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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?

#62

Post by Steeeve »

sadamznintern wrote: post #43

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.

Suicide is not a reasonable choice. Quit. Reset. Declare bankruptcy if you have to. There's no dishonor in a personal struggle.

Money isn't the answer to most of life's problems. Getting in with the right company isn't the solution either.

These jobs are all just jobs. Garnering the approval of a hiring manager at one of these companies should be an ego boost, but not garnering it is no failure at all. It's not a measure of your aptitude or abilities. It's not a measure of you as a person.

It's very easy to get caught up in the moment and get caught up in the pressure of a work environment and lose sight of what matters.

What matters first and foremost is your own mental health. Take care of you. Nobody else can.

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

#63

Post by joering2 »

throwaway84742 wrote: post #26
stevenwoo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can tell them to stop contacting you and it works.

Not in my case. I’ve asked them numerous times to remove my email, it subsides for a while and then comes back at the same rate.

Wait till GDPR tell them you are in EU ;)

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

#64

Post by yrmj »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #53
yrmj wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

While this is a fair point, I’m not sure I agree. Personally while I am driven by those two things, I am probably driven more by doing new things, and even more by delivering the most value to the company that I can with my time. I recognize how impersonal and unsexy that sounds, but as a nice side-effect, it tends to yield complex problems which I am generously compensated for solving.

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

#65

Post by burfog »

sadamznintern wrote: post #37

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…

You forgot cost of living. Converting your numbers from Seattle to San Francisco: $203,000 with a base of $148,400.

I don't know what the extra $55,000 is. An expected bonus? Some rough guess regarding future value of stock options? Retirement fund matching? You didn't make the distinction for your friends.

Where I am, your standard of living can be had for $90,160 with a base of $65,910. The needed pay drops by about 38%, yet the likely salary drops by only 17%, meaning you'd be better off. It's like my dollars are almost 50% better than your dollars.

That is typical. Pay is generally higher in costly places, but it usually falls far short of the change in living costs.

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

#66

Post by et-al »

montyf wrote: post #54
clintonb wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

It also stinks of tech entitlement / myopia.

I have friends in SF/Oakland who make less than six-figures getting by, working longer hours without perks, and none of them are contemplating suicide.

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

#69

Post by King-Aaron »

sadamznintern wrote: post #43

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.

Work to live, don't live to work.

If Amazon is your last resort, you are clearly in an extremely (extremely!!!) lucky position and you should reflect upon that. For a lot of people, a "last resort" job is cleaning restaurant bathrooms or working in abattoirs. You've got options that are putting you in the upper-tier of working people.

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

#70

Post by bryanrasmussen »

yrmj wrote: post #64
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

While this is a fair point, I’m not sure I agree. Personally while I am driven by those two things, I am probably driven more by doing new things, and even more by delivering the most value to the company that I can with my time. I recognize how impersonal and unsexy that sounds, but as a nice side-effect, it tends to yield complex problems which I am generously compensated for solving.

ok, it's probably a limit of my assumptions about people then.

I remember I was on a very big complicated project doing some groundbreaking stuff on single sourcing multiple meda a decade ago and a couple years ago I asked someone else on the same project what was the best part about it for them and it was when they had made some svg conversion algorithm for generating all the various colored backgrounds and icons that any dynamically generated website needed when a customer decided they wanted to generate a website for their data.

It was a ridiculously trivial part of the whole, but that was what had really made him happy.

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