Mistreating top talent

Amazon doesn't know how to run an enterprise information technology shop. Coming from that world, I felt like I just had joined a big-box discount store who doesn't have any experts. Especially if you're not at HQ in Seattle, you may feel like you're on an island. 

The sales reps don't seem to be normal sales reps. Instead, they are former engineers which is fine but many lack industry sales acumen. While they have some great technologies in some areas which are disruptive to the enterprise way of thinking, they still have a relatively crude and unsophisticated understanding of how large enterprises run mission critical services. They also don't understand how customers like to have personal long standing relationships with their sales/pre-sales technical teams. 

The over-emphasis on being thrifty gets especially old very fast, especially when you're required to travel. You can't rent a car and must stay at very cheap hotels in sketchy areas. They don't even pay for your airport parking. 

The bottom line is this isn't how enterprise information technology companies treat their top talent. Many of us came from successful companies and aren't used to be treated so poorly by our own company and managers. It's very demoralizing. You will ultimately end up feeling like you were deceived if you came from a great company. 

Like we hear about the rest of Amazon, it seems the setup is to clearly grind you down so most folks leave in the first 2 years. Nobody that was on my team when I joined is still there, including my boss. The stock vesting structures keeps this in mind to minimize pay out to employees. Most folks leave by the end of year 2 (whether by choice or not), so their payout day never comes.