So, I'm about to interview with both companies. Just curious from folks who work at either, and those that have worked at both, is either a better choice for career, corporate culture, work life balance? Thanks!
Better choice for career = Amazon Culture, work life balance = Microsoft
Culture? Seriously? I’d say the cultures both have their limitations. Personally, I found Microsoft’s culture unbelievably stifling.
Amazon has open and proud assholes, microsoft has discreet assholes. Discreet ones dont make me wanna punch them in the face as much as open and proud ones
Having worked at both places, Amazon is certainly the better choice if you want to learn and grow. Having said that, a lot depends on which team and what work you will be doing.
It's *all* about the team. I know people at both that are giddy and miserable and everything in between. Not sure how hard it is to change teams at AMZN but it's easy at MSFT so you're not "stuck" if you don't fit on the team. Depending on how young you are, try both. Easy to move back and forth. Do you want to commute to SLU or Redmond? Depending on where you live, both commutes can suck.
At amazon, it’s very easy to change teams, I think much easier than Microsoft. You are encouraged to change teams within 2 years to grow your career. The good thing is Amazon is very diverse, so you have many options to choose from.
Which Amazon building are you going to jump from?
Thanks for the comments everyone. This would be in a solution architect role, so sales/customer facing. Sorry, should have mentioned. Does that change anything? Read in another post the SA role is a different animal.
Having worked at both, I would still go to Amazon. As others wrote, Microsoft is full of old people trying to find excuses not to work. You will learn less, have less freedom to move after, and be less prepared.
So MCS Then? Life in the field is different then life in the bubble back in Seattle
If you want to learn I’d go neither
Neither
It’s the same, just choose the better offer. You’ll get endless arguments from both sides
So many people have move from one to the other and back. Agree it is easy to move from one to the other. Key: Check for team fit. Do you legitimately like the people you met and the manager you will work for?
Sounds like this person hasn’t even interviewed yet, so maybe they’re being presumptuous.
Agree with all the above: both companies are big enough that there is a huge amount of variation in experience by team. That said, I also agree with the above that on average, Amazon tends to have a burn and churn mentality in *some* teams, for *some* new hires, so you may get burnt out at Amazon by the long work hours and stress, but if you stick around you'll probably get promoted more quickly, and will probably make more money including stock vesting over time. And I agree with the above that on average, for *some* Microsoft roles and on *some* teams, there may be an uphill battle around inertia and bureaucracy, so things may move slowly. But you'll likely be less stressed out, and have the option of working shorter hours. I also agree with the above that location should factor into the equation. If you're dead set on wanting to live in a very urban area in the middle of Seattle, having to do the commute out to Microsoft in Redmond is going to take away a good chunk of that work-life balance that can be a big selling point. And vice versa, if you've got a family and kids and want a big yard and a good school district, your commute into Amazon may be non-ideal and make the work hours even longer. I will say, for whatever it is worth, that I came from a school that both Amazon and Microsoft recruit heavily at. At graduation, 30+ of my classmates had jobs at one of the two companies. Now, 3 years later, 70% of the Microsoft hires are still here, but only 40% of the Amazon hires remained at Amazon.
If you’re young, I’d go amazon. If you’re older, I’d go Microsoft.
Why?
Work life balance suffers at Amazon, and generally you have more time when your young. Additionally, in my experience, Amazon is a much faster environment, so you’re likely to learn a lot more in a shorter amount of time (more valuable when you’re young). Career wise, amazon stock is more likely to do better over a long time (ie joining when you’re young) than Microsoft’s.