Ex-Amazonian here. Started as an SE1 in 2012 @ $98k, $20k signing bonus ($18k second year), 160 RSUs, and relocation expenses.
Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
431–440 of 717 posts
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#432Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your anecdote is the exception to the rule. I've been in the industry for 20 years and can affirm the rule: you don't get raises from your current employer. You get raises by changing employers.
I have overseen 25-30% increases for developers as part of a normal salary review process as recognition that their experience at the current company had grown them in to more senior developers. No negotiation, no threats to leave, they weren't aware until we gave them the cash.
Which while cool, is not the norm. Anecdotes don't counter that.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#433Microsoft employee, not Amazon, but these sort of discussions absolutely need to happen and I'd like to do my part. Salary: $115k base, no regular bonus or stock, $50k offer in stock over 4 years if I remember correctly although I don't know offhand how many units that came out to. Level: SWE1 (60 internally) Tenure: 2 years internally, 7 in industry Yearly pay increase: Averaged ~6k/y thus far. Internal candidates h…
I'm SDE II an earn just a little more base than you ($117K). Judging by conversations with team members about which tax brackets we fall in and how much we save/invest per year, I'm fairly sure I'm underpaid for my level.
There's a college hire PM in my team (not PM II, so he's either 59 or 60) who's single and in the 33% bracket. That means he's making at least $189K a year.
Edit: I should add, my PM coworker could be wrong about his tax bracket. I can't fathom how they would offer him that much in base salary + stock. But he did mention being in the 33% bracket.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#434Earlier 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…
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…
It's tough to decide where to leave this reply, and this seems like a good place to address a few things I've seen in the replies to my comment.
Usually, my advice is "don't share you current or desired salary", but the one exception I've discussed with some people is when they're concerned they'll be low-balled. In those cases, I've suggested it might be better to just disclose your desired salary.
I've been rethinking this lately. I think a better tack might be to ask the company to share the salary range they're offering for the position. (You're only doing this if you're concerned you'll go through the interview process and get an offer so low you can't even counter with anything reasonable.)
In this case, you have virtually nothing to lose: either they'll tell you the range and you'll know if you're wasting your time, or they'll refuse and now you're both refusing to disclose the "desired" salary component. In the latter case, you can choose to continue with the process or not, depending on your general feeling about the opportunity.
The more I think about it, the more I suspect you should _never_ reveal your desired salary because it can basically only cost you money. When you do reveal your desired salary, you're basically guessing and gambling. You're guessing at the range they're offering, and gambling that you don't undershoot and cost yourself money. (See this clip on why I think it's so important to protect the few pieces of information you have in a negotiation: https://youtu.be/ndrY2UI-fyU TL;DR, you have only two or three unique pieces of information that the company doesn't have; the company has oodles and oodles of information that you don't have; they have a significant informational advantage in your negotiation and this is bad for you, but it's worse if you give away the few pieces of unique information that you have.)
This is a worse gamble than simply interviewing to see what they're best offer is, IMO. If you go all the way through the interview process and find they can't afford you, you wasted a few hours of interview time. If you guess and gamble by disclosing your desired salary, you're risking thousands of dollars of base salary over several years. Odds are, the opportunity cost of your time isn't anywhere near the potential downside of guessing wrong with respect to the base salary they're willing to pay.
(I'm going to sleep on this, but it feels right) So, my suggestion is don't disclose your desired salary, even if you're afraid their offer will be way too low or if the recruiter says they won't continue without it. If you're dealing with a very persistent recruiter OR you're afraid they can't afford you, ask them to tell you the salary range they're offering so you can tell them if it meets your requirements. If they won't tell you, then you can choose to continue and possibly get a low offer, walk away, or the recruiter may end the conversation (this is rare, in my experience, but I'd be open to seeing data to change my mind).
All of these outcomes are preferable to the alternative, which is risking thousands (or tens of thousands) of dollars of base salary by guessing at their range and gambling by disclosing your desired salary.
The bottom line is the company has something you need: a job. BUT you have something the company needs: skills and experience that can help them make money. Don't be fooled into perceiving a salary negotiation as a one-sided affair.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#435I'm male, a native English speaker, and worked in Seattle around 2013-2015. I was already in Seattle, so I didn't need to move. I was an SDE1, though I came in with a bit of experience (~5 years). My base pay was right around $100k. I had a $20k signing bonus the first year, and something effectively similar for the second year (though less cash and some stock was thrown in).
Sde I with 5 years experience?
MSFT hired me at the lowest level (SDE I level 59) when I already had about 6 years experience.
I know someone who was a had a senior role at one company and was a lead at another and was also hired as SDE I.
I think it's a bad case of "doesn't matter what they did before, we're freaking MSFT, no one's good enough for us to be hired into a higher position."
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#436Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have overseen 25-30% increases for developers as part of a normal salary review process as recognition that their experience at the current company had grown them in to more senior developers. No negotiation, no threats to leave, they weren't aware until we gave them the cash.
Which while cool, is not the norm. Anecdotes don't counter that.
Yeah, but the claim was:
> Companies never give substantial raises to current employees.
and a single counterexample is enough to counter it.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#437Earlier 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…
Yes. Wait for them to make you an offer. It can be difficult, but the reward for your persistence will be more money in the form of a higher base salary (the gift that keeps on giving).
You have very little unique information when you enter the negotiation (you know your current salary, your desired salary, and how badly you need the job—that's about it). They have tons of information that you don't have (what they're willing to pay, what they're already paying others to do the job, how badly they need to fill the position, how badly they want you in particular).
By waiting for them to make an offer, you retain the unique information you have AND you wait for them to reveal some of the information you didn't have. When they make you an offer, you now know approximately what they're willing to pay you to do the job. This is a very big gain for you and allows you to negotiate much more effectively and increase your salary.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#438I hope this takes off. I always thought it was weird hiding how much you make -- this only helps employers, and not employees.
It's weird and possibly generational in America; my mom specifically warned me that people would be "highly jealous" of my salary and that I should keep it a secret when I first entered the workforce.
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#439Earlier 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…
I interview techies, and I always make a point to ask them to give me their expected salary range. The purpose behind this isn't to one-up them and pay them as little as possible. It's just in both parties' best interest to avoid wasting time if the expected pay is too high. Neither we nor the candidate want to go through several rounds of interviews for something that ultimately won't work out. And at the opposite e…
This response makes me wonder why you don't just tell the candidate the range you're willing to pay and let them tell you if that works for them.
I definitely understand the need to be efficient with everyone's time, but "have the candidate share their desired salary" is only one way to do that.
I have heard this reasoning from recruiters many times, but haven't heard a good explanation as to why they don't just tell the candidate the range they're willing to pay.
(This is a genuine question) Why not just tell the candidate your range if your concern is to respect everyone's time?
Re: Ask HN: How much do you make at Amazon? Here is how much I make at Amazon
#440After reading some of these comments... Holy shit, I am under paid.
Yep. Someone from Microsoft - where I work - posted here that they're making $115K at a level below mine, which is just a tad less than I make. Also, I've realized from recent conversations with coworkers about taxes, savings and investing that I make significantly less than them.