My experience getting PIP from Amazon after 10 months as a new grad

This was my dream job. I'm from a third-world country and went to a no-name university so this was definitely something I have been dreaming of since coming to the U.S.

Started the job very slow. I wasn't given any real task, only bug fixes, unit tests, etc. Then 3 months in, I was given a mid-size project. I can tell from the beginning that this task was way over my head. I was told that someone has already done this and I only have to make tiny modifications. But the more I talked to that person and the more I deep-dived it seems like both projects are completely different from each other. I thought at the time, this is a great learning opportunity but unfortunately, there is no learning at Amazon, only mistakes. And of course, I wasn't able to deliver the project on time and got put into the dev list.

Tried to bubble up regarding this project is too hard for me but he disregarded it. And this is a repeating pattern, He would always say just tell me how we could help you, but if I need more guidance, it would be my fault for asking too much, if I need more time, it would be me planning badly. So I stop saying what I need and just tried to do my best.

Lucky for me, my next mentor was excellent. She wouldn't ghost me. Not only does she answer my question, but she would also show me how to get the answer the next time I'm stucked. And I did all of the projects under her flawlessly and before the deadline. Now, this is the time when I feel like my manager was adamant to get me PIP no matter what. He said all the projects I did were too easy to put into writing and not once did he tell me I did a good job. The next thing he did is switch my mentor once again.

Now I can't say I'm 100% sure, but I believe my next mentor was in on the plan with my manager. He was the opposite of my old mentor. He answers one question for every 5 I ask. His projects can not be any more ambiguous and tight on deadline. I remember every time I propose a deadline, he would try to squeeze it by half. Every time I ask him something, he would say have you tried to find the answer by myself (of course I did, he ghosted me and it ended up taking me few hours just to get a simple answer that he knows). He told a co-worker to tighten on reviewing my CR. And of course, I missed my deadlines once again, and yesterday, I was given a pivot entry.

I think that my story isn't one of those extreme ones where the manager blatantly lied and try to PIP a top-tier employee or how I outsmarted my manager and get a 10x TC offer. I'm pretty average and my manager would slowly plant this seed so that I'm slowly throw out of the loop and become a terrible employee. I'm not the best but I wasn't exactly set up for success either and this is what happened.

To think just 10 months before, I was showered in offers and decided to take Amazon because it's FAANG and it was my dream to join one of them.

I'm really bumped out by this experience, but at least now I know. I'm ready for new opportunities so anyone who knows of any open oppositions just leaves a comment below and I'll make sure to reach out. Thank you for reading!

#amazon #pip #faang #jobhunt #tech