Audible Software Development Engineer II reviews

4.3

99% would recommend to a friend

(12 total reviews)
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Bob Carrigan

Not enough data to show CEO approval

99% positive business outlook

Reviews by job title

12 reviews
2.0
Jan 30, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You will meet a lot of great people in the lower ranks - engineers, visual designers, UX designers, even a few Product Managers. Work hours are flexible as long as you get your work done nobody should complain. Opportunities to change teams are common as long as you ask.

Cons

This is a retailer and not a software shop, everything is centered around pushing subscriptions and sales. Upper management fears upsetting content providers, and so they won't innovate around their central product line. All feature development is driven by Product Managers who only ever think 3-6 months ahead and rarely try to Think Big. Success is measured in new subscribers gained or lost. Most products get out the door several months late as an "MVP" that went through multiple internal versions. Once it is in customer's hands, it gets abandoned and never improved (see Badges, Clips, Book Sharing, and more). Product Managers come with half baked ideas and expect engineers to divine their intention and build it perfectly. If things get behind due to changing requirements, they try to throw people at the problem leading to more overhead and later projects. The tech organization is chaotic, with constant reorganizations and no ownership. Big Picture Buzzword ideas are proscribed from above with no thought on implementation detail or even the outline of a plan. Every project is either in development hell (infinite churn before launch) or it's deprecated the moment it's released. Tech debt is completely ignored until it completely overwhelms a team and then management wonders how things got so bad. Rather than take what Amazon provides as tools and try to focus on new features or tech, middle and upper management constantly want to make Audible "different", leading to a lot of reimplementation of existing functionality. There are a lot of creative engineers, especially young ones, who could be a true asset to the company if their ideas were considered or if they were given more ownership and authority. Sadly, if it isn't exactly how the senior leadship want it, there is no chance it will get shipped. Right down to the size of a link and the color of a button.

3.0
Oct 12, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Great set of people in Cambridge office - Free daily lunch, snacks, happy hour and free audio books. - Job security (Hiring bar is higher so they always hire good people) - You will learn a lot on how to be a decent software engineer and what skills are needed to succeed in your NEXT career/job.

Cons

- Path to growth is not always clear. - Looks for filling senior level and leadership position from outside or recently by attracting Amazon employees, rather than growing and promoting from within. - Constant change in leadership and lots of churn in New Jersey office (Head Quarter) - Mid management lacks leadership and are only concern with having them look good and does not care too much about team dynamics or individuals growth.

4.0
Mar 14, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Good work life balance - Free food - Commuter benefits - Office location , infrastructure , equipments , desk good and sufficient budget allocated for improvement in this area. - Flexible timing and WFH facilities .

Cons

- Too much project management and multiple manager involvement in a single project . Not like Amazon teams where developers lead the project design with one or no PM . - Less focus on employee development , do not have a string hiring team. - Micromanagement and involvement of many project managers in projects .

Viewing 7 - 9 of 12 Reviews

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