Some people don't have the privilege of working anywhere other than big companies. They're completely fine at big companies and can overlook seemingly terrible culture because they can get immigration visas and green cards. Most startups and medium-sized software companies don't even consider applicants that aren't American. I don't have an American last name and the first question many recruiters ask me is about my citizenship.

> Most startups and medium-sized software companies don't even consider applicants that aren't American.

Not true! atleast not in bay area. I have worked for many years on H-1 here, along with others on the same visa.

> I don't have an American last name and the first question many recruiters ask me is about my citizenship.

That's because for every job advertised they'll get a flood of applications from around the world.

Long before the working conditions became commonly known I heard it described as "a dirty cube farm." Wow. How appealing.

Nothing about Amazon has ever appealed. Not their pay, certainly not their track record for hardware products (all terrible with the exception of the Echo), and not their other software with the exception of some of the stuff AWS has done.

I think it's unfair to characterize a company with over 200,000 employees as a technical sweatshop. The organizational structure is flat to limit the reach of poor management and lacklustre engineering.

I loved my job as an intern there. My manager was great. My team was great. Everyone worked between 8 and 10 hours per hours, with those on the latter end of the spectrum being intense, CS-in-your-veins types.

I can respect your perspective if you've worked there and your experience left much to be desired, but it is still a bit silly to make sweeping generalizations for a company as large and expansive as Amazon.