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Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

lastweekinaws.com

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Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#181

Post by [deleted] »

crooked-v wrote: post #88
shados wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given all my friends that worked for them, almost all have quit within 5 years. 5 years is pretty darn high by tech company standard, as people already mentioned. Partly because of the culture of "you have to jump ship to make more money and promotions", but even the most employee friendly company will barely edge that, just because software engineers have a huge "grass is greener" syndrome.

>just because software engineers have a huge "grass is greener" syndrome "Grass is greener" is a strange label to use for the ability of even mediocre developers to get $50K+ raises by switching jobs, while the industry as a whole remains myopic about giving comparable pay increases to existing employees.

[deleted]

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#183

Post by mirceal »

jorblumesea wrote: post #169
whycombagator wrote: post #89

IIRC salaried workers at Amazon get 10 PTO days. This stops me from even applying. I wouldn't ever again consider less than 20, and really need a minumum of 25.

Nah Amazon has 15 and 20 at 7 years, which is pretty common in the US at least.

IIRC it’s 10 days for the first year and after that what you describe

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#184

Post by blackflame7000 »

ryandrake wrote: post #130
sgnnseven wrote: post #22

Same happened to me. A few years back, I got an offer from Amazon after going through the interview pipeline and the non-compete and outside-of-work IP assignment were the only thing I asked to be changed since they were draconian given Amazon's wide breadth of products. They declined to make the change so I declined to accept their offer. In general, Amazon doesn't make positive impressions on potential employees by…

This has been my experience with big tech companies as well. Many are willing to negotiate compensation, a few will negotiate holiday and benefits, but none of them will touch legal agreements like NDAs, copyright assignment and non-competes. And if you try the cute “cross off the terms you don’t like and initial them” trick, you’ll get a stern warning letter from Legal to sign it unmodified or GTFO.

A lot of the hiring people just don't have the authority to contact legal and request a change to an agreement because the implications of that change must be reviewed by expensive lawyers.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#185

Post by Zimahl »

keypusher wrote: post #45

I don’t see anything in this article about Amazon offering the author a job, so I’m a bit confused by the headline. Were they offered a position at Amazon the same week as this non-compete dispute became public and forgot to mention it?

The author was offered a position at an earlier time and refused because of the non-compete. The subsections with the quote titles are excuses given to the author by Amazon when he said he complained about the policy.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#186

Post by cleandreams »

musicale wrote: post #178

I'm wary of Amazon since they have a terrible reputation for tech work in addition to warehouse and delivery work. People who I've talked to who work there have not entirely refuted this for me. Non-compete agreements are garbage and are unfortunately very common - I wouldn't be surprised to find them at Google, Apple, etc.. Employment contracts are usually "take it or leave it" in that regard, though personally I tr…

They are illegal in California. I have heard it said that has been a pro-competitive influence for companies here which is one reason for the dynamism of the tech sector.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#187

Post by blackflame7000 »

jammygit wrote: post #146
bob1029 wrote: post #135

At what point does an organization get to be so large such that it is guaranteed to become a menace to society and individual human dignity? I cannot come up with any publicly-held multi-billion dollar technology company today that isn't seemingly run by psychopaths. Is there some new SEC regulation regarding corporate leadership I am unaware of? Is it an audit item that requires HR to fuck over all their employees w…

How do you find the best high paying jobs at smaller shops? Where do you look to find out about those companies?

Government contracting work can pay decently as long as you don't get stuck being a sub-subcontractor where everyone has taken their cut before giving you the task to complete.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#188

Post by wishinghand »

mirceal wrote: post #41
algaeontoast wrote: post #31

Working for amazon is like joining a fascist cult - you made the right decision. Source - worked for a startup that was acquired by Amazon. My team was slowly managed out of the company and replaced by teams in Seattle. Most of my team was let go by PIP, essentially claiming we weren't "performing at a high enough standard" since they weren't willing to reprehend my boss for being incompetent. However, I'm proud of t…

exit interview advice (applies everywhere): politely decline the exit interview. there is zero upside to doing an exit interview

Never had one, but I've also given no thoughts to them. What's the reason to decline?

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#189

Post by rovolo »

whycombagator wrote: post #89

IIRC salaried workers at Amazon get 10 PTO days. This stops me from even applying. I wouldn't ever again consider less than 20, and really need a minumum of 25.

By PTO are you deliberately narrowing to vacation? Full time workers also get 6 days/year Personal Time. The current US vacation schedule also changes over time, from worse than 10 days to 15 days.

1st year: 5 days, 2nd: 10 days, 3rd: 11 days, 4th: 12 days, 5th: 13 days, 6th: 14 days, 7th+: 15 days.

Thus, the time-off goes from 11 days to 21 days per year.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#190

Post by twic »

jedberg wrote: post #161
mruts wrote: post #154

Amazon pay is shit. I was laughed out of the room for asking for a salary that some analysts make in finance. People get paid so much more in finance than any other industry that I wonder why tech people aren’t more interested in those jobs. Also the work is more exciting and challenging. And it’s better for the world, though I suspect I’ll get a lot of downvotes for that one.

I once got offered a job in finance that was double my Netflix salary. I didn't take it because: 1) I'd have to live in NYC 2) I'd have to use their super locked down Windows machine. 3) I would only be allowed to talk to people in my department, and would never even be allowed to associate with the people making the trading algorithms, even though the job was to build them an infrastructure for back-testing their al…

Not every financial firm is that paranoid. Many are, though - i got offered a job in London that your description would fit perfectly! Still, i ended up working at a firm that's the polar opposite of that.

I'll also disagree with you about money. Once you have enough to cover all your needs and few wants a year, more money starts to get interesting, because then it goes directly into building financial independence. That's the money that will pay for you to retire, start a business of your own, take a sabattical, move to a low-paid job you love, etc.

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