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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

#671

Post by throwawa998834 »

throwawa998833 wrote: post #426
throwaway75383 wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 seriou…

Do you mean that's 800 RSUs overall or 800+600=1400 RSUs over 4 years?

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

#672

Post by helicase »

JoshDoody wrote: post #434
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…

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 rethink…

So lets say you've asked them what is the normal range for the job and they've replied. What if their "normal range" is below the amount you desire? What then?

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

#673

Post by helicase »

cname wrote: post #525
jwatte wrote: post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm all for solid negotiating tactics, but if you consider telling an untruth, you are not welcome on my team. You may still find other teams in the world that you can dupe, but in the end, I expect lies to hurt your overall prospects (in life as well as work.)

Really? Because people are so honest? Everyone on your team tells lies every single day, I guarantee it. What you're saying contradicts the common advice to oversell yourself (AKA "fake it til you make it").

I always find it amusing when people refuse to lie on certain things based on some sort of moral-code or principle and then spew out lies for tons of others.

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

#674

Post by ohyes »

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 (…

You have to play the game a little. Add up your salary, other compensation (options), a markup for how big a pita changing jobs is, cost of living in the new area of applicable. Then throw that away and mark up to the number that you actually want. Pick something that you think is silly high. Don't say "my current salary is 90,000" say "I would like to make 170,000". You didn't tell them your salary/total comp, but you answered the question and you anchored to a higher value.

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

#675

Post by llamaz »

rdiddly wrote: post #650
jondubois wrote: post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I think engineers tend to undervalue themselves when compared to many other professionals such as lawyers, traders and financiers. Perhaps it is because our work puts us is a position where we aren't able to practice our people skills (and negotiation skills) and we don't have good instincts when it comes to how the free market works (we get boxed in and caught up in our work and forget about the financial reali…

Not saying you're wrong, but I think it probably also has a lot to do with the fact that engineers, by training and often by personality, tend toward being "rational" in their worldview, which basically means looking for "reasons" for things, and wanting "reason" to prevail. Such a person would tend to set the value of his own labor at some rationally-supportable level, and would have a hard time coming up with a rat…

That's a straw vulcan.

Rationality, is or should be, by definition, pursuing actions that are in your own self interest.

Maybe engineers, if they had the knowledge that they could increase their salary by inflating their self worth in the eyes others, would do so. But in that case the problem is one of knowledge, not of rationality. Or perhaps engineers are more ethical. But in that case the problem is one of values, and not of rationality.

If someone needs to justify their pay by more rigorous means at their own expense, should they really be viewed as rational? Compare that question to the following one. Should someone with OCPD (obsessive compulsive personality disorder), that is conscientiousness and perfectionist to a fault be seen as more adept?

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

#676

Post by amznslave »

mdip wrote: post #377
amznslave wrote: post #341

If you are good, just leave AMZN. I was underpaid there as SDE 2 and when I resigned, they threw $100k extra a year on the table to keep me but I still left anyway because I did not know what they would do to me if I stay. That $100k extra would put me close to $300k total a year.

they threw $100k extra a year on the table to keep me but I still left anyway That was a smart move, especially if your skill-set was unique in your company. I've given this advice more times than I can think and I've been ignored at least half of the time. I can think of only one case where it worked out well, but that friend was a CEO at a multi-national and the board of directors was the salary decider. The others…

I couldn't agree more with you. It was tempted but honestly ultimately it came down to 3 reasons: 1. I did not trust my manager(s) in that AMZN division 2. I did not like AMZN culture 3. Their counter offer was only 2% more and it was structured in a very weird way.

I am really glad I did not stay, new job has been way more challenging.

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

#677

Post by hyperlz »

There's also Green Card PERM Salary data available on sites like http://visadoor.com.

H1B's typically have less years of experience compared to Green Card applications, even through both their titles might say Senior Software Engineer for example. If you are researching salaries, I would definitely look into PERM Salaries as well.

Glassdoor groups all the salaries reported for a title over the years in one bucket. Hence, I find the PERM and Labor data very helpful because you can see how salaries have changed over years.

Eg. http://visadoor.com/companies/facebook-inc

http://visadoor.com/h1b/index?company=Facebook%2C+Inc.&year=...

http://visadoor.com/greencards/index?company=Facebook%2C+Inc...

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

#678

Post by dzhiurgis »

tommyd wrote: post #312
dzhiurgis wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hey what software are you using for this? I was thinking I really wish there was a good app where you can listen to audio articles. It is partly solved in iOS as you can speak selected text, but problem is you cannot select all text easily and you don't wanna mess with it while driving. Was wondering what would be a great UI for the transcriber and whether you could create p2p network to share the transcriptions.

I've thought about this too, but I'm not sure I've got the patience to listen to articles read in TTS voice. Anyway, on iOS if you enable voiceover you can read the entire screen by swiping down from the top with two fingers (I think - check the Apple website for accessibility information if not!)

You have to use the Speech from accessibility menu, and turn Speak Screen on.

Another possibility i just realised is the possibility to pass texts from reader mode into 3rd party text-to-speech application. Will have to research some of them.

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

#679

Post by franbulax »

mdpopescu wrote: post #518
learc83 wrote: post #351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the OP means they can't legally access this information other than by getting you or your previous employer to disclose it. Most large companies won't give out your past salary information, so if they don't force you to provide proof, it's not very likely they will be able to verify it. >via background checks Background checks are normally done via a 3rd party background check company, and they don't have acc…

When I was hired by Merrill Lynch, in Dublin, they asked for my bank statements for the last ten years in order to verify that I was indeed making what I said. (The only annoying thing was that I had to scan 75 pages... boooring.)

Wow, seriously? Full rectal as well?

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

#680

Post by brndn »

duaneb wrote: post #196
awesomerobot wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Can you imagine the fallout for firing an employee for discussing salary after the recent NyTimes article? It'd be PR suicide. Now, your relationship with your manager might be strained, but hey, that's life.

What article?
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