Pros
I had some doubts about joining Amazon initially, but after 3 years of working here, it is without a doubt one of the best places I can imagine being. Despite Amazon's enormous size, Lab126 feels like a well-funded startup company. I've worked at large companies (10k+) all the way down to small start-ups, and Amazon Lab126 seems to have the best of both worlds. It really encourages entrepreneurship, more so than even start-ups who are often just focused on one thing. If you have a good idea for a new feature or product, you are empowered to make it happen assuming others agree it is also a good idea. The Echo Fire TV, Dash, and Dash button are all prime examples of this as well as several other upcoming products. The company regularly holds hack-a-thons to spend a few days and hack together some software to do something cool on our products. We also do the same wrt hardware, but spend several sessions over a month or two to come up with some new mock-up. Some of these ideas get taken to the next level of product development. There are also a lot of talented people here. And what I like best about the people here is that they are not only great technically, but they are also great people to work with. Because Amazon holds everyone to very high standards, the chances of having to deal with difficult, weird, or just plain bad people are very low versus other companies I know may hire someone who is a genius in one area but is impossible to work with - that doesn't happen here. Great people overall. Coming from an initial self-funded start-up that later got funding, I know about being frugal. I have heard some people complain that Amazon doesn't offer the "free lunch" perks of other companies like Google. I am quite okay with this. To me, it seems like there is a limitless amount of money for projects here compared to my start-up days. We regularly have beer bashes, free team outings, free snacks, free fruit, and lots of other occasions for free food. The facilities are brand new and very nice. The lab space is a little limited, but more than adequate to get our work done. Overall, Amazon is great place to work with lots of great people that really empowers people with good ideas and gives builders the tools they need to build cool stuff.
Cons
ID changes for products always have to go through Jeff which prolongs product development schedules. It's not always clear if Product Management or the Executive Management teams have well thought out plans for the future. Sometimes it feels like they are throwing lots of things against the wall to see what sticks. This is fine for a lot of new product concepts, but hinders the development of robust ecosystems of products and services that all work together well.