In my team and all the orgs under my manager's manager is pretty chill. We are a team out of India. In India the comp is really high compared to other Indian companies. The vesting cycle is same as US though. I have heard about the bad culture in US. I have never seen anyone cry or even stressed. We don't have many crunch days.
Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
71–80 of 268 posts
Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#72I 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…
You have some fair points but your comment crosses into personal attack, and that does more harm than the fair points do good. Could you please (re-)read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and not post like that here?
Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#73I 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…
No hiring manager looking at resumes is going to put any stock into whether it says Google, Amazon or FB, or what school you went to. They will care what you worked on. If you bring with you this completely unjustified view that your coworkers are worse, it will show, no one will want to work with you, and you aren't going to get to work on anything interesting.
Your attitude is extremely concerning, you have a lot to be proud of career wise already, and you seem unable completely unaware of that. You have a solid base to build on and you could end up anywhere in a few years.
Amazon didn't hire you because they have a lower bar than anywhere else, they hired you because someone was impressed by you and wants to give you a shot. Extend them the same courtesy at least.
I think you need to seek psychological counselling ASAP, but until then stay away from Reddit, HN etc, as far as I can see your perspective is completely warped by the dishonest way that people present their own professional image, usually because of their own insecurity. Consider why people come to HN to brag -- it's likely because they aren't getting praise anywhere else.
Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#74No 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.
I think it really depends on the team you're on at Amazon. (well, the vesting, free drinks etc doesn't).
I never found the NYT article to be even slightly representative of my time at Amazon, and the group I was in at the time made additional changes to help improve morale that really worked. I believe you can find a good, or bad, team to work on at Amazon, and I assume the same is true of other big companies too (I have worked at another big company and it was true there too).
Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#75I 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…
Nothing wrong with chasing money and status, especially in the initial stages of one’s career. If that’s what _really_ makes him/her tick, great. Money especially tends to have multiplicative effect over time, most jobs you take will necessarily pay more than the previous job. But notice the “really”. There’s 45 years of work in a lifetime, and one needs to find a deeper motivation than money and status.
Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#76I 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…
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Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#77No 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…
>no free food/drinks
It's sooooo important.
Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#78Check this out https://www.teamblind.com/article/Amazon---is-it-really-that...
and more topics on the same site
Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#79Anyone who's worked at both Amazon and Apple want to compare the two?
Re: Ask HN: Amazon software engineers, how is the work culture now?
#80No 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…
>no free food/drinks It's sooooo important.
It's a cheap perk that makes employees happier. Employee happiness is important.