Two weeks at Amazon and I already feel like quitting
Joined Amazon Hyderabad two weeks ago and the constant fixing bugs in older code based on issues raised by teams, and spending the whole day to resolve those. This has already made me dread every working day. There is also an apparent general lack of empathy from the management. I was contacted by recruiters from Atlassian, Walmart Labs and Goldman Sachs, although they probably won't be able to match the take-home pay of Amazon (because of sign on bonus), but they might approximately match it by stocks. Not sure of Walmart Labs. And learning about the near zero hikes (unless you get a promotion), and the PIP mess, I wonder if I should start looking out immediately. I'd like some thoughts by present or past employeers of Amazon and also from the community as to what I should do in this case. Should I give it more time or start looking out? Is this just something in the beginning or is it the norm at Amazon, as I'm used to a more humane culture of working (past experience at medium/large size startups), does it get better? L5 Amazon TC : 25 + 14 (joining) + 1 Stock unit Atlassian (haven't started interviewing but this is what the recruiter told me) : 25-30 + 10% perf bonus + 8-10 L worth of stocks #tech #amazon #india #walmart #atlassian
Don’t forget you have to pay back sign on if you leave so quickly
Not at Amazon. Bonus is paid monthly here as salary. There's no joining or sign on bonus per se
Oh! Nice.
You might have already read all negative reviews but still 2 weeks is very less to comment on good or bad, not that I disagree with the reviews :P. First thing : get a mentor. Wait for a month atleast to see how things roll out.
How does one go about getting a mentor? Just approaching someone random/known and asking them to guide me? Is it like a common and known practice here (and wouldn't seem weird)?
It is very well known thing. Common or not depends on your team/org. Don't think about someone feeling weird. If they do, they are anyways not right for you. 1. Ask your manager to assign you one. 2. Talk to team members if anyone is willing and more importantly you feel comfortable with him/her. 3. Talk to people in sister teams. 4. Amazon has a mentorship program. Search and check it out.
An L5 fixing bugs all the time? Pretty strange
Why strange? Most of the companies are same in this regard. Also L5 or SDE 2 is the shittiest position to hold in any company. Expectation is high and work is shit mostly. Amazon has thousands of L5 btw. So do you expect all L5s to work on good things? Lol
Well if there’s no work then what’s the point of hiring L5 ? If it is only fixing bugs a new grad can also do that. Then they should’ve hired L4 itself. I do not expect all L5s to do good things. I don’t expect any L5 do bug fixing all the time either as that can be done by an L4 🤷♀️
Looks like you joined Amazon expecting negative shit and are just validating it. 2 weeks in and you expect to be handed over projects on silver plate? Sorry man, it's not Amazon which is problem here. Focus on doing whatever task you are given while earning trust of manager and team.
This. Behaviour. I’m sorry to say op but constant hammering on your head would make you a loyal dog earning trust. Ironically, for people or team you’re earning this trust don’t give a shit.
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OP you have great offers. Can you please tell your year of experience?
Dude I kept LinkedIn as one of the options where I'd want to try :D I've 4 years of experience
Did you not check Blind BEFORE joining Amazon?
I talked to a few folks who've worked there, but they all said it's very subjective and dependent on the team and manager. I'm fine with giving more hours to work as long as it's something interesting or atleast something where there's some development. But fixing someone else's bugs straight as soon as I join and scrambling to get context or to go through non-existent or outdated documentation wasn't surely what I had in mind.
People who work there will always have an incentive to lie. Afterall, most people dont like to agree that they made a huge mistake. Blind folks have always been clear about Amazon.
Give it more time... what do you expect for your first two weeks? You could be at a company sitting in “integration training” for two weeks and be bored. At least you got to dive in while your managers and team figure you out. Nobody can expect to immediately gel and work well with others day one. If you still don’t like it when you get into a rhythm then consider if it is what you want to do.
Fixing bugs in older code is a good way to understand the team's code base. Getting a meaty project in your first month which you won't be able to deliver looks like a shortcut to PIP.
This is the problem with amazon, they prioritize not having short term pain for long term growth. If you don't aim for the stars you always end up short, don't let pip be a limiting factor to your long term growth. This company does not have a future.
This post is a little confusing... What else would you expect to do? Software engineers fix bugs. Usually when you start a new job you are given small tasks like bugs to ramp up. Can you go into more detail about the lack of empathy from management? How did you come to this conclusion in the first 2 weeks?
True, but I wasn't even given time to understand or read about anything, it's just straight to fixing bugs. Which I didn't like because these things are on some stacks which I've not worked on, have very little documentation available and very tight deadlines. It's like throwing random things to the problem until one sticks. On the empathy part, it's like no one even flinches on the thought of working late or over the weekends, the whole aura is like it's blasphemous to have a life.
As for the first part doesn’t seem too bad. They want you to understand by diving into things. You aren’t a junior engineer so you should be fine here. If you need help just ask people. As for the 2nd part, that is a red flag and I have experienced similar at Apple. Not sure if I’d describe that as empathy and more like bad culture but that is a reason to consider leaving. But just make sure you know how to vet for that type of culture before joining the next place
Never worked at Amazon, but to regulars on Blind, this seems to be something of a norm, unfortunately.