A terribly run company

When I joined in 2006, Amazon was a terribly run company. My manager had no business managing programmers as he had no idea what we did or how we did it. He didn't even know how to track information in a spreadsheet. His boss came from a government job and was even worse.

Amazon was a retailer that is trying to be  a tech company and its management was in the same situation. They were the kind of management Walmart has at stores to keep their associates from stealing. They had no business managing a technology company. 

It's really interesting how a company that is so notoriously terrible can still hire so many top industry people, even though those people know they won't last. Is it really such a strong feather in their cap that it's worth the pain?

When I was that early in my career, I certainly did think that a big name on my resume meant something. Now that I'm on the other side interviewing people, I think it's a huge mistake to judge whether you should hire someone based on where they worked or went to college.

Amazon was the most terrible 2 years of my career. My friends who have cycled through there over the years confirm its only gotten worse and I strongly urge everyone who is considering them to avoid them.