Is Amazon that bad?

Quora
JtKi57

Go to company page Quora

JtKi57
Oct 21, 2020 599 Comments

Have offer for Alexa, SDE II, no comp numbers yet. I hear that it's team dependent, but is the "fire or expire" mentality for bosses something that is everywhere? I'm on H1b trying to do GC so obviously this is a huge risk to leave my current Co (which I'm somewhat comfortable at).

On the flip side anyone on Blind who is happy at Amazon? Would love to hear what you did to make yourself happy.#engineering #swe #faang #amazon #offer

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TOP 599 Comments
  • Stay away from Alexa for sure. You will be happy anywhere except Alexa
    Oct 21, 2020 12
  • Amazon
    GaiusM

    Go to company page Amazon

    GaiusM
    Amazon is a weird place to work. You’re basically on your own as a new hire and they won’t hesitate to PIP you if you don’t catch on. During onboarding they give you access to a bunch of resources and basically say go figure it out on your own.
    Oct 21, 2020 6
  • Amazon
    icecube7

    Go to company page Amazon

    PRE
    Google
    icecube7
    It’s very subtle but you slowly lose your passion. It’s a death by 1,000 cuts.

    You will need to watch what you say. Directors will tell your manager to PIP you when you say the wrong thing. You can’t change teams and you are on your way out.

    You get down leveled and you spend years trying to prove yourself. But the scope of work is so demotivating that you don’t have enough drive to make it to the next level.

    You don’t make friends in amazon. You can leave and people won’t care. All you will get is transition plan questions.

    You’ll burn out from oncall.

    People have a right to be an asshole because of the “bias for action” leadership principle.

    You will learn to respect levels because they will give you feedback for your promo or performance review.

    You will see that your work has no impact on end customers.

    Since 2016, amazon looks at you like a number. They have to fire 5% every year, you are just a number to them.
    Oct 22, 2020 10
    • Amazon
      OOP_guy

      Go to company page Amazon

      OOP_guy
      100 percent agree with this. I spent 2.5 years at Amazon, most of it in Alexa.

      I became less confident i my abilities, bitter and unhappy.

      I am resigning next week as it the extra money i make here no longer compensates for my burn out.
      Nov 3, 2020
    • Amazon / Eng
      YhCG34

      Go to company page Amazon Eng

      BIO
      L6
      YhCG34
      What happened in 2016? I joined in 2018. Oh, and I don't get paged at all, cos internal customers.
      Jan 17, 2021
  • Amazon / Eng
    HackerRank

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    HackerRank
    I don't know of a single person on the planet who would chose to work at Amazon if they got the same TC elsewhere. This conveys the culture here.
    Oct 21, 2020 9
    • I don't think it's ridiculous. Amazon isn't that great because of the culture. It's hire and fire and work people to exhaustion in most teams. Say what you will but this has been documented time and time again. I actually have an open offer for SDE2 right now that I'm gonna reject for OCI. Though ideally I'm waiting for a better company offer to come through in this next week or so because neither company is what I'm looking for from a culture perspective.
      Oct 30, 2020
    • Amazon
      cest_vrai

      Go to company page Amazon

      cest_vrai
      LOL at someone from *American Express* shitting on Amazon @ctl136 HAHAHAHAH
      Dec 26, 2020
  • Snowflake / R&D
    Pepe_

    Go to company page Snowflake R&D

    PRE
    Microsoft
    Pepe_
    Don't.
    Oct 21, 2020 0