Career advice: Google vs. Amazon

Amazon
plant's

Go to company page Amazon

plant's
Sep 8, 2020 13 Comments

Joined Amazon 3 years ago and just got promoted to L5 SDE. Also have an offer for L3 SWE at Google for a really cool Ads team. I'm really, really burnt out and at this point will either switch internally or jump to Google. TC is the same. Thoughts?

Edit: I have decided to join Google. My current team made me miserable and I'm very excited about the work at Google. Thanks everyone for your input!

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TOP 13 Comments
  • Google
    no-wayy

    Go to company page Google

    no-wayy
    Been exactly in the same boat. I took Google L3 offer but later regretted it. Promotions at Google are too exhausting. Too many docs needed for Promo. Wait and interview again for L4. Switch teams at Amazon in the meantime.
    Sep 8, 2020 1
  • Amazon
    JSnowflake

    Go to company page Amazon

    JSnowflake
    Rule #1 of FAANG: never take a downlevel within FAANG. Just don't do it. Blind is full of stories of people who are miserable doing low level shit work that they hate because they took a downlevel for a brand on their resume. Don't do it.
    Sep 8, 2020 1
  • Yara / Other
    onegetaway

    Go to company page Yara Other

    onegetaway
    Contrarian, but please don't take the down-level. Google always down-level, because they can. Request to be interviewed for L4+ otherwise you'll spend 2-3 years to climb back to where you were, and probably hate every part of it. Try to move internally to bide your time for better offers.

    Also careful when choosing Ads teams. Like Cloud, Ads is likely not WLB-friendly.
    Sep 8, 2020 0
  • Apple
    09a

    Go to company page Apple

    09a
    Go to G for a fresh start and cut the mental luggage. Stay for a year and interview again next year for E4/E5.
    Don't stay at Amazon. At G you'll have refreshers too and you will be valued as an employee. Also many companies will try to give you higher offers when you work at G.
    Sep 8, 2020 0
  • Google
    GNxh8g

    Go to company page Google

    GNxh8g
    You're at a place where you are "really, really burnt out". Not only that, you have been recently promoted, which could make this worse.

    Jumping for no TC gain or a downlevel generally doesn't make sense, but staying at Amazon doesn't make sense either under your circumstances.

    Did you try other FAANG companies? (e.g. Facebook)? If you haven't, it might be good to explore before committing to a decision.

    If you did try, and the Google offer was the best one you got, I would definitely take it.

    Effective Google TC will be higher due to the refresher and benefits. And WLB will be a lot lot better, especially for a L3 new hire during Covid. You could pretty much spend an entire quarter "ramping up", and some teams won't even bat an eye.

    OTOH if you want to try to make it, opportunities won't necessarily wouldn't be more limited because you are a L3 new hire vs being a L4 new hire. You can eventually flourish here if you are okay with the initial downlevel.

    Otherwise, you could Leetcode/system design away, and interview for Facebook E5 once you're at 5 yoe.
    Sep 9, 2020 0