My first day at Amazon was yesterday. It's like no place I've ever worked before.

When I got to orientation, they had a backpack for each new hire. Inside the backpack were some benefits materials and information about how to log on, a laptop preconfigured for our use, and a VPN device. This is... well, definitely a company that is used to hiring people and wants to get them productive as soon as possible!

The amount of training materials for developers is incredible and a tad overwhelming, but a refreshing change from the typical case where you have to find out obscure bits from some other developer who's hidden in a corner of a remote, off-site building but usually only works from home and doesn't answer his phone or e-mail.

Contrast with Cadence, where being unproductive during your entire stay is the norm.

For any fellow Amazonians who want to stop by, my office is US2 811.A1, but my group is moving next week.