Great talent/potential. Terrible middle management. Cronyism gone haywire. Stifling ground for cutting edge work.
Pros
Employee perks (catered food, relaxed environment, pingpong tables), and smart people with diverse talent in tech. Almost anything a startup or tech company could wish for, despite the Cons.
Cons
Emotional middle managers with big egos make hiring and firing decisions based on: personal likes/dislikes, to make themselves look good, and to promote self-interests/political strategy and protection. Advancement isn't based on talent or company core needs. Contrary to Amazon principles, new ideas aren't met with open arms....the owners of new ideas are told to shut their mouths and do exactly as they are told (even if it's incorrect, ineffective, or inefficient). There was one employee with very limited experience (that was well liked by two managers) that was chosen to do a project over individuals with advanced experience that were hired to do the job. The lack of knowledge and conceptual understanding showed. In another case, in a group meeting, I was asked and remembered telling a team what was wrong with their idea. It fell on deaf ears. Two weeks later someone from the team brought up my idea -- I had to filter it through them in a 1:1 meeting -- and it was accepted unanimously by the entire team because it made the most logical sense. That's how things got done around there.