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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

#211

Post by knite »

JoshDoody wrote: post #120
p4wnc6 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 (…

One of my negotiation principles is "Don't disclose your current or desired salary" during the negotiation. With persistence, the recruiter or hiring manager will usually just move on. Another principle is that you should always counter. So I'm _extremely_ surprised to hear that 95% of the time, people have refused to continue talking with you. I can't refute your experience, but I can say this has never happened to…

I've wanted to share my thoughts and experiences regarding the "never be the first to quote a number" strategy for some time, but I usually see these threads when they're too stale to comment on.

My background: I'm a senior-level engineer in my early 30s, in SF. After a consulting stint, I interviewed heavily in 2013, and again in the second half of 2015, and currently speak with 1-2 recruiter cold calls per week to keep my options open. My sample size is many dozens of intro calls, across startups ranging in maturity from 1st engineer through some of the unicorns everyone knows.

In short, I agree with p4wnc6. A very relevant fraction of recruiters, say a third, will refuse to proceed until you quote a figure. This is true for internal and external recruiters. No amount of push back works with this group, they'll see you as difficult or otherwise not worth pursuing, and would rather end the discussion than proceed number-less.

This leaves the two-thirds of recruiters who are willing to play ball. Now there's another problem - not quoting a number is only a good idea if you want to avoid being low-balled - it's a tremendous waste of time if your desired compensation is above the expected range.

For transparency and knowledge sharing, I'll be specific: my background is in operations and infrastructure ("devops"). 90+% of the roles coming my way pay in the range of $130-180K base. My base is above this, and very few companies will be willing to pay a premium of 50% more than they expected to. No amount of wishful thinking about "your payroll is a drop in the bucket" will bridge the gap if it's too large.

Which brings me to a question I'd love the answer to: other than working for the big ~6 (Google, Facebook, Uber, Apple, etc), how can I push my comp up to $2X0 (or even $3XX!)? I feel like I'm near max, so I'm biding my time until the right VP/Director/etc of Ops role comes along. Is there anything else I can do?

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

#212

Post by amazoniananon »

This is perfect timing as Google Seattle is hiring around 1000 devs and promotions are being revealed in April.

I used a throwaway account, but I'm sure I'm identifiable by this information if my manager sees this. I'm not too concerned. I think it's in Amazon's and the employees' best interest for this stuff to be transparent. Besides that, while I like my work, I can easily get an offer from Google, Facebook or pretty much anywhere else.

Position: SysDE 2 in AWS Tenure: 1.5 years Job Level: 5 Base: $120000 Stock: 140 RSU (granted at signing, almost none vested) Bonus: $20000 + relocation at signing, $15000 will come after 2 years Gender: M Native English: yes

I was hired at L4 as SE 1, moved to SE 2/L5 after a year, and now SysDE 2. There was no raise for SE2->SysDE2.

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

#213

Post by throwawayAmzn57 »

I work for one of AMZN's subsidiaries down in SF. Its kinda hard to say exactly how much I earn since most of my compensation is in retention and acquisition bonuses.

Roughly $130k a year base, $150k a year in retention and $100k (for one more year) in pre-acquisition stock.

6 years in the industry, no higher education. SDEII (I think?)

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

#214

Post by duaneb »

ghrifter wrote: post #37

I make roughly $20 an hour (about 16 after taxes :( )at the moment as a junior full stack intern working part time (I live and work in US). Sometimes I wonder if I should move on to find some other job, even if its remote... On the other hand, my work is not that stressful, and I'm still going to school so my job is very flexible on time. Anyone else been in a position like me?

Competitive internships will offer 2-2.5X that.

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

#215

Post by dzhiurgis »

AndrewUnmuted wrote: post #24
Kopion wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full-time freelance audiobook editor? I didn't realize that was a position. What exactly does this entail and how did you get started with it?

I got my education in audio engineering at a leading music conservatory, so moving into audiobook editing was a pretty easy sell for me. An audiobook is made in four basic steps: 1. A voice actor records the narration for the book. 2. The editor takes the raw audio recordings and edits these files for pacing, flow, and aesthetic flavor. The editor also makes note of any errors in the narration which require a re-reco…

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.

