How long to stay at AMZN before applying to other companies?
Just hit 1 year anniversary. Main motivations to switch: 1. Really hate oncall, getting paged (in the middle of the night) often. I feel like I can't really make any plans that whole week and I feel pretty miserable overall. I also can never go back to sleep after getting paged. 2. Lacking benefits. 401k matching is very poor. Effectively 2% of base versus up to 50% at somewhere like MSFT. Also, cannot frontload HSA because of how their stupid system works, so lose so amount of money to investments here (also have to transfer money to investmrnts every month instead of just once a year). Also, 401k clawback means you can't actually max your 401k (you will get anything over 15k or so refunded) once you get any promotion with 120k base or higher. 3. No perks. Not a big deal but objectively, more perks such as free food is better than having none at all. Annoys me in a sense that the company delibaretly chooses not to optimize the employee experience (also applies to benefits above) 4. Backloaded stock schedule means I'll need to wait like 1.5-2 years to start getting the real compensation gains from stocks. If I apply with <2 years exp to companies, will I be treated compensation wise more like a college grad than the next level position?
If you're not happy, leave but with your level of experience, its gonna be awkward. You're not a new grad yet you're not too experienced either. (I think 3 years is the sweet spot here) I was in that position a year or two ago and have been turned for being too junior yet I didn't count as a new grad either. I eventually found a place that gave me an offer so it still turned out okay. Just prepare well and keep on applying.
Wouldn't say I'm extremely unhappy but I don't feel like I want to stay long-term either. Things could be better. It might be that exactly 2 years might be a good time, as I won't have to pay back any bonuses / relocation and might move me out of that "new grad" threshold
New grad level most likely. But if you’ve learned anything in your two years you will rise up faster, it’s gonna be a little less pay but will work out in the end
Have you cried at your desk yet
Switch groups to fix the oncall issue. The vesting schedule thing means that you make bank in a couple years. The 401k thing - really? MSFT only matches like 3% when I was there, IIRC. And Amazon i thought was the same.
Ms has the best retirement benefits now they match up to 9k now and have after tax options
Oh yeah, the "super backdoor Roth" is pretty crazy. I believe it's something like up to 20-30k after-tax money you can contribute. Really good, especially for anyone young who has so many years to invest
How bad is the on call? How many times in a quarter? And on your turn how many times a week you get paged?
Rotations are one week. Usually close to 5 but can get up to 10 pages (or more!) during worse weeks Most pages for our team are outside of 10am-5pm business hours. Mainly, I hate losing my weekends and feel stressed out every night about whether Im going to be paged
You gotta do what is right for you. Move!
Just leave asap. Better to join a better company and set your career straight asap.
So many Amazonians here at Linkedin. One thing, if you leave with 2 years of work ex there is a good chance you will get in as t4/E4. But with one year you’d have to earn it which might take an year and a half.
It doesn’t really matter, they’ll force you out before 4 years anyway. They don’t like to pay the full vesting schedule.
Leave amazon now