I cringe when some guy from IBM or General Motors talks about rejecting Amazon's offer if they ever get one because of the PIP culture. Uhh what?? I've worked at Amazon. Let's be real. Amazon pays very well. TC wise they are at the top. Check out levels.fyi. The hiring bar might not be at FB or Google's level or even the unicorn startups' level but it's still high in the broad spectrum of things. It's an achievement if you get the Amazon offer. The biggest strength of Amazon is the learning opportunity due to the controlled freedom they give you. If you are a positive person you can use this like a lab to be a better developer. Amazon made me into a strong developer. I'm on my way to mastery because of the challenging projects I did for them. All that said I am also very well aware of the cultural issues, which is why I left. But you typically make that decision 2 years into Amazon. The bonus and stocks you get in the 2 years justifies the time spent (2.5 years is the sweet spot).
I find it hard to believe that GM or IBM people will go out of their to prep for Amazon interview, clear it, and then turn it down with no other available options
I guess they think they can get better options in the future? Still, a bad decision to turn down Amazon. I’m at OCI and definitely wouldn’t turn down AWS outright if the offer was good
There have been a few threads today where a person is doing this. The thread title mentions Amazon and culture
Completely agree. I have met some very smart people here and have learnt a lot from them and the amount of responsibilities given to me. Should definitely take Amazon if not other FAANGs or equivalent. I'm leaving after 3 years too, but I don't regret my time here.
Yes exactly. From the outside I don't think the idea of Amazon as a graduate is a good idea, unless you're top talent already. But people forget that you earn that WLB with your skills, and if you want to become top talent you need to work alongside top talent. Amazon is political and filled with a nonzero amount of workaholics hiding from their families in the office, but it offers a leg up to top talent. And frankly even the tier 10 companies are extremely political. Developers complaining about office politics don't seem to realise *every job* is drenched in office politics.
I’d take Amazon over jpmc
I disagree. If you’re in the US and you are able to clear Amazon’s interview there’s many other interviews you can now pass with similar compensation and better culture and WLB If Amazon is your only choice keep interviewing and generate some choices for yourself
I know a couple people who joined Amazon and only had one technical OA lol then some behavioral
What are you after in terms of culture though? Everyone is always talking about WLB in terms of culture, but what about personal growth? Some people are not chasing WLB and are happy to give a year or two to Amazon. There's a lot of companies, but the list of places paying the same as Amazon for L4/L5 and providing a similar amount of personal growth seems *very* small.
Yeah I see it all the time one here. I’m learning an insane amount working at Amazon. Distributed systems, software architecture, ci/cd, infrastructure as code, etc. the list is endless. I’ve been switching teams every nine months, I’m a completely different developer from when I joined
You switch teams every 9 months 😲? It’s that easy at Amazon?
Is it okay to change teams frequently in amazon? Will other teams accept this and wont manager put you in pip?
Hey it's usually twice or more the TC. It's ridiculous if they leave money on table because of blind culture
theoretically, wanting to work at Amazon should be a no-brainer: very few companies have the scope, moat and long experimental leash Amazon has. Compensation wise, it's not too shabby either: one of the top paying companies. What turns people off is the pervasive spread of incompetent managers who leverage PIP for insidious intents. Today, companies all over are offering similar or more money, better perks and some semblance of reasonable leadership so lots of people just wanna disparage Amazon (mostly, rightfully so) for the backwards PIP behavior. But you're right. Few companies come remotely close to Amazon in terms of learning offerings and opportunities to grow. Not taking an Amazon offer - when you don't have any better alternatives (where better is Google/FB/Square/ and the other smaller companies that promise cushy lifestyles) is a poor career choice.
Completely correct. The amount of responsibility and freedom to do about anything here is unparalleled here. Even as a “lowly” L4, you can own what is essentially the backbone of a new business and do what other companies want their 20+ YOE architects doing. It’s terrifying to say out loud and might not make sense to outsiders, but the LP’s and risk-taking mentality are mechanisms that generally keep the ship directional aligned. Amazon is the best place to work as an L4/L5. You’ll get better with your hands than any other place most likely. And the high pay doesn’t fully reveal itself until you want to leave here. I’ve been interviewing nonstop the last two months for startups and smaller companies that seem interesting, and either I have to table the process right away when the recruiter mentions (suboptimal) pay range, or the offer is 60% of my current TC. So the dilemma I’m facing is: accept a more interesting and less cannibalistic culture for a huge pay cut, volunteer for indentured servitude at another bad culture but high paying company (ByteDance or FB), or pray a good WLB and good pay whale like Salesforce responds soon. Or just stay at Amazon. TC: 290K
I have an offer from Salesforce with 60k bump. But Salesforce has no Refreshers so there's better companies out there
Yeah, when someone from a tier 4/5 (IBM, GM etc) complains about Amazon offer - it’s literally a career changing start for them. Even for a Tier 3 company like Oracle - Amazon is better any day.
Oracle is not great but I don't know if working at Amazon is better. I had an offer for both but ultimately went with Oracle due to pay and better WLB. A lot of factors depend on the teams though.
Where are these tiers defined? In your own head?