Possible saving grace

The extreme horror stories on this site are real, but they are an exception and not the rule at Amazon. Unfortunately, they are not a rare exception, but hopefully decreasing over time, thanks to the saving grace of the transfer policy updates a couple years ago. Before, you had to wait a year to transfer and managers had full control to block or approve. Now, managers still abuse the transfer process, but people can usually escape their bad manager before getting PIP'ed or fired.

If you’re interested in coming to Amazon, you’ll struggle to get a clear view of your team's day to day culture from the interviews. I generally recommend that if you get an offer to join Amazon, do it. If you find out your team sucks, transfer asap. I’ve seen people transfer after a few weeks. I myself transferred after 3 months and it made a huge difference.

Once you’re inside Amazon, there are a few things you can do to find a good new team. First, check the tech survey results for the past couple of years. Then check the calendars of people on the team and look out for engineers having tons of meetings or recurring meetings at odd times with people overseas. After that, meet with as many people on the team or on related teams to find out the truth of how they work. When I was looking to transfer, I think I talked to 9 people. It made the decision data-driven and quite clear.