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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?

#51

I couldnt get into any of the companies you mentioned and picked Amazon as a last resort. What should I do now? Ive contemplated suicide but i dont know if thats a wise choice.

> Ive contemplated suicide but i dont know if thats a wise choice.

I don't think it's wise but you can't take it from a rando. So I'd seek objectivity from sources you trust. Many get this from friends. Sometimes friends can't provide everything you need.

If you've never tried therapy or are skeptical about it, I've found that the healthy way to think about it is as an objectivity machine. It's a black box for you to pay money (a.k.a use your nice tech healthcare plan) and get a person who isn't incentivized to lie to you or hurt you / is sworn to your best interest. The value they provide is objective feedback about how you're thinking about the world. Your mind's way of viewing things has blind spots; you're limited by what input data you got as you moved through the world. When you're making decisions / synthesizing your experiences it's incredibly useful to get validation data so that you can measure the performance of your brain-model.

^ Also since every black box isn't equal, if you find that a therapist isn't providing the kind of throughput or trustworthiness that you need, you can shop around.

If you think life isn't worth living, please seek some objectivity because it's a rather drastic decision you have to make that can't be made again.

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

#52
post #44

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 man…

Sorry, but is this a serious post? Honest question. > 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. Heaven forbid someone is making more money than they know what to do with than you are. > Im honestly terrified that the value on the resume will decline over time and i will never be…

> Heaven forbid someone is making more money than they know what to do with than you are.

I see what you're saying; however, all things being equal, I would want compensation comparable to my peers if we were doing the same job. Why do the same job at two-thirds pay?

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

#53
post #31
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,…

I would think a driven engineer would be driven because either 1. wants to work on complex problems 2. wants more compensation. I guess there's complex problems at Amazon but not more than any of the other big ones, and probably less than some startups so in conclusion I don't see a driven engineer self-selecting for Amazon.

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

#54
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but is this a serious post? Honest question. > 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. Heaven forbid someone is making more money than they know what to do with than you are. > Im honestly terrified that the value on the resume will decline over time and i will never be…

> Heaven forbid someone is making more money than they know what to do with than you are. I see what you're saying; however, all things being equal, I would want compensation comparable to my peers if we were doing the same job. Why do the same job at two-thirds pay?

I see what you mean as well. But, I don't think this kind of thing should impact your well being. The guy said in other posts that he can't get into those better companies and is considering suicide. It sounds so odd to me that I don't know if he's serious.

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

#55
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but is this a serious post? Honest question. > 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. Heaven forbid someone is making more money than they know what to do with than you are. > Im honestly terrified that the value on the resume will decline over time and i will never be…

> Heaven forbid someone is making more money than they know what to do with than you are. I see what you're saying; however, all things being equal, I would want compensation comparable to my peers if we were doing the same job. Why do the same job at two-thirds pay?

Because you probably aren't doing the same job.

Speaking as an employee of one of the big cos, the engineers who get paid $100k base vs $140 base have lower expectations of performance attached to their work.

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

#56
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.

It's mostly the compensation. I make twice as much at AWS as I did working as an engineer at non-tech companies.

Other comments on this post indicate that Google and FB pay more than Amazon, but I'd probably have to take a sizable pay cut to work elsewhere.

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

#57

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 the…

To answer your question, I hope it has changed. I was uneasy there with how managers would chat up the young women employees in their offices (with the sliding roller doors) for hours. In a few instances I felt uneasy with the way some people were obviously drooling in close proximity to women, staring, etc. That's what you get when there is tons of alcohol in the office. If the place has not changed I would recommend a no outside alcohol policy and training to prevent sexual assault.

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

#58
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.

There are SO many other tech companies out there.

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

#59

I couldnt get into any of the companies you mentioned and picked Amazon as a last resort. What should I do now? Ive contemplated suicide but i dont know if thats a wise choice.

If you feel its getting bad, seek help! There is always help available, for instance here: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

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

#60
post #35

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 i…

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