Does being a manager at Amazon negatively affect long-term career?
I’m currently an engineering manager at Amazon, previously Apple.
- Yes we do have to PIP people but luckily I haven’t had to for my team.
- Yes there are managers who I’ve worked with who have no empathy and/or no technical skills.
- Yes our compensation doesn’t reward good performance when stock is doing well.
There’s definitely a bad rep when it comes to Amazon managers. I’m learning a lot at my job and like the team a lot. WLB is also great. However, hiring has been very difficult, much more difficult than when I was at Apple. I do think it’s because of the company stigma.
I’m not sure if people would automatically assume badly of my experience purely based on the company. I’ve seen and heard statements along the lines of “we don’t want to hire from Amazon because they might pollute our culture”. Thinking long term, should I look to leave once I’ve learned enough and gotten good experience?
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Whoever is saying all of Amazon managers are bad without actually knowing details are kind of people I personally don’t want to work with.
If a person is not performing, then I would politely tell them they aren’t and try to work with them in focus. If they are not interested in clearing goals and they want ti leave the company, I would give them the opportunity to do so. You can’t expect everything to be in your favor without actually performing at work you see.
So you are saying if someone is not performing they have to be rehired for not performing?
Are we losing anything if that’s a possibility? Half of the managers around us worked on archaic technologies and am sure many of them cannot clear external interviews where hands on skills are assessed. Point is - these people may make great product managers, SDMs in future, you are taking away that option.
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For the comment - “So you are telling all companies should not let go low performers but rather pay them till they find next job and also give them an opportunity to come back in the future?”
No one said that - give a choice, leave in a week or two. If they stay, they have to start working on some goals.
Focus itself is a shady step based on past posts, which used to have appeal option and removed lately for unknown reasons. This fact itself demotivates people from working on focus goals. So, I thought people should be made aware of the situation before focus itself.
Generally, if I give my experience to anyone who asks and quite a few who dont too then it is: 1) dont join Amazon / AWS and 2) dont hire an ex Amazon / AWS manager and 3) dont join a company which has ex Amazon / AWS managers above you in the Org structure.
You can play Russian roulette on hiring not knowing how many bullets are chambered or you can just skip that game and play Monopoly.