Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started • Hacker News Board

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#21

Post by jurassic » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:39 AM UTC

kev009 wrote: post #10

jurassic wrote: post #4

I think this is getting upvoted because everybody likes to dogpile on Amazon. But nothing this guy says seems to reflect especially poorly on Amazon. If the author is going through another job search now I might recommend taking the piece down; it's not doing you a ton of favors. The summary: guy interviews and accepts an SDE1 role at Amazon, guy resists building alliances with those holding power in the org, guy is…

Most of your points are good but SDE1 may be all the sycophant recruiters would let him in the door at for a variety of reasons that are a dystopian caricature of "values" and misaligned incentives. If his intentions were to quickly try his luck at a tech giant like Amazon, he probably did so the only way possible.

Not sure what you mean by "sycophant recruiters". Most recruiters I've worked with were strongly motivated to bring good people on board at their company. If you are an attractive candidate but you let them know you're only interested in pursuing roles at a certain (non-entry) level, they'll either make adjustments to slot you into interviews for that other higher role or the process doesn't move forward and everyone avoids wasting time. It's really a win-win to be upfront about your leveling expectations early.

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#22

Post by hackcasual » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:39 AM UTC

nicolashahn wrote: post #11

Pfhreak wrote: post #9

I was super happy with Amazon for 6 years or so. Compensated well, worked hard but fairly (and rarely more than 40-45 hours a week), great peers, good managers, and plenty of interesting work to do. I eventually left because Amazon restricted building games in my spare time with my friends. I just wanted to jam on the weekends on something that would never ship as a creative outlet. Turns out they have a policy that…

I don't understand why Amazon would call out games specifically - is there some rationale behind it?

Probably because they're in the game business now.

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#23

Post by agoldis » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:40 AM UTC

NAHWheatCracker wrote: post #17

This was the least convincing blog post on this sort of topic that I've read. I didn't see anything that actually painted Amazon in a very bad light. I think anyone should expect bureaucracy to be a major problem at a large company. Complaining about promotions seems a bit unfair since he was only there for 5 months. Moreover, I saw quite a few senior engineers and discovered that I do not want to be alike… This is o…

Thanks for your comment! To be fair, I didn't try to convince you - I was sharing my experiences and observations :) Most chances the article is not as good as others, I am not a writer (otherwise I wouldn't have a problem with writing a promotion document) :)

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#24

Post by yc-kraln » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:45 AM UTC

This is expected and predicted by the Amazon vesting schedule. In the case that you're curious, it's 5% in the first year, 15% in the second year, and then 20% per half-year until four years is over. Almost like they expect people not to stick around...

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#25

Post by agoldis » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:52 AM UTC

paulcole wrote: post #15

Interesting take on getting promoted: > It is not enough to get your job done and help the company grow. It’s a promotion, not a participation medal. Yes, you should get a salary increase but are you qualified for a new title and responsibilities just by showing up and performing adequately at what you were assigned to do and nothing else?

Thank you for your comment. Of course that is not how I see promotions work, I have added a remark to the original article to make myself clear. Thank you again.

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#26

Post by agoldis » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:53 AM UTC

0xmohit wrote: post #6

> You won’t be promoted for doing your job, you will be promoted by focusing on your promotion. You aren't recognized for doing your job, you are recognized for worrying about your job.

Thank you for your comment. Of course that is not how I see promotions work, I have added a remark to the original article to make myself clear. Thank you again.

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#27

Post by pfarnsworth » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:53 AM UTC

The author sounds super naive.

I'm not sure what exactly he was expecting, I believe this is how life is at all these big companies. Any of the FANGs will have the same level of bureaucracy. If you want a different lifestyle, you can join a startup or a smaller company, but this has been the way it has always been. Amazon is one of the largest tech companies in the world, I'm not sure why he would think it's somehow not a huge bureaucracy and a certain way of doing things with so many engineers.

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#28

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:54 AM UTC

lilyball wrote: post #19

jurassic wrote: post #4

I think this is getting upvoted because everybody likes to dogpile on Amazon. But nothing this guy says seems to reflect especially poorly on Amazon. If the author is going through another job search now I might recommend taking the piece down; it's not doing you a ton of favors. The summary: guy interviews and accepts an SDE1 role at Amazon, guy resists building alliances with those holding power in the org, guy is…

Someone with 10 years of experience getting offered an SDE1 role is a huge red flag for me and makes me wonder what this person's skill set actually is.

[deleted]

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#29

Post by philliphaydon » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:55 AM UTC

lilyball wrote: post #19

jurassic wrote: post #4

I think this is getting upvoted because everybody likes to dogpile on Amazon. But nothing this guy says seems to reflect especially poorly on Amazon. If the author is going through another job search now I might recommend taking the piece down; it's not doing you a ton of favors. The summary: guy interviews and accepts an SDE1 role at Amazon, guy resists building alliances with those holding power in the org, guy is…

Someone with 10 years of experience getting offered an SDE1 role is a huge red flag for me and makes me wonder what this person's skill set actually is.

I'm willing to bet if I interviewed at Amazon (or Google/MS/FB/Uber) I would probably be put in a similar role, despite having been programming since I was 8 with 14 years of commercial experience. I never went to Uni and have no degree.

Re: Quitting Amazon 5 months after I started

#30

Post by lapitopi » Mon, Nov 05, 2018, 4:57 AM UTC

willio58 wrote: post #3

Stories like this make me even more sure that my path is not to join a tech giant as an engineer. The money would be great, but at what cost? I think the best option for me is to not derive all of my happiness from the amount coming in to my bank, and instead work on things that I have a clear impact on. When I graduate this spring I’m going to be looking at medium-sized companies with a bright future, not the shadow…

Always take other people’s experience with a grain of salt. You don’t know their motivations or their biases or even their situation.

Even if what you just read is 100% true, it’s from someone else's perspective. So you don’t know what you are missing.

I have worked in both big companies and small. Politics abound in all of them. In my opinion company culture plays a large role in how toxic the place really is.

Another factor is your manager. Sometimes they can even compensate for toxic culture by shielding you from it and having a pleasant environment to work in. Unfortunately I have not been able to come up with a great set of questions to divine whether someone is a good manager or not. It totally depends on how much they believe in having your back vs having their own backs.

Don’t let experiences like these discourage you. There are plenty of big companies where you can have a sizeable impact because team sizes are small and the work is challenging. And there are plenty of small to mid size companies that are just surviving from one round of funding to the next on the whims of their investors.

Only way to find out is ask a lot of questions and try a few of them.