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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

#181

Post by toomuchtodo »

dguaraglia wrote: post #156

On a related note, someone at Google started a spreadsheet about a year ago where people could post (anonymously or not) their salary and a few more interesting datapoints (gender, age, location, etc.) I'm not sure whether the spreadsheet did anything to highlight gender/ethnicity/visa-status disparities (the biggest disparities I remember seeing were based on location, but that's understandable) but it was a great t…

> I have to praise Google for the way the situation was handled: the company didn't force the spreadsheet to be taken down (in fact, it's still up as I write this), nobody that I know of was fired for it and it generated a healthy amount of internal discussion. After hearing some stories from the Amazon counter part, I wouldn't expect the reaction to be the same.

Taking action against this would've been a violation of US labor law with steep penalties.

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

#182

Post by AndrewUnmuted »

derefr wrote: post #124
AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great question! :) Narrators actually do switch all character voices in real-time. This does not commonly cause issues that require recording to stop, as the narrators are usually very experienced professionals that come from the Broadway stage or from other voice acting professions (cartoons and the like.) I've also recorded and edited my fair share of bad voice actors (for instance, former Labor Secretary Robert Re…

Simple question on a similar topic: how "real-time" is the source audio that you work with? I always imagined that voice actors would have arbitrary pauses between the delivery of every line, and it'd be the editor's job to tighten all of those up.

Wow. I love how curious folks are here about audiobook production! :)

The pauses between lines/phrases were often tightened up, yes, by pasting room tone over the pauses. This way, the near-silence of the room tone is consistent throughout each pause, which makes the narration easier to comprehend and allows the listener greater immersion into the experience.

The exact duration of room tone impacts the pacing of the narration. This is, in a way, the audiobook editor's "art." They can't over-edit because it would ruin the narrator's dramatic delivery - they need to be able to edit within the stylistic flow of the narrator. At the same time, if they are not careful enough to make the resulting delivery consistent, then the extraneous audio may distract listeners and lead to a lower quality result. That balance is acquired with experience.

The reason this all happens, really, is to ensure a clean "noise floor" - the background sounds heard in addition to the narrator's voice. The sound of the room and the gear, if you will. The narrators are such pros (my experience) - there are many who I could get away with not editing at all, if it weren't for the incredible need for near-silence throughout the entire finished production.

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

#183

Post by asdfologist »

dguaraglia wrote: post #156

On a related note, someone at Google started a spreadsheet about a year ago where people could post (anonymously or not) their salary and a few more interesting datapoints (gender, age, location, etc.) I'm not sure whether the spreadsheet did anything to highlight gender/ethnicity/visa-status disparities (the biggest disparities I remember seeing were based on location, but that's understandable) but it was a great t…

I wouldn't praise Google for that, considering they actively participated in suppressing tech workers' wages:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Tech_Employee_Antitrust_L...

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

#184

Post by p4wnc6 »

deeteecee wrote: post #175
JoshDoody wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my negotiation principles is "Don't disclose your current or desired salary" during the negotiation. With persistence, the recruiter or hiring manager will usually just move on. Another principle is that you should always counter. So I'm _extremely_ surprised to hear that 95% of the time, people have refused to continue talking with you. I can't refute your experience, but I can say this has never happened to…

Here's my only question with the negotiation technique of not disclosing a desired salary. So is it expected that the other side should state the salary offer? That was my only problem with all these negotiation techniques saying "never mention your salary." Eventually, one side or the other needs to mention and at the end of it all, most articles online never closed it off with saying either side would state the exp…

The candidate could put their minimum acceptable salary in an envelope. The employer could put their maximum acceptable salary in an envelope. The two parties could agree with a third party arbiter that if the maximum from the employer is larger than the minimum from the candidate, the salary will be set to the midpoint between the two numbers, and otherwise, no deal can be reached so both walk away.

That's one way, at least, where neither party has to concede the information advantage.

In fact, I'm surprised there aren't already 37 start-ups that offer this as a service. You could have a cute little envelope logo like the MS Outlook logo and give a TED talk about how you're totally disrupting information asymmetry in recruiting, and eventually be pressured by techtopus to provide data about what candidates are asking for to perpetuate information asymmetry.

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

#185

Post by betenoire »

awesomerobot wrote: post #112
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...

Also FWIW most states are at-will employment, and can fire you for no reason

Careful, they can fire you for NO reason, but they can't fire you for ANY reason.

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

#186

Post by [deleted] »

awesomerobot wrote: post #112
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...

Also FWIW most states are at-will employment, and can fire you for no reason

[deleted]

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

#187

Post by marcosdumay »

estreeper wrote: post #149
p4wnc6 wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the handful of cases where the company was OK with my non-answer about salary, and I went on to get all the way to a job offer, the salary ended up being entirely miscalibrated to a candidate of my skill and experience, and the overall interview process (which usually included some technical screens, programming tests, take-home tests, and long on-site technical interviews) was a massive waste of my time, not to m…

Perhaps one strategy would be to give them a baseline salary (higher than your current salary, of course). You could tell them that in general based on the kind of work you are doing, responsibilities, etc. you would expect more, but under no circumstances would you consider any offer less than that.

Whatever you do, do not say a low number expecting to increase it later.

If you want to give a number, give a high one that you are ok with the company negotiating down, because that is what will happen.

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

#188

Post by trapped »

seattle_googler wrote: post #46

Seattle Googler here (throwaway account). Position: Senior Software Engineer (level 5) Tenure: 4 years, no prior experience Comp: $300K (160 salary, 40 bonus, 100 stock) Male, native English speaker P.S. We're hiring.

Can you please specify which domain? tech stack used, programming language, technology etc.

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

#189

Post by eropple »

simonswords82 wrote: post #153
fluxquanta wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right? I like the one from amznnewgrad: $90k base as a new grad and "needless to say" they declined the offer. Needless to say? I was hired after a year out of college in 2010 at aboyt $37k and it felt like I hit the lottery. Granted, where I live costs much less than Seattle, and I also make significantly more now, but still not $90k.

amznnewgrad is trolling for sure!

I'm not sure why you'd say that. TripAdvisor, my first FT gig, offered new hires $85K in Boston in 2010, plus a pretty significant stock package. Today, in 2016 (or even last year), $90K in a similar CoL, similar demand market is nothing to write home about.

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

#190

Post by caractacus »

unohoo wrote: post #163

Check out the recently launched site Comparably https://comparably.com/ It is so much better than Glassdoor at dissecting salary data.

> It is so much better than Glassdoor at dissecting salary data.

... perhaps, if you fit in its narrow definitions, share your own salary data, and are happy to 'sign in with linkedin' or give them your email before seeing any results. I wasn't, so can't comment.

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