Not true - I'd say 9/10 Seattle area companies would LOVE to have an ex-Amazon employee join the team. It has a major reputation locally for "put in your 2 years then work wherever you want in Seattle"

I mean, Amazon is not, say, RealNetworks. Real has that reputation for me if you've been there longer than a year. If you've been at Amazon for years, I'm going to dig in but I'm not going to automatically assume it's a negative like I will with Real. It's on the cusp, but not an automatic thing.

How so? Technical reasons, or because people assume you've been steeped in a toxic culture long enough that you're radioactive yourself?

It is not at all getting to that point.