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Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

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Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#11

Post by pityJuke »

alephnerd wrote: post #8
jahnu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me ask this question. Why can Netflix make a decent tv app and Amazon cannot?

Amazon Prime Video isn't targeting the US market anymore - they made a hard pivot to India [0][1][2], and as such are primarily investing in MX Player. [0] - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/apo... [1] - https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/prime-video-india-growth-pa... [2] - https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/prime-video-india-content-c...

Wait, when the fuck did the Android app I used to play on-device videos with become a streaming app, that then got acquired by Amazon?!

(I know the literal answer is on Wikipedia, but I’m flabbergasted.)

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#12

Post by SoftTalker »

jahnu wrote: post #6
mikert89 wrote: post #4

Right now, amazon is packed full of L6 and L7 software managers, making 450-900k a year, that: 1. dont understand ai 2. have had the same skill set for 10 years 3. are working on autopilot, not trying to get promoted, just collecting paychecks 4. taking zero risk, follow protocol, play politics for the company to move forwards, they need a massive purge. 15k is childs play. too many employees that make too much money…

Let me ask this question. Why can Netflix make a decent tv app and Amazon cannot?

TV is Netflix's core competency. It's a sideline at best for Amazon.

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#13

Post by mikert89 »

Lammy wrote: post #10
mikert89 wrote: post #4

Right now, amazon is packed full of L6 and L7 software managers, making 450-900k a year, that: 1. dont understand ai 2. have had the same skill set for 10 years 3. are working on autopilot, not trying to get promoted, just collecting paychecks 4. taking zero risk, follow protocol, play politics for the company to move forwards, they need a massive purge. 15k is childs play. too many employees that make too much money…

Corporations exist to support the lives of humans, not the other way around.

they should give some younger people a shot to move into these management positions.

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#14

Post by cmiles74 »

mikert89 wrote: post #4

Right now, amazon is packed full of L6 and L7 software managers, making 450-900k a year, that: 1. dont understand ai 2. have had the same skill set for 10 years 3. are working on autopilot, not trying to get promoted, just collecting paychecks 4. taking zero risk, follow protocol, play politics for the company to move forwards, they need a massive purge. 15k is childs play. too many employees that make too much money…

Isn’t that the job? I’m not even sure what “understand AI” even means, from where I sit, it maybe means “add AI to everything” and that doesn’t seem that complicated.

I’m not here to defend the people in Amazon corporate, I’m just not convinced it’s okay for a big rich corporation to hire all these people and then fire them on a whim. It’s not like Amazon can’t afford it.

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#15

Post by charcircuit »

Lammy wrote: post #10
mikert89 wrote: post #4

Right now, amazon is packed full of L6 and L7 software managers, making 450-900k a year, that: 1. dont understand ai 2. have had the same skill set for 10 years 3. are working on autopilot, not trying to get promoted, just collecting paychecks 4. taking zero risk, follow protocol, play politics for the company to move forwards, they need a massive purge. 15k is childs play. too many employees that make too much money…

Corporations exist to support the lives of humans, not the other way around.

They exist to provide value to other entities. There is no requirement for supporting humans or even having employees.

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#16

Post by spwa4 »

mikert89 wrote: post #7
jahnu wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let me ask this question. Why can Netflix make a decent tv app and Amazon cannot?

amazon has mediocre quality talent that they grind to the bone. which worked when the company just needed raw execution. amazon has an operations culture, which was important for: 1. scaling retail 2. keeping the servers running at AWS all the low hanging fruit has been picked, they need a fundamentally different employee base

> all the low hanging fruit has been picked, they need a fundamentally different employee base

As anyone in software development can tell you, this does not compute. You cannot do things this way, and any experienced software engineer can tell you it doesn't work.

