A positive amazon experience

Amazon / Eng
albertoson

Go to company page Amazon Eng

albertoson
Sep 25, 2020 113 Comments

I keep hearing such negativity about Amazon so I want to share my experience with others. The negativity on blind does not fully represent the company and certainly does not represent my personal experience.

No I'm not a recruiter or manager. This is not a fake advertisement. I've been in amazon for near 10 years, promoted from SDE1 > SDE3. I'm being put up for principal, no idea how that will go. Been in 4 separate organizations.

My WLB has been great. I've had many weeks where I work a solid 10 hours and slack off the rest of the time. Other times I feel motivated and will work the evening, all based on personal choice.

At all points of my career I had big scope. I'm now at a point where I choose my own technology, languages and architecture for the team. I love functional object oriented languages so that's the route we've chosen. Lately we've moved to more AWS serverless solutions which have been fun to learn. About 80%+ of the time I am building new stuff. Rarely am I maintaining or integrating with legacy systems. I do tons of designs, design reviews and lots of mentorship.

My comp rose from 105k when I started to 460k today. Partial stock growth and consistent high ratings.

The people around me have been solid. Fun personalities, lots of drinking and outings. People making jokes left and right. Lots of talent. Many lunch buddies. Made many friends who I've worked with for many years.

I once talked to Google and they couldn't match my comp. I considered Facebook but their tech stack didn't sound appealing. Netflix could be in my future, but as the saying goes if it ain't broke don't fix it.

I have friends at Google getting stagnant from working on technology that has no clients. And a lazy team who expects people to do the minimum to get by. They are bored, stuck at their level because promos are hard and getting paid a lot less than me.

Culture fit is everything.

So for those who keep stereotyping amazon, remember you are getting your info from the people in toxic organizations, who don't understand how easy it is to leave these organizations.

For those having a shitty time at amazon. Move fucking teams. Its not hard to do and there are many openings. Check tech survey and talk to devs on the team before joining. There are many good ones and few toxic ones. If attrition is high, management does get fired. Vote with your feet and stop complaining.

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TOP 113 Comments
  • Amazon
    ๐Ÿšฟwad

    Go to company page Amazon

    ๐Ÿšฟwad
    Youโ€™re speaking Blind blasphemy. Youโ€™re supposed to hate amazon. Why do you speak of such evil.

    PS: I have the same experience but every time I mention it I get accused of astroturfing. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™‚๏ธ
    Sep 25, 2020 2
    • Amazon
      randomt123

      Go to company page Amazon

      randomt123
      I have the same experience.
      Sep 25, 2020
    • Apple
      fhne47ehh

      Go to company page Apple

      fhne47ehh
      Same with me. Iโ€™m actually really missing amazon this week and considering going back. The culture definitely isnโ€™t for everyone though so I get the complaints. Highly motivated and slightly aggressive personalities can do well there. I didnโ€™t really consider it an aggressive personality while I was there but now that Iโ€™m not there I can definitely see it as aggressive in comparison to other companies.

      Other companies seem to give everyone a chance (time) to improve things however they think will work with no real repercussions if itโ€™s wrong. At amazon you have to fight that your idea is the correct way to go before being allocated time for it. The result of the former is you have a bunch of low rate technology youโ€™re working on with low operational burden until things go south. The latter means you have some well thought solutions with high ongoing operational burden. Neither is ideal but Iโ€™d prefer the latter because the operational burden is easier to fix than some software / service that just canโ€™t scale any further. It also means that you know when things are going to fail and can plan for them well in advance.
      Sep 25, 2020
  • Vudu
    SqSJ45

    Go to company page Vudu

    SqSJ45
    You have been with Amazon for over 10 years. You are the expert in your team. How many of your teammates got piped. Honestly asking
    Sep 25, 2020 17
  • Groupon
    DarkDanger

    Go to company page Groupon

    DarkDanger
    There is so much good crack here... It is what we call "logicial fallacy" and "bias".

    First, the straw man. "My life has been great, so you other folks experiences are invalid." Way to sympathize with folks who didn't have that experience!

    Next, the band wagon. "Everybody around me is great, so you just had experience with the few toxics." Well, not everyone agrees there are few toxics... there is a reason Amazon has as many bad reviews as good. Its a crap shoot.

    Then, hasty generalization. "All you don't know how easy it is to move teams." Actually, if your manager hates you, it is impossible to move before or after your DP/PIP. Managers need to agree to your move, and they can (and often do) say NO.

    Now Texas Sharpshooter. "Managers with high attrition get fired too..." Prove it. The trouble is, back stabbing _ get promoted. The conspire to get non back stabbing _ managed out. Course I wouldn't know, because I was a manager.

    The whole thing is "middle ground". Its either really bad, or really good (i.e. you say you have great WLB, where most people say they don't).

    Just 'cause you say it, doesn't make it true. Deliver results and dive deep brah. The statistics are NOT in your favor.
    Sep 25, 2020 8
    • Groupon
      DarkDanger

      Go to company page Groupon

      DarkDanger
      And thar be the rub. There are many sources of information, and I'm sure anyone can find a stat to back their position. Most of my former PRFAQs borrowed only the most favorable data to reinforce the position... So, Glassdoor, has WLB as the most common CON. You gotta consider occam's here... sometimes the most obvious answer is the right one. The obvious answer is that other tech reports rank Amazon below most other tech companies on all fronts. WLB and toxic management is often cited for the highest attrition in the industry. You can go look on linked in or payscale. https://www.payscale.com/data-packages/employee-loyalty/full-list
      Sep 27, 2020
    • Amazon
      ๐Ÿšฟwad

      Go to company page Amazon

      ๐Ÿšฟwad
      Go read about Bayes. Selection bias and statistics.
      Sep 27, 2020
  • New
    jobfinder

    New

    jobfinder
    Why does Amazon has such a terrible reputation on blind? Just curious.
    Sep 25, 2020 9
    • Amazon
      wla5

      Go to company page Amazon

      wla5
      SDEs are negative overworked employees and this is there only outlet to vent.
      Oct 1, 2020
    • @albertoson That gives a lot of incentive to managers to put the person trying to change teams on PIP and save their ass. You say it's easy to switch teams. I am told by friends that one's manager knows the moment one applies and puts one on a PIP so the policy stops the switch and this helps prevent the attrition. How much of it is fact?
      Oct 3, 2020
  • Amazon
    iHavBigPIP

    Go to company page Amazon

    iHavBigPIP
    Blue raspberry koolaid the way to go ๐Ÿ‘
    Sep 25, 2020 1