Indian Microsoft techie in US with stints in Meta, Amazon on work culture difference: 'It's more...'

Nandita Giri said she moved to Microsoft in 2023 driven by a desire to work on enterprise-focused AI products like Copilot.

An Indian senior software developer in the US has traced her journey from campus recruitment in India to senior engineering roles at Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, offering a firsthand view of how work culture and expectations differ across three of the world’s biggest technology companies. She also revealed how developing her AI skills as a hobby helped her become a senior techie at Microsoft and got her a job at Meta.

Nandita Giri, 32, said her career began at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Kurukshetra, where she studied problem-solving and mathematics long before she planned a career in Big Tech.

"Amazon hired me straight out of college, and I moved to Seattle in 2018," she told Business Insider.

At Amazon, it was not just about getting the right answer, Giri told the publication. “You’re expected to think deeply about maintainability, scalability and long-term impact.” She added that Amazon’s leadership principles play a central role in hiring and performance evaluations, making cultural alignment as critical as technical ability.

'Taught myself AI, implemented them at work'

Recalling how she developed an interest in AI, Giri told Business Insider that it happened during her stint at Amazon. "Most of what I know about AI, I taught myself," she said. "I spent hours outside work watching YouTube tutorials, reading blogs, and practicing. I started small, creating AI agents for personal tasks, like sending outreach emails. Tasks that used to take me a day or two can now be completed in under an hour."

Meta approaches with AI job offer

After nearly four years at Amazon, she was approached by a Meta recruiter on LinkedIn and joined the company in 2022. She said Meta offered an opportunity to work more deeply in applied AI using large-scale data and infrastructure.

Compared to Amazon, Meta’s engineering environment felt faster to understand, with a more unified codebase supporting platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

'Took up Microsoft role to focus on AI products like Copilot'

Her move to Microsoft followed in 2023 through an internal referral, driven by a desire to work on enterprise-focused AI products like Copilot.

At Microsoft, she said, the culture is markedly different—less consumer-centric and more focused on business productivity at massive scale. While Amazon and Meta emphasise speed and intense learning, she said Microsoft’s environment prioritises long-term enterprise impact.