Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#271

Post by amznnewgrad » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:46 PM UTC

8788mar3 wrote: post #256

amznnewgrad wrote: post #102

This is for a new grad in 2014. * Area: Seattle, WA * Position: SDE * Base Pay: $90k * Signing Bonus: $20k immediately, then $17k paid in 12 monthly installments after you reach 1yr in employment. * Stock Units: $53k (5% at 1yr mark, 15% at 2yr mark, then 20% every 6 months from then on) Note: this vesting schedule is AWFUL. Needless to say, I rejected this offer and did not work for them. Best decision I ever made.

I think the vesting schedule is back loaded because they give you a pretty large sign on bonus in the first two years. Your total comp in year one would have been 112.6k which seems about right. The stock price doubled last year, so you would have been looking at at least 125k in year two.

Given the competition, I don't think the sign-on bonus is that large. It only barely makes up for the difference in salary that you can get from a competitor.

E.g you can easily pull $100k to $110k in base pay from similar companies out of school (think LinkedIn, Twitter, FB, Uber). Even well respected startups pay more than $90k (and that's not including any additional bonuses they will surly pay)

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#272

Post by serge2k » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:47 PM UTC

pw wrote: post #162

throwaway75383 wrote: post #93

Position: SDE III Tenure: almost 1 year Job level: 6 Base Pay: $150000 Signing bonus $50k year 1, $40k year 2 Stock: 450 shares, spread over 4 years, 5%/15%/40%/40% No promotions or reviews yet Gender: M Native English Speaker: Yes Location: Seattle

Wow, nice. Is Level 6 pretty high? What was your experience coming into the job?

It's senior sde level. Not everyone is expected to make senior, and they only have something like 10-15% at that level or higher.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#273

Post by AndrewUnmuted » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:49 PM UTC

dzhiurgis wrote: post #215

AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got my education in audio engineering at a leading music conservatory, so moving into audiobook editing was a pretty easy sell for me. An audiobook is made in four basic steps: 1. A voice actor records the narration for the book. 2. The editor takes the raw audio recordings and edits these files for pacing, flow, and aesthetic flavor. The editor also makes note of any errors in the narration which require a re-reco…

Hey what software are you using for this? I was thinking I really wish there was a good app where you can listen to audio articles. It is partly solved in iOS as you can speak selected text, but problem is you cannot select all text easily and you don't wanna mess with it while driving. Was wondering what would be a great UI for the transcriber and whether you could create p2p network to share the transcriptions.

The audiobook editors at Audible used SoundForge. I started out on SoundForge, but I led a real charge to get the department to switch to Wavelab. I was able to get Audible to buy me a license for Wavelab and I never really got anyone else to switch, but it made me super efficient. At that point though I was heading into a more dev role at the company so I was already drifting away from audiobook editing at that point.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#274

Post by owenconti » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:49 PM UTC

jmathes wrote: post #165

The most important thing you can do for your career is: * Accept a job somewhere * Get promoted (doesn't matter how) * let yourself get hired away from your current company Getting hired away from your current company is the only way to get a fair raise based on increased experience. Companies never give substantial raises to current employees.

Not true at all. You just need to find a company that values you and your work.

Our company intentionally hires juniors so that we can groom them as they grow. I was one of those juniors 100%.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#275

Post by serge2k » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:51 PM UTC

examz45678 wrote: post #111

I'm male, a native English speaker, and worked in Seattle around 2013-2015. I was already in Seattle, so I didn't need to move. I was an SDE1, though I came in with a bit of experience (~5 years). My base pay was right around $100k. I had a $20k signing bonus the first year, and something effectively similar for the second year (though less cash and some stock was thrown in).

Sde I with 5 years experience?

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#276

Post by what_ever » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:51 PM UTC

jmathes wrote: post #164

boren_ave11 wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you taking stock into consideration? At current price, 104 shares of AMZN equals $57,408 which puts my total 2016 pay at $130,408.

Apple, Google, and Amazon will all make similar offers. My initial offer from Google was $150k base, ~15% holiday bonus, and came with >$100k in stock vesting over four years, and they give another four-year stock grant each year. I have 7 years of industry experience and I interview well.

What year was this offer given to you? Also, was your 7 years of experience before you got the Google offer? Was all of the experience in US?

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#277

Post by imnicuhtine » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:52 PM UTC

This is super interesting. A lot of responses make me feel underpaid, but I'm not really sure because it's dirt cheap to live in Reno: You can get a 1 bedroom apartment for $500-$1000 a month. My wife and I bought an 1800 sq ft house on 9000 sq ft of property for $230k.

I've been a software engineer at a small software company ~20 employees for 3 years now, but I've only been out of school for a year and I make $75k.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#278

Post by donretag » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:52 PM UTC

While traveling the world, I feel in love with Cape Town so much, that I decided to apply for a job at Amazon since their recruiters were constantly emailing me anyways. EC2 was started in Cape Town and that office does mainly AWS support tools, but not as much EC2 work any more.

I do not remember the details too much, but it was something like $84K for my first year, after stock and all that nonsense. The salary is not much compared to the US, but very good for South Africa. However, the offer was in Rands, which has since collapsed. I would have lost about 30% of my salary when converting to dollars.

I did not take the job for various reasons, with very few having to do with Amazon. The team itself was excellent and I regret not joining, but I am glad I did not partly because of collapse of the Rand.

I still miss Cape Town. One day I will return for another visit.

EDIT: I can provide more detailed numbers if people are interested. Would need to dig up the offer letter. Very few Americans must have applied like I did, so Amazon could very easily figure out who I am. Hey, I loved your team, it just was not meant to be!

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#279

Post by imnicuhtine » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:52 PM UTC

This is super interesting. A lot of responses make me feel underpaid, but I'm not really sure because it's dirt cheap to live in Reno: You can get a 1 bedroom apartment for $500-$1000 a month. For reference, my wife and I bought an 1800 sq ft house on 9000 sq ft of property for $230k.

I've been a software engineer at a small software company ~20 employees for 3 years now, but I've only been out of school for a year and I make $75k.

Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon

#280

Post by HR0000000 » Fri, Mar 18, 2016, 11:54 PM UTC

Amazon, and any other major company, has created a salary range for any role. As someone who has hired for many of these companies, I can tell you: Sharing your compensation is taboo, but do it anyway. So long as you do it honestly and completely. Talking about only salary in a company that rewards heavily in stock is not useful.

There is negotiation room. However, playing the game of show me your hand first is just plain annoying. Why should a company pay you more than is standard in your role? Are you leaving bonus/stock money on the table to come there? Relocating? Losing money on a lease? Tuition? Costs covered by your current employer or another offer (ie housing, transportation, childcare, etc)?

It's a myth that all companies are out to lowball you. The more successful a company is, the more likely it is that they've realized internal equity is at least as (if not more so) important than being competitive in the market.

Go see twitter #talkpay. A lot of great data points were shared there.