I've been working in Ads at Amazon for 6 months and can't stand it. I feel I am contributing nothing of value to humanity. Every day is grueling and I have trouble motivating myself to work when I know the end product is hated by every user of the app. Who actually likes to see ads? I received a job offer at NASA for 48% of my current TC. It's what I want to do and my inner nerd is extremely excited, but I'm beginning to wonder what the implications of taking this lower salary would be. I did some math and I should be able to live somewhat comfortably in the new location. Would it be harder to join a big tech company down the line if coming from NASA? If you were in my shoes, what would you do? TC 192k YOE <1 New TC 92k
Do it
Work there for a while
Are you sure that you will have the opportunity to work on exciting projects or just simply maintain a legacy one? Grass always looks greener…
it will be helping them migrate data processing workflows to AWS, it seems pretty greenfield looking from the outside
No. That sounds like a really boring job. Find something else at AWS.
Lol no
It depends on what you do at NASA. Just NASA on resume doesn’t mean anything..
Hard disagree. NASA on the resume would probably at least get the attention of any hiring manager I've worked with. People love space stuff.
Everyone in Silicon Valley knows that NASA pays poorly for SWE. I don't think it's particularly prestigious here.
IMHO you are working on a critical part of the business. ADS is where most of the money is at for the company and if customer is not interested in ads he can pay for premium subscription and get rid of them. Without ADS most of the business won’t succeed even for example: Netflix
> ADS is where most of the money is at for the company Nah that's AWS.
I know man I was trying to say ADS generate good revenue and also we are talking about Amazon retail
Um I like NASA too but heard the work there isn’t too exciting. Just because you like a product/company doesn’t mean it’s a good place to work.
I’d do something like this. Motivation to work is extremely important in my opinion. If that’s not there, you’ll slowly spiral into depression and burn out and all kinds of related issues. The money is something you’ll have to consider, but if you think you’ll be happy with your new money then the move seems prudent.
Amazon will always be there, or any other company. Cool NASA positions are very rare, and if you don’t take it now there may not be another opportunity for many years or ever, really. What’s the job title at NASA, or at least what kind of job is it?
If you are in an area where you can live comfortably on 92k then I’d say go for it! With Amazon and NASA on your resume switching again shouldn’t be too difficult if you need to.