Amazon vs Yelp vs Instacart (Canada)

4d 45 Comments

I'm going to preface this by saying I only have one confirmed offer, but I'd like to ask for insight in the event I get the luxury to choose between companies.

My priorities for next position (in order):
1. Interesting work (backend)
2. Good WLB / Good work culture
3. TC

Context:
I'm coming out of a heavy client facing role to go back into development. I'm trying to find a place to grow as a dev and I believe having interesting work is going to motivate me to do so. I left my first and only dev job because the work was stale and I wasn't learning much. I really value a good work culture because I still need the support/mentorship to keep me going.

Amazon:
- SDE1 (L4)
- Internal tools (PXT Org). I'm told oncall load is only during core business hours.
- Team based in the West coast. I'm on the East coast. They're fine with me staying on the East doing 9-5 but I know the time difference is going to bite me when there's 2-3 hours where I can't reach out for help. I'm open to relocating to the West but that's a big decision to make.
-TC: 178k

Yelp (pending results):
- IC2
- Backend team
- TC estimated by Recruiter to be around 135k if I get offer (hoping to negotiate)

Instacart (pending results):
- L3/L4
- On the brand new Professional Services team. 50% client facing / 50% dev work
- TC: Unknown

From what I've heard, Yelp and Instacart have the best culture out of these 3. Yelp sounds like it has the best opportunity to find interesting work (with the options I have), but I've heard it pays the least out of the 3. The team at Amazon seems chill and the TC is very enticing, but I'm not sure if the work and time/difference will allow for good growth. Instacart seems to have the best balance of culture and TC, but the work sounds meh.

I know I only have one offer atm, so if that's all I got ofc I'm taking it. But I would like to hear everyone's thoughts, given my goals/priorities and knowing the options ahead of me. Thanks!

Current TC: 100

Yoe: <2 years

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TOP 45 Comments
  • Yelp
    hjklm

    Go to company page Yelp

    hjklm
    Which team at Yelp? It makes a huge difference because some teams have to deal with legacy code that is pretty annoying to work with
    4d 6
  • Stay away from instacart
    3d 8
  • Not Instacart. Morale is at an all time low. Competition is fierce on all sides.
    4d 5
    • We are not growing quickly lol. Look at Doordash stock to see where our value has been doing.
      3d
    • Morale is not really low it depends. For preipo company please do due diligence.
      1. Sniff koolaid
      2. Sip koolaid
      3. Chug koolaid
      4. Swim in koolaid
      Recruiters will push you to #4 like the 39Bers and they got bad diarrhea after valuation was dropped to 24B which was using data from pre December 2021. Always start with sniffing koolaid and you will be fine. You can also negate koolaid by accepting a all cash or high cash offer.
      3d
  • Yelp
    Obama.B

    Go to company page Yelp

    Obama.B
    Yelp timezone issue will be likely much worse than Amazon though. They make us work until 6pm in Europe, and sometimes you need to stay later than that to be able to progress. You might end up having colleagues anywhere from West coast to Europe. You'll also have to be on-call pretty frequently.
    3d 9
    • Yelp
      doornail

      Go to company page Yelp

      doornail
      It’s definitely not just for the upper management. That was explicitly in the training for everybody. The timezone split teams issue is a real quality of life problem at Yelp (for people in both west coast and EU).
      Yesterday
    • Yelp
      hjklm

      Go to company page Yelp

      hjklm
      I have yet to see anyone take a meeting at 7am. I did take some at 8am but out of courtesy to my colleagues in EU since they often take meetings at 6pm, I could have easily pushed if back to 9am but chose not to
      7h
  • Amazon
    πŸ‘‹amzn

    Go to company page Amazon

    πŸ‘‹amzn
    Oh no, PXT would not offer you interesting work. They deal with a lot of vendor systems and legacy databases.
    4d 1