems pretty good, even if you only last a few years and don't get most of your equity vested. Something like $150,000 base with $100,000 cash bonus that is paid out every paycheck (no clue why they do this). So even if you only make it a few years, you get great experience and still make $250,000+ in cash comp and like 20% equity vest.

Seems pretty legit, but I know Amazon is likely an intense place to work. I was told average of 50 hours a week, but I'm sure there are weeks of higher, but even in lower-ranked biglaw, if you are good, you're always working those hours.

[Anonymous User]

At Amazon currently with a number of friends in different offices. Culture is going to be pretty team and manager dependent. I’ve heard some horror stories about certain managers for sure. Most people I know personally have been pretty happy there, myself included. It’s a lot less pressure and hours than biglaw, people are just generally more relaxed, I basically don’t check emails on the weekend anymore which is so very nice, lots of room for movement within the company. More frugal than other FAANG companies when it comes to fringe benefits, but overall compensation is competitive and comparable to biglaw, sans biglaw bonus (which admittedly is sizeable for mid levels and beyond). First year comp is probably only like 5-10% stock.

[Anonymous User]

At Amazon currently with a number of friends in different offices. Culture is going to be pretty team and manager dependent. I’ve heard some horror stories about certain managers for sure. Most people I know personally have been pretty happy there, myself included. It’s a lot less pressure and hours than biglaw, people are just generally more relaxed, I basically don’t check emails on the weekend anymore which is so very nice, lots of room for movement within the company. More frugal than other FAANG companies when it comes to fringe benefits, but overall compensation is competitive and comparable to biglaw, sans biglaw bonus (which admittedly is sizeable for mid levels and beyond). First year comp is probably only like 5-10% stock.

Got any advice for people that are interviewing there? Would love to hear some advice from an actual lawyer on what they are looking for and how to best pitch yourself.

[Anonymous User]

At Amazon currently with a number of friends in different offices. Culture is going to be pretty team and manager dependent. I’ve heard some horror stories about certain managers for sure. Most people I know personally have been pretty happy there, myself included. It’s a lot less pressure and hours than biglaw, people are just generally more relaxed, I basically don’t check emails on the weekend anymore which is so very nice, lots of room for movement within the company. More frugal than other FAANG companies when it comes to fringe benefits, but overall compensation is competitive and comparable to biglaw, sans biglaw bonus (which admittedly is sizeable for mid levels and beyond). First year comp is probably only like 5-10% stock.

I'm contemplating going through the interview process but to be honest not sure I want to relocate from where I am. I was told everyone is WFH until at least October/November, but that's always up for changes in the COVID world. Any thoughts on how flexible they might be on working outside of Seattle over the long term - even if it means coming to Seattle a few times a month or every so often? There is an Amazon office in my city (in the downtown city-center, in addition to their distribution warehouses in the burbs) which I think is a mix of some AWS and marketing and devs. So maybe work there most of the time and go to Seattle on a scheduled basis - that's at least what I'm looking for.

[Anonymous User]

At Amazon currently with a number of friends in different offices. Culture is going to be pretty team and manager dependent. I’ve heard some horror stories about certain managers for sure. Most people I know personally have been pretty happy there, myself included. It’s a lot less pressure and hours than biglaw, people are just generally more relaxed, I basically don’t check emails on the weekend anymore which is so very nice, lots of room for movement within the company. More frugal than other FAANG companies when it comes to fringe benefits, but overall compensation is competitive and comparable to biglaw, sans biglaw bonus (which admittedly is sizeable for mid levels and beyond). First year comp is probably only like 5-10% stock.

Got any advice for people that are interviewing there? Would love to hear some advice from an actual lawyer on what they are looking for and how to best pitch yourself.

Bumping this.

[Anonymous User]

I heard from someone who works there that it is pretty hard because Amazon tracks your productivity with all sorts of metrics. You might not have a billable hour, but you have various other production quotas.

[Anonymous User]

I heard from someone who works there that it is pretty hard because Amazon tracks your productivity with all sorts of metrics. You might not have a billable hour, but you have various other production quotas.

If you are targeting a certain FAANG company, is it better to get your foot in the door at any one of them and move to your target down the road, or stay in biglaw while you're looking for your desired opening?

[Anonymous User]

What are the exit opportunities out of amazon legal? My outside POV is they’re pretty good - you can go to another big tech or you can go back to a firm but I’d love to hear how it is in reality

[Anonymous User]

Exit opportunities are good. Exits I’ve seen are to other big tech companies, startups, or to the business side within Amazon. Don’t see folks go back to firms that often, but that’s out of choice.

[Anonymous User]

Agreed that exit opportunities are good, particularly staying in tech.

[Anonymous User]

What is comp for an ACC role?

[Anonymous User]

Major anecdote warning, but I attended one of Stanford-Harvard-Caltech-MIT for undergrad. My classmates were highly, highly sought after for all sorts of roles in the tech sphere, including by Amazon. I know a few people who summered at Amazon; none stayed. I think I know one person at Amazon now; that compares to the dozens at Google, Facebook, Apple, etc. The consensus was that while Amazon might have some cutting edge work, it was considered to be less prestigious and culturally way worse of an atmosphere than its peers.

I would steer clear from Amazon.

[Anonymous User]

If the choice is biglaw (which is known for its own insane culture) or amazon, seems to me amazon is the better choice if a person wants to eventually be in house. Maybe they have equally bad culture but amazon can set you up to go many places in house. Is this wrong?

[Anonymous User]

If the choice is biglaw (which is known for its own insane culture) or amazon, seems to me amazon is the better choice if a person wants to eventually be in house. Maybe they have equally bad culture but amazon can set you up to go many places in house. Is this wrong?

I applied for a legal job at Amazon (ACC, didn't end up working there), and spoke with a lawyer acquaintance who worked at the Seattle HQ. They just said the reputation for Amazon being a driven environment and not a laid back in house destination is true, but it's considered pretty big step down in intensity if you're exiting biglaw. Just one more anecdote.