Did a poll a few days ago. Everybody recommended either DoorDash or Uber, why is Amazon so bad? Please elaborate! I like the team’s project, but it is making me reconsider.
A lot will depend on your manager, although, it is not that bad. The thing is, we employ a lot of people and even if 10% are unhappy, they will create a lot of noise.
Amazon is basically chaotic with lower tolerance for low performance in comparison to other companies. People are super direct, and there are plenty of mean assholes and the system doesn't penalize assholery.
How can I tell if my team are assholery
@Vriy76 You will know when you get fired
wtf. 300 at 3 yoe at BD? Do you have a PhD?
At Amazon, you will be asked to add a lot (really a lot) of value to Amazon, but you will have no time or energy to build upon your own knowledge and skills... Thus making you unemployable in the long term... Unless of course, if your are an over achiever who can do it all for multiple years...
How are u able to get 300K at 3YOE? Are you a PhD? What do you do as an MLE?
The ultimate and sole goal of Amazon’s culture is to squeeze the last drop out of you. And, they don’t give two sh*ts on your wellbeing, your wlb, and your own learning. It is very brutal. The policies like pip/forced ura quota makes the work environment like a hunger game. Everyone looks after their own ass. It’s like competition more than collaboration.
high chance of hire to fire since 2022
The oft-cited 6-10% URA quota doesn't actually capture the effective percentage for new hires, as all teams have manager favorites and ICs who can't/won't be pushed out for other reasons. From what I experienced, the percentage of new ICs being pushed out within two years of joining was closer to 25-40%, and I would say less than half of those were based on actual performance issues. People who say only underperformers are pushed out are not being honest - it's a fixed QUOTA - someone has to go in every cycle regardless of performance. Long-tenured Amazonians know this, and once they identify targets, they will make it nearly impossible for those people to succeed, as it ensures their own safety.
What if the team is really new?
The URA quota is applied at the VP/Org level, so impossible to know what the situation will be for your individual team. But your manager will be required to give you a performance rating, and some percentage of reports in the org will need to be rated least effective for your level, those people will be put into focus, then roughly half of those people will be let go. So for example, if the org is 100 people, you can assume 50 of those people are untouchable for one reason or another. From the remaining 50, 6-10 people will need to be forced out as URA to meet the quota (on a yearly basis). From there, it's a multitude of factors to decide who gets the axe. People who are actually bad at their jobs or do shady things are easy targets because the documentation for HR is easy - not every Amazon PIP is without justification. For the remaining slots where there aren't obvious performance issues, managers will be pressured by their skip to identify people who need "support", and then a sickening exercise of fake support from the manager and senior colleagues will be employed with the real aim of identifying issues that can be used to fill out a pivot doc for HR. It's kind of a crapshoot and depends almost exclusively on how much your manager is willing to defend you to their skip/other higher-ups during the meetings where they decide on who will be getting put into focus/pivot, but a team being new probably won't have much of an effect unless for some reason your team is viewed as more valuable than some existing teams in the org.
Amazon is really bad, they screw your mind. Just join if unemployed. I will become a CIO just to ensure I dont hire Amazon or migrate out of it. Actually I will join companies that are fully on AWS and make them multicloud then migrate completely out.
Lol
People do not hire ex amazon candidates. A principal once told he lost his family due to Amazon and it took him many years to get some normality in his life. I removed amazon from my resume. Now I'm getting shortlisted at companies which do not want to rely on hire to fire employees
Amazons awful. You’ll be hung out in the dry if you don’t have the political skills and if the boss wants you to leave.
I dont have political skills, damn. Although the manager is indian(Im chinese), he seems kind
Eek. Indian manager + you being Chinese + you having no political skills makes it a recipe of disaster unless you’re really top 5 percentile in your field.