Flutterby™! : Amazon feedback 2004-09-12 20:58:19.784444+00

Amazon feedback

2004-09-12 20:58:19.784444+00 by Dan Lyke 3 comments

I mentioned in the comments to my "Wow" post that I got anonymous email which contradicted the thus far rosy view I've gotten about working at Amazon. I've already had one reader write to me about two weeks ago and tell me how cool the company is, but if you work there, especially (but not exclusively) if you haven't been part of my hiring process, please give me some constructive feedback on your experiences. All replies will be held confidential, and if you're paranoid you can go find a coffee shop with anonymous 802.11 up on Capitol Hill or wherever and post here under a dummy account, or find other ways to send me email with an obscured identity.

I'm taking this seriously: it's a shift in my life's focus, an attempt to put down some long-term roots, probably some hefty lifestyle changes. Just as I'm fairly sure that not all of the references I gave them will necessarily come back with "Dan walks on water and his feet don't leak", I appreciate any efforts towards giving me a balanced view of what I'm in for.

And perhaps if you feel like your talents are getting wasted there's the opportunity to find ways to resurrect and recast that work, and maybe there are ways of making that happen.

Isn't Mike Daisey and his book 21 Dog Years the authority on how much it sucks to work at Amazon

? I know that some of this is a little dated, but Amazon

does strike me as "the K-Mart of the web" (not that there's anything wrong with that; somebody has to be).

Thanks for that reminder, Booksmith

didn't have it in, but I ordered it from 'em.

I read Microserfs on the plane on the way to interview at Microsoft back in 1998. Funny thing, the HR person assigned to me had never heard of it (or so she claimed).

Of course, despite anything Coupland implied, Microsoft still remains a decent place to work and oddly enough, they have been trying their damndest to become a more family-centric employer (especially as Gates and Ballmer become more family people).

The Dot-Com boom was an interesting period were alot of generally unemployable people managed to get jobs just because they had lots of piercings and tatoos. I know that here in 'Nooga, the local dive bar (the Stone Lion) had trouble finding doormen when a certain (st3) dot-com started up. These people had no skills, other than an ability to drink lots of beer and keep fights from getting too out of hand. Unfortunately, when I lost my job along with the rest of them, I was having to submit my resume to the same job or two open in the area and because I went into the .COM thing with real skills and experience (and a real salary history), I got passed up for these guys who were happy to make more than $8/hr...