Besides, it's not how Amazon worked at all. Amazon is famous for having systematically verified ("mathematically proved") how it's core systems operated. Whereas, for example Google only did that in redesigns when the systems had already collapsed once or twice due to scale, not from early on. And even that is superior to how Microsoft or Oracle did it: they bought Google employees and had them design an iteration of what Google is running (yes, is running, not was running. Google redesigned it's core systems ... and then mostly didn't migrate. Borg was never replaced with Omega and the main large system that they migrated to is Spanner. Kubernetes isn't Borg. Kubernetes grew out of Borg's successor. Except Google never migrated away from Borg)

https://cacm.acm.org/practice/systems-correctness-practices-...

I'm sure Amazon had entire departments, much larger than core engineering, just like every other company, where it looked like everything was operationally focused. That doesn't mean core engineering doesn't exist, or does nothing.

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#17

Post by rvz »

mikert89 wrote: post #4

Right now, amazon is packed full of L6 and L7 software managers, making 450-900k a year, that: 1. dont understand ai 2. have had the same skill set for 10 years 3. are working on autopilot, not trying to get promoted, just collecting paychecks 4. taking zero risk, follow protocol, play politics for the company to move forwards, they need a massive purge. 15k is childs play. too many employees that make too much money…

Exactly. This is why it makes absolutely zero sense to join Amazon right now as they are the worst ones to join [0] (Unless you specialize in robotics or actual AI and not controlling 'Agents')

They are aiming to layoff 30k employees this year. They are one bad earnings away from a surprise mass layoff unfortunately.

The other big tech companies are at lesser risk.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46741246

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#18

Post by mikert89 »

cmiles74 wrote: post #14
mikert89 wrote: post #4

Right now, amazon is packed full of L6 and L7 software managers, making 450-900k a year, that: 1. dont understand ai 2. have had the same skill set for 10 years 3. are working on autopilot, not trying to get promoted, just collecting paychecks 4. taking zero risk, follow protocol, play politics for the company to move forwards, they need a massive purge. 15k is childs play. too many employees that make too much money…

Isn’t that the job? I’m not even sure what “understand AI” even means, from where I sit, it maybe means “add AI to everything” and that doesn’t seem that complicated. I’m not here to defend the people in Amazon corporate, I’m just not convinced it’s okay for a big rich corporation to hire all these people and then fire them on a whim. It’s not like Amazon can’t afford it.

no you dont understand, the whole career ladder at amazon is clogged with people at the company 10+ years, that have been in their role 5+ years. its a big game of dont get fired, and collect pay checks as long as possible

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#19

Post by alephnerd »

pityJuke wrote: post #11
alephnerd wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon Prime Video isn't targeting the US market anymore - they made a hard pivot to India [0][1][2], and as such are primarily investing in MX Player. [0] - https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/apo... [1] - https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/prime-video-india-growth-pa... [2] - https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/prime-video-india-content-c...

Wait, when the fuck did the Android app I used to play on-device videos with become a streaming app, that then got acquired by Amazon?! (I know the literal answer is on Wikipedia, but I’m flabbergasted.)

Back in 2018-19 because their founder Karan Bedi was smart and recognized he could leverage his past corporate experience in Big Media in India in order to make MX Player a streaming platform targeting India2 and India3, and thus build a scalable business.

Re: Amazon braces for another major round of layoffs, 14,000 jobs at risk

#20

Post by RHSeeger »

cmiles74 wrote: post #14
mikert89 wrote: post #4

Right now, amazon is packed full of L6 and L7 software managers, making 450-900k a year, that: 1. dont understand ai 2. have had the same skill set for 10 years 3. are working on autopilot, not trying to get promoted, just collecting paychecks 4. taking zero risk, follow protocol, play politics for the company to move forwards, they need a massive purge. 15k is childs play. too many employees that make too much money…

Isn’t that the job? I’m not even sure what “understand AI” even means, from where I sit, it maybe means “add AI to everything” and that doesn’t seem that complicated. I’m not here to defend the people in Amazon corporate, I’m just not convinced it’s okay for a big rich corporation to hire all these people and then fire them on a whim. It’s not like Amazon can’t afford it.

And, to be realistic, "add AI to everything" is a sure sign that the person does _not_ understand AI.
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