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

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

#81

Post by usmannk »

gravypod wrote: post #77
seattle_googler wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, we hire new grads, and we offer internships for those who are still studying. Successful interns get an easier path for converting to full-time than grads who apply cold. Getting somebody you know at Google to refer you is the best way to secure an interview, but you can also apply online. http://www.google.com/about/careers/students/

Well that's too bad, I don't know any people at google. I guess I need to hang around more coffee shops.

I've noticed that Google is better than most with online applications. I managed to interview 2 years in a row (intern, college student) having only applied online.

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

#82

Post by tdicola »

boren_ave11 wrote: post #71
tdicola wrote: post #63

IMHO you're being underpaid quite a bit with that base salary in the Seattle area. Time to start interviewing at Microsoft, Google, etc. Those companies usually start fresh out of college developers with a base pay a bit over $100k, then bonuses, stock awards, etc. on top.

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.

Yeah that helps, but then the question is do you really want to work somewhere that directly ties your compensation to the company's share price? If Amazon has a few bad quarters and you lose 20% of your yearly income that's a major deal. In Seattle you probably want to be making around $120-160k/yr to live a solid middle class life, afford a house, etc. I would still look around at MS, Google, etc. where they give you more in cash compensation and less with the stock lottery ticket. Find a place that gives you around that as base pay, then all the bonuses etc. are just savings for house, retirement, toys, college, etc.

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

#83

Post by p4wnc6 »

advisedwang wrote: post #47
DennisP wrote: post #6

Staying anonymous is probably best but fwiw, policies which prohibit sharing one's own compensation violate federal law. http://www.npr.org/2014/04/13/301989789/pay-secrecy-policies...

The law they cite only seems to cover employees sharing pay with each other (and anything else involved in collective bargaining), but I can't see that it clearly authorizes publicly sharing pay.

It does protect publicly sharing pay. I can't find the specific case at the moment, but there was a case where workers who were striking had printed up a leaflet with a bunch of salary information and distributed it to other workers and general public. The company tried to terminate those employees for violating company policy and sharing "confidential" information with people in the public, but the court found this was a violation of their collective bargaining rights.

It is a tricky issue though. I am sure that a powerful enough company that wanted to throw resources at it could make all sorts of arguments about whether certain parts of the information (e.g. bonuses, vesting schedules, options grants, stock price discounts, relocation provisions) are allowed to be classified as confidential even if basic salary is not.

As a lowly employee, your only hope would be if some national labor union or pro bono legal institute took on your case, otherwise you'd never be able to afford the legal costs to defend your NLRB collective bargaining rights.

With pay secrecy, it's unfortunately still mostly a "might makes right" situation, where rich companies can sort of make up their own rules and at the very least bankrupt you with legal nonsense even if they don't ultimately win. So few people have the fortitude to endure that kind of legal harassment that it implicitly still does censor our ability to talk about pay, even if it's illegal that this is so.

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

#84

Post by josefdlange »

While at Amazon, I worked in two different roles. I don't have the exact numbers, but I'll put ballparks in here:

(1) Support Engineer * Base: $72,000; increased at 1yr to $74,000 * Bonus: $20,000; half in first check, other half over months 13-24 * Stock: I don't remember

(2) Software Development Engineer * Base: $82,000

Gender: M Native English: Yes I honestly don't recall if I was L4 or L5 or both.

Both of these were in Seattle. I do know for a fact that there were/are others who were hired and paid more than me.

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

#87

Post by askafriend »

dominotw wrote: post #39
throwaway9191 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even with a throwaway, isn't that enough info for Amazon to identify you and possibly take punitive action? I understand that Amazon is big, but without adding a certain fudge factor or range to all the numbers, then I would think it's possible to identify a person.

how would that prove that it was actually her/her though? It could be easily be one of her higher ups who knows his salary details.

Alternatively it could be completely made up numbers that happened to match a real person.

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

#88

Post by finnn »

ffumarola wrote: post #54

Blind https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blind./id737534965?mt=8 & https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teamblind.... talks about salary ad nauseam... so if you want to see salary discussions, get the app.

so this is like, some forum but you have to install some random app? And of course, it wants:

* retrieve running apps * find accounts on the device * modify or delete the contents of your USB storage * read the contents of your USB storage

some other more acceptable ones. Fuck that shit

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

#89

Post by lamontcg »

I was an System Engineer III at Amazon from 2001-2006. I got hired on at $70k and I think I was making roughly $90k when I left.

When I was hired I had to tell them "No" and hang up the phone (in the middle of the 2001 recession) to a $63k job offer. They called back the next day and bumped the offer to $70k. I later learned that I had one of the only "strong hires" ever given out by the bar raiser and the HR rep was told to hire me at all costs. HR played (and probably still plays) insanely hard hardball in negotiating salary.

Other SEIIIs hired at around the same time came on at $60-63k and were stuck there. Once the economy recovered in 2003/2004-ish we eventually started hiring SEIIIs at >$120k starting salary.

Gender: M Native English Speaker: Yes for myself and the other two or three employees I'm thinking of.

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

#90

Post by wrigby »

ghrifter wrote: post #37

I make roughly $20 an hour (about 16 after taxes :( )at the moment as a junior full stack intern working part time (I live and work in US). Sometimes I wonder if I should move on to find some other job, even if its remote... On the other hand, my work is not that stressful, and I'm still going to school so my job is very flexible on time. Anyone else been in a position like me?

I've been in an almost identical situation!

I made $25/hr (without benefits), then got dropped to ~ $18ish / hr (with 401k matching and health insurance) at the part time job I worked while I was in school.

I worked 20 hrs a week, completely remotely, and was responsible for some of the NMS systems and Linux admin work at a large satellite operator. It was a mix of sysadmin and software engineering, and I learned a ton.

There were a few stressful moments, as I was on call, but my boss tried to shield me from it as much as he could because he wanted me to be able to focus on school.

If you're a full time undergrad student, then my advice to you is to enjoy what you have right now, as long as it allows you to focus on your friends and education. Having practical, hands-on experience from work will greatly complement your coursework, and if you can get that experience without being in a high-pressure role, then it's a win-win situation for you.

Consider asking for a pay bump if you think you're undervalued, but do research on what other paid SWE internships are at, and consider the fact that a bump in pay may cause your boss to have higher expectations of your output.

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