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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

#221

Post by samstave »

oblio wrote: post #159
colinmhayes wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Leetcode is systematically favoring candidates who have months of free time to memorize arbitrary logic puzzles Finding people who are willing to spend months in order to get the job is one of the biggest reasons companies use leetcode.

Well, he did say: > ego-driven hazing ritual :-)

The worst "Biggest Swingin' Dick on Campus" ego-fest I have ever experienced was working at the F in FAANG...

--

Such a den of.... you can fill in the rest...

I know someone who was literally fired for being "too social" -- and all they did was participate in the stupid parties that were had like "Build you're departments happy hour bar, here is $400 for alcohol to stock it up!!"

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

#222

Post by behohippy »

spike021 wrote: post #114
behohippy wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Was catfished into a role which was not what I interviewed for Why does Amazon do this? I've bailed out 3 times on interviews with them now because somehow the role they sold me on end up being completely different by the time you talk to the team members doing the actual job. It's a huge time waster for everyone involved.

Heh something similar happened to me. Recruiter reached out, insisted role was on a special new team in SFO. I did the full interview cycle (on-site in Seattle, which I later learned is what they do if the role is in SEA..). It was for an awesome team and org, really up and coming. I get the congrats message that I’ll be getting an offer. Then find out it’s only for SEA. This is after the recruiter insisted it would…

One of mine was similar. I got sold on a 100% remote role that turned into 9-5, 5 days a week in an office 350km away from where I live. I was really clear up front that relocation was not an option. I'm not sure if they ignored me, or just felt I'd be compelled to move.

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

#223

Post by commandlinefan »

5cott0 wrote: post #137

I got an email from an Amazon recruiter the other day. I thought it was an invite to a phone screen but it was actually a link to my dev plan.

I got a linkedin ping from an Amazon recruiter which I politely declined. He replied: "Great! The next step in our recruiting process is a short phone screen. Call me to set it up!"

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

#224

Post by cwkoss »

pram wrote: post #26

A couple years ago I turned down an offer at AWS as a Solutions Architect. The same day I did that, the hiring managers director requested that I speak with him. He was basically selling the job and saying what a mistake it was to turn it down. It felt really high pressure! I’ve literally never had that happen in my life. Most companies just immediately ghost me if I turn down an offer. This isn’t covert bragging abo…

Should have seen how much they'd be willing to increase the offer.

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

#225

Post by technothrasher »

robby_w_g wrote: post #125
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…

> I bag on Amazon a lot on here (which if I were to review with my therapist is likely because I had an absolutely HORRENDOUS experience in an interview loop with them my first step out of college that still makes me nervous in interviews, even 15 years later). Hey, I had a similar experience with Google! It was my first technical interview for my first job out of college. The interviewer laughed at my code, and then…

Interestingly, my partner just went through the interview process at both Amazon and Google. The Amazon process was horrendous, with an insulting “good cop/bad cop” series of interviews. It was a relief when they decided not to move forward as the process was enough to know they’d be horrible to work for. The Google process was great, productive, and generated excitement about working for them. In the end they offered the job but couldn’t make the compensation quite work. But they walked away on good terms.

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

#226

Post by User23 »

dpark wrote: post #78
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…

> RSUs vesting schedule sucks, fix it.(5% - first year, 15% - second , then 5% each quarter, i think...) They don’t want to fix that. I’m sure they save a ton of money by backloading vesting like that. With their turnover rate, they probably pay out a pretty small portion of their awarded grants. As I understand it (having never worked there), they are also stingy with granting new stock, and consider unvested grants…

> You had an amazing year, but you’re sitting on a bunch of stock already, so take this tiny new grant and fuck off

That's true, but it can go the other way too. One person I know got a needs improvement rating and no stock at all, but turned around and did rockstar work the next year. Because AMZN happened to have crashed about 50% in that time, getting the person back to target total compensation for the exceeds rating required granting considerably more RSUs than they would have received had they also gotten an exceeds in the prior year.

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

#227

Post by throwawayboise »

Clubber wrote: post #213
robby_w_g wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bag on Amazon a lot on here (which if I were to review with my therapist is likely because I had an absolutely HORRENDOUS experience in an interview loop with them my first step out of college that still makes me nervous in interviews, even 15 years later). Hey, I had a similar experience with Google! It was my first technical interview for my first job out of college. The interviewer laughed at my code, and then…

>an ego-driven hazing ritual Last time I did an interview where this wasn't the case was 1998. Granted I don't really interview anymore.

I've never had an interview like this. Get out of SV if you don't want to play those games.

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

#228

Post by ghaff »

spaceisballer wrote: post #206
Jemaclus wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

I’ve only worked in the public sector and have only had to PIP people a few times. It’s almost always a sign that you need to get out. I’ve only done it when I’m at wits end with a person. They all ended up quitting before we got to the 90 days but yeah as said it’s basically a CYA move. Likely the people are low performing enough by some measure you can fire them but it’s sort of a last chance thing. And it document…

I have a good friend who manages a fairly large group at a (mostly) government subcontractor. Their description is similar. A PIP comes after someone has been completely unresponsive to requests of various kinds, isn't doing good (if any) work, etc. My sense is that a PIP, in this case, is a reluctant last resort after months of this--and hardly ever works.

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

#229

Post by [deleted] »

robby_w_g wrote: post #125
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…

> I bag on Amazon a lot on here (which if I were to review with my therapist is likely because I had an absolutely HORRENDOUS experience in an interview loop with them my first step out of college that still makes me nervous in interviews, even 15 years later). Hey, I had a similar experience with Google! It was my first technical interview for my first job out of college. The interviewer laughed at my code, and then…

[deleted]

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

#230

Post by __MatrixMan__ »

colinmhayes wrote: post #156
robby_w_g wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I bag on Amazon a lot on here (which if I were to review with my therapist is likely because I had an absolutely HORRENDOUS experience in an interview loop with them my first step out of college that still makes me nervous in interviews, even 15 years later). Hey, I had a similar experience with Google! It was my first technical interview for my first job out of college. The interviewer laughed at my code, and then…

> Leetcode is systematically favoring candidates who have months of free time to memorize arbitrary logic puzzles Finding people who are willing to spend months in order to get the job is one of the biggest reasons companies use leetcode.

I've never used Leetcode, but it keeps coming up here. I've been interviewer a lot lately and I keep trying to find ways to filter out the candidates that care more about interview prep than solving real problems.

Is this a nonstandard perspective?

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