comiXology Reviews

Pros

passionate group building an industry and awareness of comics

Cons

now part of amazon, may be more corporate now

Pros

It was alright, could be better

Cons

Totally cool people but definitely not cool when they were in cliques

Pros

+ Good teammates + Worked there when we transitioned to Amazon which meant a lot of friends got raises or RSUs that they deserved

Cons

- Management didn't know how to grow the business. Very risk averse - People who shouldn't have been managers were promoted because they were loyal rather than qualified.

Pros

-You can move within Amazon if you want - Great healthcare (c/o Amazon) -Teams generally have a positive "we are all in this together" attitude, even when things are crazy. So camaraderie is one reason I stayed for so long (more than 3 years). People make a real effort to work together to make things happen, even if there are lots of technical/managerial roadblocks

Cons

-Management is still going through lots of course changes even though the Amazon merger is years old at this point. This provides a pretty unstable working environment and it's hard to succeed when the focus of your department is redirecting every 3 months. It's also just exhausting and not in that "we're a start up and all hands on deck" (aka productive) kind of way. - Culture and values are great on paper but not consistent in practice

Pros

Some of the employee's are nice. Free movies. Free bagels on Wednesday.

Cons

There is no way to move up. Management only cares about their career.

Pros

Definitely a fun environment to work in, flexible schedule (barring any, rare, emergencies), and very good benefits. The staff are a lot of really excited people who want to do great things for comic books and solve big problems. Integration with Amazon offers a lot of really cool benefits as far as what can be used to solve problems. Working with Amazon also allows for a lot of potential upward movement and opportunity to work with a lot of diverse and intelligent people.

Cons

comiXology is incredibly ambitious and because of that there's a lot to be done with stretched resources. Team sizes are good but 2+ years into the Amazon acquisition, only some of the growing pains are gone. The turnover of long time staff cashing in post-aqusition has left some knowledge lost which tends to lead to overhauls of small pieces of infrastructure with unforeseen effects causing other small pieces to malfunction.

Advice to Management

Recognize your developers more--not just from direct managers. Many achievements and successes are glossed over when a simple "good job" email to a direct contributor would do wonders.

Pros

Honestly can not think of many.

Cons

Management is terrible. No clear vision. Avoid.

Pros

The positives of working for comixology are somewhat obvious. You get some access to free digital comics if you are into that sort of thing, the employee culture is good, even if the management culture is not, and you are working for Amazon, so if you have a tremendous amount of personal drive and fortitude, you may be able to parlay a job at comixology to a job elsewhere within Amazon but it won't be easy. The CEO is really the only person in senior management who knows what they're doing. He clearly has a passion for the product and the company and can be inspiring when he speaks to the group. The compensation can be good, especially when the Amazon stock does well, so if you can put up with all of the negatives, you could be well paid for it.

Cons

The single biggest issue at this company is that virtually everyone in senior management -- except the CEO -- has no idea what they are doing. They do not understand the business they are in, decisions are made on the basis of either "CYA" or "Amazon is doing this so we have to do it too." Don't look for any leadership or direction from the management team as there isn't any to be found. Any ideas -- rare as they are -- tend to be bland and banal as if determined by the incompetence committee. The technical leadership is a mess as well. They have no idea what they are doing, so the only direction they take is "whatever Amazon is doing." In many ways, they are like the youngest child in a family that wants so desperately to please their older sibling that they will simply ape behavior without even understanding why they are doing so. comixology tech mangement wants so desperately to "please Amazon" that they have lost all sense of what made comixology a unique company. You will rarely get to innovate or do anything interesting there, as if Amazon isn't already doing it, there is no chance that it will ever be done. There is little concern for work/life balance. You are expected to be available at all times. Though not as bad as that NY Times article about Amazon, it's not great either.

Advice to Management

Stop trying to be Amazon. Hire Sr managers who actually understand the business and what customers actually want. The spirit of innovation is all but gone and is really no longer fostered. The new direction is simply "do what Amazon is doing" right up to re-using things that other Amazon teams have done with little to no room for anything new or unique.