Hello Blind Fam, I got an offer from EC2 networking for SDE-2. The total compensation they are offering is 250K in seattle. How is the team and should I negotitate on compensation any further? TC: 150K
networking are worst in all cloud company, without any other coming even close.
Can you please elaborate? What exactly is bad there?
network is the most unreliable infra piece in distributed and there the source of the most challenging issues in distributed computing. In academy people solve them using smart ideas, in cloud company people solve them using brutal force oncall queues
Oncall will be terrible for sure. 230 regions, 4937 availability zones. When I was at aws, I remember a lot of the sevs were caused due to networking issues. Better to find a more chill team
I do have multiple options with in EC2 Networking org but thanks for letting this know.
Not to demoralize you but if you don’t have an option (about to loose your job) and this is your only offer go for it. Otherwise I would say talk to the HR and see if you can get other teams (there could be few interviews again). As someone said EC2 Core is slightly better (bad wlb but good work and less painful oncalls mostly because of good engineers). The problem with EC2 Networking is they have a lot of networking and sys eng folks writing terrible code. Not saying they are bad. Their networking skills are very good. I can’t say the same about coding. Their software engineering practices are horrendous. Senior mgmt has recognized this and are hiring more software folks. This is the problem now. Networking and Sys Eng folks really understand the entire architecture. They are a bit touchy when someone suggests a rearchitecture of the software piece. Because they were the ones who wrote it and it would put them in bad light when someone points at their shit. Everytime a new proposal is put forward they come up with random shit and throw your proposal into garbage to make sure their jobs are safe (there are some really old farts there). Instead of working with you most of them work against you. Managers there understand this and gets frustrated. They leave. Now it’s your turn to get frustrated and then you leave. A new manager comes in. Suggests hiring SDE2/3s. The cycle continues. I have been there. As long as you can tolerate their shitty coding practices, you will be helped by your peers. Your manager will want more from you, I mean he’ll want you to completely change stuff. But your peers will want you maintain status quo.
Thanks for letting this know, this is really helpful. I am not in a rush and can wait for sometime. I am hoping to gain specialization in distributed systems and networking with this job. What do you think the learning in those areas would be if I do not have first hand experience in developing such large scale applications?
If you are keen on learning networking I would suggest doing CCNA. That’s a stepping stone. I would sharpen my ddb skills (very important at amazon). Become good in Python (Yes there is a lot of Python code) and Java. I would also learn AWS if you haven’t learnt already. These things should get you ready for a lot of jobs in AWS/Azure/GCP. If you have time, I would definitely avoid this team. Try asking the HR for options. They’ll most likely get you in touch with another hiring manager. You’ll still need to give 1-2 rounds of interviews. Remember any company in cloud business has bad wlb. Amazon is worse because they are at the top in cloud.
Thanks for the help guys, was able to get an offer from another team in EC2 core.
U have to go through another round of interview?
Any recent updates on this topic?
Don’t join! Terrible wlb and very bad work. Also comes with insane number of pip’s.
Lol insane number of pips isn't that applicable for whole of Amazon?😂
I am in EC2 core right now. I haven’t seen a single pip in the last 2 yrs just to reduce HC. Few guys left on their own to other companies for a better pay. Not all orgs are bad. Wlb is terrible but you can’t help that.