AWS engineer of three years: there are a massive range of experiences at Amazon and AWS. The consistent themes derive from the company values and the rigor with which they're implemented. Customer obsession is followed to a fault where operational sustainability and technical debt will permanently be deprioritized except in exceptional circumstances. Frugality necessitates the least headcount required to keep the lights on. Factor in the MBA-driven climate and you've created the worst situation possible in which to be an engineer in general. There is significant variation based on the quality of management in an organization. That said, good management can only do so much, and fixing a broken culture requires more faith and persistence than any reasonable person could put in. My coworkers and I have a saying: anyone smart would leave our team.