Interviewing with Zoox next week for the hell of it. Any thoughts on the company from current employees or outsiders? Seems like an interesting concept but has been worked on for a very long time. Wondering when the product will release. Also curious about compensation and how the Zoox appreciation factors into the overall TC Age 25 TC 180
Are you working on self driving at Apple? I have recently interviewed with both zoox and apple (one more round to go). I wonder why you want to join zoox instead of staying (or maybe) transfer to apple self-driving department.
I don’t really “want” to. Just interested in what my market value is. I’m a GSM on the indirect space. I am interviewing to be a GSM at Zoox. But I probably won’t leave unless they just threw money at me.
I will be interviewing with Zoox too. May I please DM you? Thanks
Recent hire. Not confirmed on refreshers but recruiter mentioned they are trying to agree on a refresher plan. Though it was a recruiter pitch FWIW. ZARs seem mixed compared to ISOs: no exercise cost, but you don't get the shares (just cash). IMO people here seem pretty mission aligned and hard working. Bit chaotic as org scaled/will scale but you can own a lot if you want. So far seems Amazon is pretty hands off.
How are things since you posted this?
Pretty good. Still lots of stuff to own, in fact would more warn about biting off too much. Some leadership churn but it made room for change. Amazon still super hands off (no overlords installed). Got pretty good first year ZAR growth (let's say between 2-5x), but no refreshers yet unless you get promoted.
Where did you come from? Were the base salaries listed above accurate?
I came from bigcorp and also (small) startup founder roles, ended up L5 equivalent (SW). levels.fyi base for L5 equivalent seems accurate enough, not sure on other levels.
The founders are cool smart people, but don't know anything else about them
Is there any layoff risks with the Amazon acquisition? I got a test for firmware to take after talking with a recruiter and it doesn’t seem like leetcode does anybody know anything about how they work? Don’t want to start it blindsided
Take the money. Learn their stack and codebase before it dissipates. Don't expect to launch a product, Amazon has a bad record with that. The tech will be used internally where viable. There are other much simpler products that Amazon is trying to release but can't.
Op where did i go you end up going
Does anyone know the recent value of ZAR
Releasing sometime this month
$4 and some change
Hi! I'm similar to you. I interviewed with them a few weeks ago, and am awaiting offer. Here's data I got from Levels.fyi for people around our level of exp (2-5): 165k base, 45k stock per year 174k base, 27k stock per year 204k base 30k stock per year 180k base, 40k stock per year I've found they give Amazon RSUs, and what they call ZARS (Zoox stock appreciate rights, essentially options without the need for cash to exercise the options). No 401k match, or bonuses. Attrition seems to have happened since acquisition, but overall seems like a strong group technically with large potential for upside given they've now announced their vehicle and are pushing to get to a state where they can begin commercial operations. Certain groups seem to have bottlenecks/more problems than others -- e.g Hardware. Overall, my impressions were positive, and this doesn't look like a rest and vest place, but rather a place where a lot of people are eager to prove themselves.
Wow, thank you for such a detailed response. This helps out a lot, I’m curious to learn more about the “ZARS” as I would be interested in understanding how these eventually could become liquid (considering they will probably never be spun off and “go public”). Those base salaries look very high, so I would definitely be interested in that. I wonder how vested Amazon is in this company considering they also have a major investment in Rivian. I get that they do different things, but it’s interesting that they would be involved in transportation that much. Amazon is such a beast company...
Yeah, I like the bases as well -- although you have to remember they don't do refreshers, bonuses, or 401k match (possible they may begin to add these, but too soon to say since acquisition was <6 months ago) Data is kind of sparse post acquisition on people's experiences negotiating, but there are stories when they were more cash strapped that they'd ghost if you tried to use higher comp companies like FANG to try to leverage.