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

#216

Post by nojvek »

maxaf wrote: post #199
jmathes wrote: post #165

The most important thing you can do for your career is: * Accept a job somewhere * Get promoted (doesn't matter how) * let yourself get hired away from your current company Getting hired away from your current company is the only way to get a fair raise based on increased experience. Companies never give substantial raises to current employees.

This simply isn't true. I received a >$30,000 raise at one of my previous employers after they realized that I was being grossly underpaid for the work I was doing. Granted, I had to bring my managers' attention to this, but they were understanding & did right by me.

Mind sharing what company this is? I'm 100% sure if I leave to go somewhere else and come back, I'll still make a lot more than sticking around. This is the unfortunate reality.

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

#217

Post by philovivero »

maxaf wrote: post #199
jmathes wrote: post #165

The most important thing you can do for your career is: * Accept a job somewhere * Get promoted (doesn't matter how) * let yourself get hired away from your current company Getting hired away from your current company is the only way to get a fair raise based on increased experience. Companies never give substantial raises to current employees.

This simply isn't true. I received a >$30,000 raise at one of my previous employers after they realized that I was being grossly underpaid for the work I was doing. Granted, I had to bring my managers' attention to this, but they were understanding & did right by me.

Your anecdote is the exception to the rule. I've been in the industry for 20 years and can affirm the rule: you don't get raises from your current employer. You get raises by changing employers.

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

#218

Post by buserror »

p4wnc6 wrote: post #128
JoshDoody wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my negotiation principles is "Don't disclose your current or desired salary" during the negotiation. With persistence, the recruiter or hiring manager will usually just move on. Another principle is that you should always counter. So I'm _extremely_ surprised to hear that 95% of the time, people have refused to continue talking with you. I can't refute your experience, but I can say this has never happened to…

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…

My reply to the 'our company is doing so well, you will ALSO do very well once you bed in' is to remind them that most notable pay rises you ever get during your career is when you switch job. So negotiate your pay NOW because for all you know, you'll be stuck to that sort of level for X years to come if you are unlucky.

As for 'shares' I flatly refuse to even consider that as part of a package. if they want to /add/ them it's wonderful, but I've been so many time multi-millionaire in 'options' that it's not even funny.

As for 'yes but the work/team is so rewarding' point I counter that it's a lot better if there isn't a sour note about being underpaid mixed in. Pay me well, and I'll be the one pulling the team to be all shinny and dynamic.

However, ultimately, you STILL get underpaid unless you go to the usual suspects like GG and such. That's why I gave up 'career' and went off contracting. Turns out being a mercenary is rewarding in many ways, including monetary !

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

#219

Post by amazoniananon »

olympus wrote: post #5

While this doesn't have as much information as you listed, Glass Door ( https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/index.htm ) has information on job title/salaries at many companies. It's a "share your info and we'll let you see ours" set of rules, so be prepared to make a profile.

What I don't like about that is most of the entries will be old. I'd love if it had a way to show me only information from the past year.

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

#220

Post by bezoslave »

justinlardinois wrote: post #145
amzn_irl_taway wrote: post #22

Ex amazonian here, but in Ireland, I left (thankfully) at the end of 2015. I was a systems engineer in Dublin and the only significant payraise I got was after I left the company for 4 months to then rejoin, my salary was bumped up 12k euros, for a total of 62k/yr, with 150 shares over 4 years (sorry I do not remember the vesting scheme). The HR department in AMZN has the tendency to screw internal employees upon pro…

Admittedly I'm American and I've never worked for Amazon, so my situation might be different than yours. But what? Returning to the employer you quit from seems like a terrible idea. If it was years later, maybe you could explain it away with interview BS like "changing direction" or "finding your place." But months later makes you not much better than the guy who shows his boss an offer from another company to negot…

People leaving and rejoining Amazon is supercommon. That includes Principals. It feels like most people who have been at the company for 8+ years have been out of the company for some of the period. And you can even get the colored badge for tenure from non-consecutive employment.
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