gold rush

I am a current AWS employee for over two years. 

Amazon managers believe this is a gold rush and everything is fair game without any rules being enforced by anyone. HR, the compensation structure, and everything else is setup that way to let the managers fight it out for political power.

If you are fortunate enough to get a good manager, you are one of the lucky few. Most of the managers have no idea how to manage talent. I have seen some really talented engineers getting used and then thrown out, so don't come here with any high expectations. 

As a manager, you are told to hire aggressively and simultaneously fire aggressively. The PIP is a real threat to everyone regardless of performance, particularly around the 2 year mark. It is by design. As a manger, you are constantly asked to push folks to their breaking point, even if you think they are doing fine. Jeff Bezos is a mad man and the company is a cult centered around him. It's not all bad, but at times it can drive you nuts since there is no sense of fairness at all with every single person being considered expendable.