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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

#421

Post by JoshDoody »

lexhaynes wrote: post #144
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…

How do you respond when they ask you for your salary information? Would it be perceuved as rude to say "I decline to state"?

This is my standard recommended answer:

"I'm not comfortable sharing that information [my current salary]. I'd prefer to focus on the value I can add to your company and learn more about this opportunity.

I want this to be a big step forward for me in terms of both responsibility and compensation."

You can obviously adjust it for your own situation, but the idea is "I'm not comfortable telling you my current or desired salary. Let's keep going, please."

I call this "The Dreaded Salary Question" and you can see a better clip and a lengthy Q&A on this specific question in this salary negotiation workshop I did in Orlando last week: http://bit.ly/21zFG5q

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

#422

Post by peteforde »

p4wnc6 wrote: post #96
JoshDoody wrote: post #14

I'm not an Amazonian, but I wanted to chime in here to say I think this thread is a great idea and I would love to see more like it. I write about salary negotiation and coach people through it, and I think sharing salaries publicly will encourage more people to negotiate and get paid what they're worth. I recently coached a new Amazon employee, and he got a very good offer, which he increased by about 15% using VERY…

I'm interested in what your negotiation principles are. I've always heard that a candidate should never share salary information and require the company to provide the first concrete number in the form of their initial offer. However, I've repeatedly used all of the "business-professional" and "HR approved" sorts of conversational techniques to enact this advice, and the only result that has ever occurred is either (…

This is really interesting and I'm glad that you shared.

I don't know if you'll like what I'm about to say, but you sound like a pragmatist so I figure that you will appreciate a no-BS answer.

It's likely that there's something about your manner, presentation, personality - which I can't and won't fathom to guess because I don't know you - that is tipping your hand and sending the message that you're bluffing or easily manipulated. Obviously nothing is going to work every time but the stuff Patrick and others relate is solid advice so it is of concern that you're repeatedly getting iced out.

The other possibility is that you're interviewing with terrible people; however, the common aspect is still you and the only way to grow is to analyze whether there's a problem.

Could you just not be very convincing? Do you have an irritating voice? Do people generally snicker when you make confident assertions? I don't know why it happens in any case, just that in some unlucky cases it does happen.

My advice is that you have to be thoroughly believable in your disappointment in their offer. You have to look unfazed when you refuse to tell them what you made in your last job.

Finally, if none of these things is true and you're basically George Clooney, then I urge you to interview at different companies.

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

#423

Post by selimthegrim »

vanrysss wrote: post #307
qaid wrote: post #98

I work in Portland, have 5 years of experience, and I'm making about 90k after bonuses (no stock or sign-on bonus). I love Portland, my hours are very nice (~35hours), and I have a good amount of technical freedom. But boy....Maybe I should make the move up to Seattle. It'd be nice if people mentioned how many hours/week they work for me to get a good idea of what to expect. Especially since we're talking about Amazo…

There's plenty of money to be had in Portland. Drop Airbnb, Nike, or any of the myriad of startups in town a line.

When did Nike start hiring competent people?

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

#424

Post by empath75 »

jmathes wrote: post #165

The most important thing you can do for your career is: * Accept a job somewhere * Get promoted (doesn't matter how) * let yourself get hired away from your current company Getting hired away from your current company is the only way to get a fair raise based on increased experience. Companies never give substantial raises to current employees.

I've gone from making 65k to 90k at the same company in the past two years. Though someone trying to poach me from another team in the company probably contributed to that.

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

#425

Post by pyre »

HR0000000 wrote: post #314
yeukhon wrote: post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So they can just fire you, have an escort and done?

Yes. Just as you can quit, walk out, and be done. For no reason. But they can't fire you for health reasons, personal reasons, etc.

> Yes. Just as you can quit, walk out, and be done.

What is the flip-side to at-will employment though? Without at-will employment, do employees become slaves that cannot quit their job? Or are there only a small list of "legal" reasons for you to quit your job.

I always see "well the employee can always leave at any time too," but is that really something that disappears in places without at-will employment?

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

#426

Post by throwawa998833 »

throwaway75383 wrote: post #230
pw wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, nice. Is Level 6 pretty high? What was your experience coming into the job?

Level 6 is a senior engineer. Roughly 90th percentile of engineers. We have principal engineers, but not a lot of them. I had 15+ years of experience before coming here.

So, to put things in perspective, Google TechLevel-5, which is "Senior Software Engineer" which is basically 1 level above Amazon's "SDE III" position.

Competitive pay offer: $180k /year $50k signing bonus 15% bonus per year 800 RSUs vested equally over 4 years (200/year) 600 RSUs vested in 100-chunks every quarter for the first 18 months.

Counting up, in the first 12 months, pay is about $670,000.

I gotta get seriously bumped at the end of 18 months to keep it up, otherwise my pay will slip to $350,000.

And that is what a competitive offer from a company that values their employees looks like.

I have friends who have totally gotten the $1m RSUs/year for 4 year offers from both Google, Facebook and others. These positions exist.

It helps to change jobs a bunch :-)

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

#427

Post by mc808 »

wheaties wrote: post #342
stale2002 wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There IS another solution to this. When someone asks how much you are currently making, you should flat out lie. They won't check. I've job hopped a bunch, and usually I just take whatever I was currently making, and add 15%, and say that that was my base. If employers are going to play negotiation games, you shouldn't feel bad about playing them too.

You do this and they catch you, you will be fired. I am a manager who believes in pay people more. Pay them what they want, not what they were making. That said, if you lie to me, I don't take it well.

No, I swear, your baby is adorable!

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

#428

Post by throwawa998833 »

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.

And not all Googlers make this little. I have the same position, in the bay area, and my pay structure is roughly:

$180k/year 15% bonus ~ $30k/year 600 RSUs in the first year = $440,000 400 RSUs in the second year = $280,000 200 RSUs in 3rd and 4th year (assuming no refreshers, and oh boy there will be refreshers!)

Male, native english speaker.

It helps that my prior job had a comp level around $480k/year and also I got hired when GOOG was $550/share.

BTW, the T-5 salary band ends at $180k. So you're pretty close. Its the RSUs that make all the difference.

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

#429

Post by cmdrfred »

tamana wrote: post #363
cmdrfred wrote: post #361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is it that "What are you making are your current job, we will verify it." is acceptable but "What was this companies net revenue last quarter" is not. The game is so clearly rigged.

Public companies publish quarter results..

According to Forbes: "less than 1 percent of the 27 million businesses in the U.S. are publicly traded on the major exchanges." [1]

[1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/sageworks/2013/05/26/4-things-yo...

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

#430

Post by googsomeday »

jondubois wrote: post #405
JoshDoody wrote: post #14

I'm not an Amazonian, but I wanted to chime in here to say I think this thread is a great idea and I would love to see more like it. I write about salary negotiation and coach people through it, and I think sharing salaries publicly will encourage more people to negotiate and get paid what they're worth. I recently coached a new Amazon employee, and he got a very good offer, which he increased by about 15% using VERY…

I think you should share your salary with as many people as possible. This "don't share" policy is just a trick used by companies to keep labor costs down. If employees know each other's pay, they will start demanding raises - Then you get in a situation like in the finance sector where companies will be forced to pay big bonuses to hold on to important employees. Companies don't want that - They want their engineers…

I think that a quarterly "Ask HN: How much do you make?" Would be a great addition to the "Who's Hiring?" threads.

I posted one for Google here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11314449

This Amazon thread has been very enlightening.

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