I’ve been there years. It’s pretty great. Fantastic opportunities. Comp has been stellar, given the appreciation. Base is only 160, but who gives a shit if it means you get more stock that’s worth a ton, and if that lower base means you are more likely to save more. And they actually make shit customers want. Not everything, but that’s because they deliver a zillion things and some will be mistakes.
I love it. I think it depends on your team and also is much, much better if you are in tech vs non tech. In tech it is very easy to rotate to a different team if you land on a bad one. People tech reports into the HR org so it may be a bit political, but I don't work there.
Depends on your team, however I can tell you from 8 years there that their performance rating system depended entirely on a leadership "calibration" meeting called OLR where you are graded primarily by the collective perception of the Sr Team over your actual results. Most times, the senior managers have no clue what actually happens on the floor, so they rely on both direct and "anonymous" feedback to make their performance assessments. On top of that, you are graded against your peer group and someone is always forced as the LE (Least Effective). This isn't a problem on bigger teams of 40+ where you will have some true shitbags that need to get fired yesterday. However on smaller teams of say 5-10, someone will be graded an LE even if all 5-10 are rock stars. This feeds a very Machiavellian culture where backstabbing, credit-stealing, and political plays make the biggest difference as opposed to a true meritocracy. I will caveat this with the disclaimer that this was my own experience and the experience of pretty much everyone I worked with. I left Amazon in 2016, so things may have changed for the better, especially with that 2014 NYT article shaking up the entire A-team into action.
Your information isn't really accurate. It's close, but not quite right in a key way. There is NO CURVE applied to any team less than 50 people. None. Never has been. The curve is always only enforced at the 50 person level. If your team has only 10 the curve doesn't apply until you roll up to a manager who has 50. I have been here since 2013 and at least in that time that has been company/HR policy. Our execs and policies just aren't stupid like that. It may well be that there are a few shitty directors around who meet their own curve by trying to force the curve on smaller groups but in the few different OLR's that I have been in I've never seen that and in fact it's been common for one team to have only rock stars while another has more than one LE. Now this is blind so no doubt a bunch of hard done by folks will chime in but I think those toxic teams are really a minority. In reality those shitty directors don't last that long at Amazon since the easy internal transfer policy means all their good folks move away to better teams. But sure they can survive a couple years before their reputation catches up with them and in that time they can make life suck for their people. But you can move teams easily as soon as you get wind that they are doing anything like that.
^^^ this post is right on the policy.
I had a bad experience, but it is more of a combination of everyone's fuckup and being too nice and taken advantage of. I think if have research more and found out how to play the game before joining, I'd be OK. YMMV
I work for an Amazon subsidiary and I have witnessed its downfall post acquisition. Here’s the thing: you don’t get to 40-50% growth without taxing your rank and file. I’m so sick of busting my ass to the point of mental breakdown, only to be told, congrats you met your 35% growth target, next year it’s going to be 50%. And to have execs simultaneously shit on you and then build you back up. I decided running that abusive hamster wheel was no way to live my short life, and if I really want to support the Bezos Machine, I should just buy those shares instead of trading my life for them.
Looks like quite a few Amazon HR in this thread. listen to ex-Amazonians and check out FACE of Amazon. Those that stayed at Amazon are mostly Amaholes.
I love it, so many resources to grow and opportunities within groups. If you don’t like where you are, and you’re good, there’s plenty of opportunities in other groups!
Repeated myself there 🤦🏽♂️
I love it. Like any big company it has many subcultures, and the experience will be driven by where you land and your immediate manager. But huge opportunity, smart people, and huge leverage
If you go to Amazon as a developer you have a three year window to get promoted or you will be fired. You are not told this. Your manager will stack rank you twice a year and the bottom 10 percent are out. The longer that you stay in the same level, the lower you go.
The three year window thing isn’t true. It depends on how well you are doing.
Three years to go SDE1 to SDE2. If you can't get SDE2 in three years something IS wrong. There is no rule but people will start asking what deficiency holds you back. There is no such expectation for sde2 to sde3 though, lots of people stay sde2 for 5+ years.
I bitch about it a lot but in reality I think it's a fantastic place to learn. There's no other company on Earth where you can work on the same problems at scale. Unlike more prestigious companies, Amazon keeps churning out new value for customers instead of just building chat app (n+1). I chose Amazon for the product and liquid comp. With that said, I don't know if People Tech is held in high regard. I believe they make the internal hire tool and the like.
Liquid comp? I thought base salary caps at $160k
I consider stock to be liquid. All my other offers were early stage startups.