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Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

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Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#31

Post by yrmj »

mter wrote: post #21

I work under 40 hours a week with no pressure to work more, I get along with my coworkers and look forward to going to work in the morning. I have worked a crunch time that was pretty terrible, but that was a once off. It's been almost 2 years since my last crunch time. The comp is decent. It doesn't match google/fb but it's better than a non tech company. I have a target of ~170 total comp as an SDE II with just und…

My experience aligns with everything here. I don’t doubt that there are some very unhappy people and dysfunctional teams at Amazon, but I haven’t discovered them personally.

One possible, yet perhaps overlooked, side-effect of the NYT article is that very driven engineers have self-selected to work at Amazon. Compared to my past workplaces, I feel there are far fewer people just punching in the hours for a paycheck, but I am not sure if this is specific to my team or division.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#32

Post by jamiethompson »

Cofike wrote: post #29
stochastic_monk wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does “pip’d” mean?

Performance improvement plan. Basically a chance to get your act together before they fire you.

Some would argue it's more of a "start looking for a new job, we're about to fire you" warning.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#33

Post by Insanity »

cm2012 wrote: post #16

The talk here about sticking at a job that makes you cry, when you have in demand skills and can work anywhere, is nuts to me.

I'm guessing brand popularity had something to do with it. Along with perceived 'prestige' of working at that company.

But yeah it does sound a bit crazy to me as well. Perhaps some of their employees are there on work visa and don't want to risk them and their family having to relocate to another country again. But I don't think that's the case for all the people whom complain.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#34

Post by codeonfire »

Thanks to linked in, I saw who was on a 1st level connection with the ex-director there who was arrested for running ads for prostitutes in Bellevue. Those 1st level contacts are still there and in higher positions now. Being 1st level on linkedin doesn't mean they are the same character or were part of the crime, but they are all in management positions. I emailed some women that still worked there and told them they should leave.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#35

Post by mproust »

I was at Amazon for 8 years, left in January of this year. VP I worked for routinely belittled very senior engineers, made some of them cry/move teams/quit. The VP was never disciplined or had his scope reduced.

Had projects cancelled on a whim without an actual replacement/reason.

At Amazon, I wasn't a person, but some resource.

Some orgs were fine, most are not.

A manager from a "no jerk policy" org told me there is a culture of cruelty in Amazon management, and if he played the game he would have been at a higher level.

ymmv.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#36

Post by tinderliker »

anonazon123 wrote: post #22

No change since the NYT article. Amazon only changes things when it has to, and only in a lip-service kind of way. There was a flurry of discussion and proposals when the article was published, but it's all died down and we're back to where we were beforehand. Compensation, culture, and perks are infinitely better at Google, Facebook, Lyft, Uber, etc. All of them start vesting your stock monthly after 1 year, whereas…

Thanks, this made things clear. I was seriously considering joining until the responses in this thread. Its better to wait for another offer for few more months rather than suffering for the next 2-3 years.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#37

Post by sadamznintern »

I interned at Amazon last year in the Alexa org (non-frontline team in ML).

My team was rarely in the office before 10:30 or after 6, even during crunch time (we launched our feature during my internship) but i did see code review responses at odd hours sometimes.

I enjoyed the project a bunch, and while my coworkers werent the most social bunch they were pretty smart and effective. I did pretty well and exceeded managers expectations for my project to get a return offer.

I shopped around a bunch after and interviewed at all the companies I could but got rejected by all of the top ones (FB after phone, Google after onsite, Airbnb and Cruise after coding challenge..) so I ultimately picked the return offer despite getting a 3 other offers in the fintech space because I liked the project and location at Amazon.

Does that mean I’m a happy camper? Fuck no. My total comp for the first year is only $145k out of undergrad with a base of $106k. My friends at places like Google, FB and Cruise are making more like $180k-$230k by comparison. Perks are also nonexistent.

The worst part, though, is knowing that i have become stuck in a company with a significantly lower hiring bar. Im honestly terrified that the value on the resume will decline over time and i will never be able to get into a more prestigious company. The idea of being relegated to a 2nd or third tier company has been eating at me, and comments on places like CSCQ, Blind and this AskHN nearly drove me to suicide before.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#38

Post by sadamznintern »

Mononokay wrote: post #20
dieterrams wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind if I ask what team(s) you were on at Amazon? Looking to avoid the worst. I’m starting to get the impression, though, that if I want to be happiest as a Big Tech Co. engineer, I really just need to work at Google.

From what I've heard, Facebook has the most chill culture out of the big three.

This is not what ive heard. Hours are worse at FB (esp. the cool infra) because of nebulous “impact” metrics than Google despite the nice perks.

Google is far better in this regard.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#39

Post by chronid »

dieterrams wrote: post #6
frmramzn wrote: post #3

Moved to Google and TBH have cried once or twice because I didn't realize an employer could be so humane. Amazon was terrifying, but the academic culture I came from normalized self brutalization to succeed,so I didn't realize how much they were relying on my lack of a sense of boundaries and personal priorities to extract excess labor.

Mind if I ask what team(s) you were on at Amazon? Looking to avoid the worst. I’m starting to get the impression, though, that if I want to be happiest as a Big Tech Co. engineer, I really just need to work at Google.

The teams in the relational databases organization were in a pretty terrible shape when I left - most of the higher management comes from IBM IIRC, and it's visible. The operations teams get the worst of it (unsurprisingly).

Also, caused by years of neglect and patchworks, whatever teams deal with basic infrastructure (DNS, load balancing, corporate infrastructure...). Though none of those are in Seattle anymore, IIRC.

Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?

#40

Post by sadamznintern »

cm2012 wrote: post #16

The talk here about sticking at a job that makes you cry, when you have in demand skills and can work anywhere, is nuts to me.

This is incorrect because i cant pass a Google or FB loop and im convinced its eventually going to lead to my suicide.
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