Why so many people in MS and Amazon want to leave?

New / Eng
ThaiTaco

New Eng

ThaiTaco
Jan 16, 2018 34 Comments

At least for mid/entry level positions, I get this impression from reading stuff online and talking to engineers that worked there. Has MS or Amazon tried anything to be more competitive with companies like FB or Google?

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TOP 34 Comments
  • Microsoft / Eng
    corpcult

    Go to company page Microsoft Eng

    corpcult
    Microsoft can be an exhausting place for some people, depending on what org you're in. Not because there is too much work to do, we as software engineers crave just that. But the work that a lot of people do can tend to feel so overrun with beaurocratic process that making a meaningful contribution feels laborious. Code reviews not being done because your manager is in 6 meetings a day and literally turns you away when you're trying to involve him and comes back about it whenever you're focused on something else because he couldn't keep up before but now there's suddenly a deadline. Couple that with a really subpar codebase from however long ago depending on some proprietary internal nonsense libraries and people who leave projects in shambles just to be promoted, the freedom and intellectual challenges of younger and more focused organizations becomes a sexy cozy feeling that you so desperately want. It's not the benefits, they're actually great compared to some others. But the feeling of being in a drop in the ocean is what makes me want to get out of my particular group. I've only been at MSFT for about 1.25 years after 5 years in 2 other companies.
    Jan 16, 2018 6
    • Obviously I don't know what happens behind the scenes there, but when I think of MS's recent successes I'm thinking of Windows 10, shredding their reputation for tons of bugs, releasing new open source tools, VS code. Care to elaborate on what is a different story?
      Jan 17, 2018
    • Windows 10 is a success? News to me. Only reason we have as much uptake as we do is because we're the incumbent. The second someone does gaming or production OSs better than Microsoft, we're toast. Microsoft already has the OS on the back burner.
      Jan 18, 2018
  • Salesforce / Sales
    git-wreckd

    Go to company page Salesforce Sales

    PRE
    Enterprise
    BIO
    30+ yrs in the biz
    git-wreckd
    My physician told me a story the other day about how tech workers are more burned out than doctors. The story goes like this:

    An Amazon tech comes into the Doctors office complaining that he’s burned out and depressed. He says To the doctor “I have so much work to do that I just can’t keep up! I swear I have the workload of three people!!!”

    The next day a Microsoft tech came into the doctors office and said “I am really depressed and frustrated.
    Every project I am assigned to has at least three developers working on the same task.”

    The doctor asked “why are so many developers assigned to the same exact task?”

    The Microsoft tech replied, “one guy does all the work, and the other two guys criticize him. “
    Jan 17, 2018 3
  • Google
    vcfund

    Go to company page Google

    vcfund
    Include Google in that list as well. I know many Google employees wanting to leave
    Jan 16, 2018 8
  • Amazon
    Cincinatus

    Go to company page Amazon

    Cincinatus
    I think the status quo has worked well for all companies involved so there’s no real push to change culture in any.
    Jan 16, 2018 3
  • New
    eXHt31

    New

    eXHt31
    May be the number of employees in these two companies is more than Google and Facebook.. and that's why you noticed more people from Amazon and Microsoft.🤔
    Jan 17, 2018 0