Is this true about Amazon hiring?

Google
SundarGets

Go to company page Google

SundarGets
Dec 14, 2020 58 Comments

I heard from my friends that Amazon aggressively hires more candidates so that managers can protect existing employees from putting them as 10% bottom performers and put some of the new candidates into PIP instead?
If this is true it is such a broken HR system. Sometimes new candidates do need more time to ramp up and learn the corporate politics.

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TOP 58 Comments
  • Amazon
    oaNO06

    Go to company page Amazon

    oaNO06
    Are you kidding me? Anyone who says this is true has absolutely no clue what they are talking about.

    I’ve been at Amazon for 5 years. Been a manager for 2.5 years. Hired half a dozen people. Promoted 5. PIP’d one.

    It is A LOT of work to hire people. It is even more work to performance manage and PIP someone. No one has the time and energy to hire someone for the purposes of firing them later just to protect their team.

    If you identify someone on your team as LE (under performing), you have to try to develop and coach them. If that person actually tries to improve then they won’t have to be pip’d.

    I understand Amazon gets a lot of hate and has a lot of areas to improve, but some things said here are straight up lies or misinformation.

    If this company is truly horrible, no one would work there. People would be miserable and it would not be around for 20+ years and considered one of the best companies in the world to work for.

    SMH @ blind.
    Dec 14, 2020 14
    • New
      keepMeAnon

      New

      keepMeAnon
      oaNO06 is a manager at Amazon, what do you guys expect? Your first mistake was going back and forth with them. They’re pretty delusional with being drunk from the kool-aid and stolkhom syndrome
      Dec 15, 2020
    • Facebook
      Ex-Facebok

      Go to company page Facebook

      Ex-Facebok
      No. Amazon is a shithole company. Period.
      Dec 15, 2020
  • Google / Eng
    ABC-CEO

    Go to company page Google Eng

    ABC-CEO
    A lot of, if not most, seasoned Amazon managers have developed a system to survive. They will have a pool of go-to people whom they trust, actively engage with, and get all the important work (these are the "burn" folks). They also have a pool of folks who they hired but quickly give up on and devlist/PIP, due to communication or personality or skills etc, these are the "churn" group. Together they make up the burn and churn culture in Amazon.

    Once a while you'll see that if a manager is from one ethnicity/race, you can almost guess that the churn group is in another race, since communication play a very important role in developing trust in Amazon.
    Dec 14, 2020 3
    • Twilio
      ml_noob

      Go to company page Twilio

      ml_noob
      Ex Amazonian here: @Google is absolutely spot on.
      I feel Amazon SDMs are the root cause of this horrific and toxic work culture in Amazon.They have immense discretionary power which they use as they please.
      PS: A team with good WLB in Amazon is an outlier and teams with horrific WLB, bad managers are the norm. So whenever you see, someone praising Amazon vehemently, you should realize that he/she either might be an HR/Manager or an IC from the outlier.
      Dec 15, 2020
    • Amazon / Eng
      KingsMen

      Go to company page Amazon Eng

      PRE
      Apple, Intel Corporation, Amazon
      KingsMen
      Well said ABC-CEO!!! Very accurate statement
      Dec 15, 2020
  • Amazon
    zdnH57

    Go to company page Amazon

    zdnH57
    This is not true at all.
    Dec 14, 2020 2
    • New
      keepMeAnon

      New

      keepMeAnon
      Amazon manager spotted
      Dec 14, 2020
    • Amazon
      mxxw64

      Go to company page Amazon

      mxxw64
      That is not true at all, only the people that kiss manager's ass the hardest stays. The rest are let go.

      The SDE's that challanges the manager for the good of the companies are the first ones to be let go.
      Dec 14, 2020
  • Amazon / Eng
    Bhajan

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    Bhajan
    It even has a name. Hire 4 fire.
    Dec 14, 2020 1
  • Amazon
    pop123!

    Go to company page Amazon

    pop123!
    No it definitely doesn’t happen
    Dec 14, 2020 3