YOE: 6 Location: SF SWE Amazon: Level: L6 180k base 150 RSUs vesting 5/15/40/40 Sign on 215/160 TC: 418/410/366/366 at current valuation. Recruiter seemed to bake in 15% equity growth though (which would lead to 400+ TC every year) - will they top me up to that higher number even if it doesn't grow enough? Square Level: L6 Base: 200k Equity: 150k / year Sign-on: 40k TC: 390/350/350/350 I think I found a good team within Amazon (not AWS and had a friend internally check the managers survey results) but I guess I'm still hesitant about it due to their reputation. I kind of like the no nonsense attitude of Amazon but not sure if that's sustainable for me. But they are offering so much guaranteed money. Square otoh seems super chill in comparison, role would be in Square Capital. Amazon seems to beat Square TC by a lot but Square seems better otherwise? Square has refreshers and ESPP which would make up for some of the TC difference too. Besides TC, I'm mostly interested in engineering quality and WLB. #offer #tech Edit: Would love to hear from anyone voting for Amazon
Low ball offers
These seem on the higher end, maybe not max, for each level from looking at levels.fyi and posts on Blind
Take square. No good team at amazon is permanent
L6 at Amazon seems to entail a solid amount of autonomy and respect though, which would make finding good teams easier
It’s easy to switch at any level. Just don’t expect the team you are joining to be great for forever. Also factor in we don’t have refreshers and you will see a cliff after 4 years.
Have you read up on amazon pip stories?
Yeah, that's what I mean by reputation. I feel like it must be overblown, but yeah not a good look
Agree with you jek. I'm at amazon now.
If you take stock price growth into account. Usually people in 3rd and 4th year make waaay more than their 1st and 2nd year. But I will choose depending on the team' product
Yeah but I can always buy Amazon stock if I feel that strongly (although to be fair not 500k worth or whatever) and I wouldn't actually do that. If Amazon stock doesn't grow 15% every year, will Amazon increase your pay so that it matches what would've been 15% growth?
It's based on your target comp which is hidden. If its below the target you will be give referesher. My recommendation is choose the team and manager over the company / tc
The argument to buy amzn stock is not really accurate, because it increases your risk. (Now you have your cash locked up both in Square and Amzn).
I could theoretically short Square to become neutral. But yeah not going to do that lol. I do like Amazon's comp structure because it basically gives you 2 years to observe stock performance and then decide whether you want to stay or leave with very little risk.
Can’t short SQ if you work at SQ. I expect AMZN is the same
If you really cared about eng quality and wlb you would choose square and not even bother posting this. Amazon isn't a real tech company, every amazonian knows code quality and talent is awful. Also i don't know anything about square benefits but lack of Amazon benefits and refreshers will make up for the gap. lastly don't trust amazon recruiter she just wants you to accept and is telling you bs. they won't "top" you up, that's the last thing a company with frugality as a core value would do. But since it seems you never worked at amazon and don't believe the comments about it, maybe you could experience it yourself and then regret afterwards ignoring warnings from thousands of engineers saying the same things you thought were exaggerated just for a few thousand bucks just like me 👍
I feel like Amazonians don't give themselves enough credit re: tech quality. Outside of maybe Google and probably a few startups, engineering quality is very hit or miss. The recruiter didn't say anything about topping up, but like another poster mentioned, I had heard about the target TC mechanism and wanted to confirm that. Square doesn't exactly strike me as having incredible eng quality either. They seem to have a chaotic mix of languages and infrastructure internally and Capital in particular is all Ruby. Uber engineering is also nothing special. Sorry, it's just hard to imagine it's as bad as some stories make it out to be. People seem to work there for multiple years+. If they really hated it, wouldn't they leave?
Square has way more room to grow.... As an investor I'm way more bullish in SQ so those RSUs could take off even if amazon looks like it's more now. Also, ex amazon goons are a dime a dozen, it doesn't impress anyone.
Join us. You won't regret it.
if the team at Amazon is good then take Amazon if not, take Square
equity for the square offer is low, but still go there.
Is Amazon really that bad if I think I found a decent manager?
square is just more interesting