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I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

benadam.me

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Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#101

Post by kahrl »

netizen-936824 wrote: post #82
sharkweek wrote: post #25

Hey congrats on making it 10 months! "Urgent to not block progress, but also ironic that they are asking a person who has no clue what they are doing to deliver critical work" Friend of mine started a role there (this was 4-5 years ago) and was fired (sorry... more or less asked to leave, being told he could keep his signing bonus if he just left) within about six weeks because he wasn't immediately delivering on som…

What does PIP stand for? I haven't run into that acronym before

Performance Improvement Plan: "We're trying to fire you but need to do it by the books as to mitigate liability."

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#102

Post by Jemaclus »

netizen-936824 wrote: post #82
sharkweek wrote: post #25

Hey congrats on making it 10 months! "Urgent to not block progress, but also ironic that they are asking a person who has no clue what they are doing to deliver critical work" Friend of mine started a role there (this was 4-5 years ago) and was fired (sorry... more or less asked to leave, being told he could keep his signing bonus if he just left) within about six weeks because he wasn't immediately delivering on som…

What does PIP stand for? I haven't run into that acronym before

Performance Improvement Plan. On paper, it's a program where management works with you to improve your weak points so you don't get fired. In practice, it's HR protecting the company by documenting reasons to fire you before they fire you.

It's rare (not unheard of, but rare) to work your way out of a PIP. In general, if you get put on a PIP, I would immediately start doing some soul-searching as to why I might be on the PIP and how I can improve AND I would start looking immediately for a new job.

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#103

Post by delecti »

encryptluks2 wrote: post #33

I finally started just marking their recruiter emails as spam. I still get a couple a month despite asking them to stop. I interviewed for them a few years back and it was clear then that they are looking for people that are technically smart but total pushovers. If you are the type of person that are susceptible to abusive relationships then you'd fit right in. The sad part is many of their employees prob feel lucky…

What filter rules do you use for that? As a frequent Amazon customer I wouldn't want to accidentally filter things I want to receive.

My recruiter strategy has just been to reply with a direct "Hi , No thank you." that doesn't leave room for foot-in-the-door.

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#104

Post by MattGaiser »

tablespoon wrote: post #91
MattGaiser wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amazon has to be at the point of literally running out of nearby human beings to be concerned about retention. https://www.essence.com/news/amazon-burning-through-workers/

> Amazon has to be at the point of literally running out of nearby human beings to be concerned about retention. It seems like they're more than willing to hire imports. I get more recruiter spam from them than anyone else, and I don't live anywhere near any of their major offices.

This is true as well. I got an email offering me immigration support to move to Vancouver. I already live in Canada, have my entire life, and every job has also been in Canada.

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#105

Post by dpark »

spike021 wrote: post #70

This is like my situation. I just left after being there for 20 months. Various reasons on the team side. Imposter syndrome is a bad excuse but it contributed. Tried switching but other teams insisted on a full interview loop before I could even see it that team would be a better fit.

> Tried switching but other teams insisted on a full interview loop before I could even see it that team would be a better fit.

That’s because they have no consistency in their hiring bar. I know multiple people who were contacted immediately by Amazon recruiters after failing an interview loop. “Hey, that other team says you suck but I bet you’re perfect for our team.” When you know other teams are happy to take your reject candidates, you can’t trust internal candidates any more than external ones.

In fairness, Microsoft has a bit of this. The further across the company you want to move, the more likely you’ll need to interview. But it seems within Amazon that there is no attempt at consistency.

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#106

Post by nostrebored »

wiremine wrote: post #50

This is really insightful. Makes me wonder how this compares to other FAANG companies. Are there other essays that capture the on-the-ground experiences so well?

I would tell you you’re going to get the same problem regardless: this isn’t representative and due to scale can never capture the on the ground experience.

Amazon is the best and worst place I’ve worked.

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#107

Post by atlasunshrugged »

batmaniam wrote: post #96

The article mentions aggressive delivery dates, conflicting goals between different departments that get in the way of career progression, and massive amounts of stress as being 'normal' at Amazon. And we already know that Amazon exploits and over-exerts their employees in other divisions, like warehouse. At what point do we say enough is enough? Amazon warehouse employees are already pushing for better working condi…

By that logic won't the company just destroy itself from the inside out eventually? How many people who read this article and the likely scores more or bothered to look at glassdoor will bother to apply or accept a recruiter call? Eventually something breaks internally and the company is destroyed (albeit likely a very slow death) or it gets fixed. I don't worry a ton about HQ people, most of those can get other jobs but the warehouse workers in small towns without other opportunities, that's a tougher one and I hope that they are able to unionize or get some sort of strengthened protections themselves or through the gov.

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#108

Post by vishnugupta »

masterof0 wrote: post #17

Ex-Amazonian here, I agree with almost everything OP say. I have a few things to add in case HR is reading this: - RSUs vesting schedule sucks, fix it.(5% - first year, 15% - second , then 5% each quarter, i think...) - Internal tooling is pretty bad (frameworks, pipelines, ....) and the documentation is non-existent, and when it exists , is not very helpful. - Amazon has the least amount of holidays of all FAANG, wh…

> (5% - first year, 15% - second

This is done on purpose because a vast majority of employees leave Amazon within 18 months or so. And those who can withstand that environment for 24 months and beyond develop thick enough skin and make enough internal connections to survive till 5+ years.

(bit of a tangent)

> in case HR is reading this

HR's primary (perhaps only) job is to protect the upper management (execs and above) from the nuisance caused by workers down below. It took me a while to sink in but when it did it brought in lot of clarity to the way I deal with HR.

IMO this could be generalised to a reasonable degree. For instance, police force's primary job is to protect the government from the internal threat which is the population at large. Catching thieves happens to be a small by-product of it.

Employees' allegiance is, first and foremost, to their pay master.

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#109

Post by sharkweek »

mynameisash wrote: post #38

I also left Amazon after ~10mo. I've written about this elsewhere, but the short version is: * New manager who was a nice guy but didn't help me or other folks onboard * A skip-level (who I expected would be my direct) manager who was about as hands-off as could be and seemed interested in building his own empire. * SDE3 who was nominally my mentor but was less than useless. I asked him to whiteboard our services, an…

Friend is a recruiter at that company across the lake and says she reaches out to Amazon folks when they hit the 1 and 2 year marks a lot - says she gets relatively higher response rates than industry standards when she does that.

Re: I took a job at Amazon, only to leave after 10 months

#110

Post by hvs »

netizen-936824 wrote: post #82
sharkweek wrote: post #25

Hey congrats on making it 10 months! "Urgent to not block progress, but also ironic that they are asking a person who has no clue what they are doing to deliver critical work" Friend of mine started a role there (this was 4-5 years ago) and was fired (sorry... more or less asked to leave, being told he could keep his signing bonus if he just left) within about six weeks because he wasn't immediately delivering on som…

What does PIP stand for? I haven't run into that acronym before

Performance Improvement Plan. Basically, a fancy way for a company to say they tried to help you improve before firing you.
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