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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

#251

Post by cthalupa »

dave2000 wrote: post #239
cthalupa wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I refuse to move forward even with a phone interview if I don't have a salary range from a recruiter. It's just not worth my time.

How do you know? They might be paying more than the jobs you go for.

Because I've found that the companies that are offering the type of compensation I'm looking for are willing to discuss it. They know what the type of talent they're looking to attract makes, and that they aren't going to be interested in wasting their time.

Might there be some out there that would be willing to pay me what I'm looking for, but unwilling to discuss it up front? Possibly. But after wasting several dozen hours of my life with offers that weren't even in the same ballpark of what I was making or what I was after, I made the decision to not bother if the recruiter wouldn't be candid up front.

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

#252

Post by arcticfox »

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.

It's pretty interesting that so much of your compensation is in stock. After 2 years at MSFT and becoming a PM II, I was making ~$145k annually but $115k of that was in salary and $30k in stock. I think that's why everyone is surprised when they see the $70k.

Do they give you the stock as a bonus at the end of the year, or are you promised it at the beginning and it gets doled out during the year? If it's the former, be careful that they don't decide retroactively that you had a bad year and decide to cut your total compensation almost in half!

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

#253

Post by nevir »

boren_ave11 wrote: post #241
duaneb wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get stock annually? Otherwise, you have to vest that over several years, severely reducing your annual. AND you're locked in for years just to cash out at maximum value. Unless you get that kind of equity yearly—which is crazy, and brings up dilution questions—you're better off taking a higher salary and investing as much as possible. But—adding X market value for equity vesting over Y years with 40% capital gain…

>>You get stock annually? At my annual review last year I received more stock along with a pay increase. So, thus far, yes. >>But—adding X market value for equity vesting over Y years with 40% capital gains tax for the first 12 months of holding it leads to a 2016 pay of.... just your salary. Can you elaborate on this? I'm not following. >>Oh, and you get equity every else in addition to that nice pay, and they don't…

> At my annual review last year I received more stock along with a pay increase. So, thus far, yes.

Unless you do spectacularly poorly, you can expect that to continue

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

#254

Post by nevir »

amazoniananon wrote: post #212

This is perfect timing as Google Seattle is hiring around 1000 devs and promotions are being revealed in April. I used a throwaway account, but I'm sure I'm identifiable by this information if my manager sees this. I'm not too concerned. I think it's in Amazon's and the employees' best interest for this stuff to be transparent. Besides that, while I like my work, I can easily get an offer from Google, Facebook or pre…

> 140 RSU (granted at signing, almost none vested)

Is it still the ridiculous 5-10% year 1, 5-10% year 2, and then the rest spread out over years 3-4?

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

#255

Post by duaneb »

boren_ave11 wrote: post #241
duaneb wrote: post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You get stock annually? Otherwise, you have to vest that over several years, severely reducing your annual. AND you're locked in for years just to cash out at maximum value. Unless you get that kind of equity yearly—which is crazy, and brings up dilution questions—you're better off taking a higher salary and investing as much as possible. But—adding X market value for equity vesting over Y years with 40% capital gain…

>>You get stock annually? At my annual review last year I received more stock along with a pay increase. So, thus far, yes. >>But—adding X market value for equity vesting over Y years with 40% capital gains tax for the first 12 months of holding it leads to a 2016 pay of.... just your salary. Can you elaborate on this? I'm not following. >>Oh, and you get equity every else in addition to that nice pay, and they don't…

> Can you elaborate on this? I'm not following.

Well, if you do get more stock it complicates things—but you have to distribute out the pay out over the vesting period. In other words, collecting the entire value of the equity into one pay period implies you'll get the same amount of money the next pay period—which is only true if you get that amount of equity annually. It sounds like this may be a possibility

Furthermore, it assumes you'll be at the company for the entire vesting period. Which you might not want to do.

Additionally, you can't cash out the equity you DO get in 2016 unless you want the government to take a sweet 40% off the top.

> What do you suggest I do?

Don't wait for the equity to vest fully, work hard for some good recommendations, and get out of that sweat shop. Amazon rewards ambitious workaholics. Everyone I've talked to who USED to work there (key point being these people left) has issues balancing work, pay, and a life.

To be clear—I'm not arguing anything but that other companies will use you a little more compassionately, and you might make a little more cash in the meantime. You're still doing very well for yourself, Amazon is far from the worst place to work, and you might be very happy there.

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

#256

Post by 8788mar3 »

amznnewgrad wrote: post #102

This is for a new grad in 2014. * Area: Seattle, WA * Position: SDE * Base Pay: $90k * Signing Bonus: $20k immediately, then $17k paid in 12 monthly installments after you reach 1yr in employment. * Stock Units: $53k (5% at 1yr mark, 15% at 2yr mark, then 20% every 6 months from then on) Note: this vesting schedule is AWFUL. Needless to say, I rejected this offer and did not work for them. Best decision I ever made.

I think the vesting schedule is back loaded because they give you a pretty large sign on bonus in the first two years.

Your total comp in year one would have been 112.6k which seems about right. The stock price doubled last year, so you would have been looking at at least 125k in year two.

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

#257

Post by [deleted] »

agumonkey wrote: post #172
blabla_blublu wrote: post #51

I worked for Amazon (2013-2014), fresh out of college. Title : Software Development Engineer (SDE I) Base : 98,000 Sign on : 50,000 (2 year period) Relocation : 10,000 (2 year) Stocks : worth $70,000 (4 years)

Above someone mentioned being SDEIII, what's the meaning of these levels ?

[deleted]

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

#258

Post by simonebrunozzi »

asdfologist wrote: post #180

A reminder to everyone that the National Labor Relations Act prohibits companies from firing employees for discussing their salaries: http://www.govdocs.com/can-employees-discuss-pay-salaries/

You are right, and you also don't know Amazon (as well as many other powerful corporations).

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

#259

Post by amznnewgrad »

therealdrag0 wrote: post #197
amznnewgrad wrote: post #102

This is for a new grad in 2014. * Area: Seattle, WA * Position: SDE * Base Pay: $90k * Signing Bonus: $20k immediately, then $17k paid in 12 monthly installments after you reach 1yr in employment. * Stock Units: $53k (5% at 1yr mark, 15% at 2yr mark, then 20% every 6 months from then on) Note: this vesting schedule is AWFUL. Needless to say, I rejected this offer and did not work for them. Best decision I ever made.

What did you take instead?

Revealing that would reveal my identity so I can't say the company name.

I ended up going to a mid sized startup in SF (50-100 people) that was very very well funded and had a ton of potential along with one of the best teams I've seen. I'm still there and love every second of it and am being given amazing opportunities that I know I wouldn't have gotten at Amazon.

Ironically I got paid more on every single vector (base pay, equity, relocation, sane vesting schedule) from this startup than from Amazon. Just goes to show...

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