A9.com reviews

* Like Amazon in general, A9 used to have a strong focus on doing the right thing for long-term customer satisfaction. I wish I could book this under pros, but sadly things have changed in recent years. Now a myriad of business units with a lot of clout are vying to strong-arm A9 according to their specific needs and short-term agenda. Since management does little to protect an independent, balanced mission, the roadmap is essentially dictated by the squeaky wheel principle. A9 is becoming a tool for many disparate verticals, without overarching independent vision. * Not a merit based culture. It is a pervasive trend that talkers are held in awe, while doers are often overlooked. Some people work long hours and weekends, feel responsible for the whole system, save teetering projects they are not really part of, make things work that are too dicey for anyone else to touch. Others mostly enjoy “consulting” or just resting on their (perceived or real) laurels. Both will be treated essentially the same; in fact, the latter group often fares better if they are more talented at selling themselves. * Similar breakdown of managers: a few very hardworking, engaged, well-meaning individuals, but these are outnumbered by goal-list checkers and coasters. * Management is favored to be non-technical, at every level. The Finance VP was recently promoted to CEO, however the most dire consequences occur at lower levels. ICs that switch to management roles are actively discouraged from technical contributions. Managers never look at code. That leads to several problems: 1) Non-technical managers still end up in roles where they need to make technical decisions; these turn out sometimes ok, sometimes suboptimal, and sometimes disastrous; 2) They cannot accurately judge the performance of their team members, are easily swayed by self-promotion. 3) They cannot make good hiring decisions. 4) They won’t bother to peek under the duct tape covering up the substantial technical debt that has accumulated over years. * Many managers shy away from confrontation. Therefore, a few of their reports get away with doing next to nothing for more than a year, without accountability. Some “difficult-to-deal-with” employees are tolerated to do things that are nonsensical if they want to, or to keep hijacking and derailing meetings and decisions. Sometimes such employees happen to be managers themselves, in which case their whole team is led astray for extended periods of time. To make up for wasted efforts, necessary tasks will be piled on to the already long lists of responsibilities of high performers, engaged, motivated, and helpful people. Of course, since these additional tasks come with no additional rewards or recognition (see below), sooner or later, they become frustrated and leave. * Hardly any realistic growth perspectives for senior software developers. Amazon’s leveling scheme comprises three IC levels, followed by principal (plus a few higher, rarely awarded ranks). The gap between SDEIII (senior) and principal is as wide as the river Jordan in terms of required processes, hoops to jump through, and strong support by your manager. Therefore, you can count on less than one hand the number of cases at A9 in the last ten years, and these include some in HR and administrative roles. At the same time, a fair number of people has been directly hired at principal level. Often, these hires are based on their resume, self-promotion, or personal connection, but many of these new colleagues would not be capable of qualifying through the internal process. * For senior roles, total compensation level is roughly 20-30% below other big Internet companies (my estimate based on colleagues who changed jobs). Generally, A9 follows Amazon compensation policy which is full of obfuscation and completely at odds with Silicon Valley standards. The earliest possible effect of the nominal performance-based stock compensation adjustment is about 1.5-2 years. There is no possible short term reward process, even if you were superman or superwoman and made Amazon 100’s of millions of dollars singlehandedly. A lot of compensation differences arise from negotiation skill during hiring and the market rate at that point in time, these end up in significant and unfair differences between colleagues essentially doing similar work. If there is any correlation between performance and compensation, it is lost as noise in the gyrations of the stock price. You might get lucky one year if the stock soars, but you will also get corrected down the following year. * HR (with participation of top management) rules the company with an iron fist. For example, although there is a formal promotion process involving documentation from managers and peers, the final step happens behind closed doors, with no written minutes, and sometimes even without recollection of the reasons for a decision. If you don’t cross all the t’s and dot the i’s in all processes, they will make your life difficult. If you dare to make a suggestion or express your opinion, you will be reminded, in no uncertain terms, to mind your business. However, to be fair: there are certainly a few shining counterexamples of human beings in HR.