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Laying myself off from Amazon

daniel.do

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Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#261

Post by Matthias247 »

dimmke wrote: post #102
marcinzm wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I have never spent 40% of my time battling internal tools.... In my experience, not at Amazon, long tenure employees get used to the quirky tools but the impact on new employees can be massive. Same with bad code bases, bad documentation and so on.

I really think this is true. Like compare the CR process to Github's PR process. To me, it's horrendous. But to others who are embedded, maybe they love it.

I don't think Github's PR process is that great. E.g. it misses the ability to diff 2 revisions of a CR if there is only one commit - which would happen if the next revision is a fixup and doesn't create a new commit. I usually used this to review changes incrementally. I find it rather sad that github doesn't have it and one needs to push multiple commits for the sake of making something incrementally reviewable.

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#262

Post by norir »

beebmam wrote: post #251
BurningFrog wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're good at cleaning up "pile of shit" code, you will always have work! It's s lot of fun with the right attitude.

I've made a great career of being a code janitor and doing what others don't want, while having a good attitude. In the last few years, I just rewrite everything I possibly can in Rust and I've yet to regret it.

> I just rewrite everything I possibly can in Rust and I've yet to regret it.

And hopefully no one else regrets it...

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#263

Post by dbg31415 »

A few things here...

1) Work is work. The percentage breakdowns here don't seem too far off from any other company. It would be interesting to see what the author feels the percentages should be. My gut feeling for anyone willing to walk away from a job is that they probably do need a break for a few months.

2) If you're looking for reasons to be unhappy, or trying to justify unhappiness... you may be depressed. Switching jobs may help, but if you walk around smelling shit all day remember to check your own shoes. Everything is going to smell like shit until you get the help you need to get back to being healthy. Getting help is hard, but it really makes life (and work) a lot easier.

3) Amazon... I've written about this in the past, but I really have a love / hate around my time there. Looking back, lots of talent, lots of cool projects. But I just felt like Amazon was perhaps the worst place I ever worked for people giving praise or sharing appreciation. Amazon... I can't put my finger on it exactly, but it did often feel like their mission was to suck all the fun out of the room.

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#264

Post by th3h4mm3r »

Same situation here, and I don't work for a big tech but for a little company. I'm unable to realize how things could change in a similar environment: the sensation is that there's a lot of time wasted in calls and similar activities. And also into the process of "how to do things".

This is very stressful, in particular when what there's to do is clear and glaring.

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#265

Post by oblio »

Chamix wrote: post #148
lozenge wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you tell ahead of time if the team you're switching to has it any better?

Tech survey results, ops load via CTI tickets, CR/LOC stats, accolades, COEs, promotion rate, turnover/attrition.... There are so many data sources that are all queryable via API. There are a couple basic greasemonkey scripts already floating around but as an SDE it really isn't that hard to write something yourself... It does take a bit of experience to get a good heuristic on weighting the different data points but…

> Tech survey results, ops load via CTI tickets, CR/LOC stats, accolades, COEs, promotion rate, turnover/attrition...

Tech survey results??

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#266

Post by oblio »

grangerg wrote: post #246
bitL wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are pretty much validating that Amazon is a 2-year company, as reflected in their vesting schedule.

Someone on another Amazon related thread mentioned that 50% leave after 2 years and 80% leave after 4. If you do the math on their TC to see how it actually works out from month to month, it makes sense. Unless you get more RSU's, you take a huge hit in pay, unless you weren't cashing in on them to make ends meet.

That's accounting for stock growth.

With the flat share price, there's no 4 year cliff anymore...

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#267

Post by bboygravity »

shitlord wrote: post #144
spike021 wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before I left Amazon I tried transferring to multiple teams after speaking with hiring managers. They all (IIRC 4 separate ones) wanted either a full on-site loop or at minimum two coding interviews). I was an L5 with about 5-6 years of experience, 1.5 at that point at Amazon.

Hiring managers have a lot of latitude at Amazon, so there isn't a consistent standard. I don't want to share too much PII but I was in a similar situation. I was able to transfer teams after an informal chat with a few engineers on the team (discussing past projects, the new team's product vision, etc.). There was no whiteboarding involved.

So the internal hiring managers are there for no reason at all?

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#268

Post by firstSpeaker »

Chamix wrote: post #148
lozenge wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you tell ahead of time if the team you're switching to has it any better?

Tech survey results, ops load via CTI tickets, CR/LOC stats, accolades, COEs, promotion rate, turnover/attrition.... There are so many data sources that are all queryable via API. There are a couple basic greasemonkey scripts already floating around but as an SDE it really isn't that hard to write something yourself... It does take a bit of experience to get a good heuristic on weighting the different data points but…

Is there any way to get in touch with you and ask a few questions?

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#269

Post by zebroc »

dimmke wrote: post #162
matai_kolila wrote: post #104

Sigh... another loss at the hands of, "Code is Art!" It's not art. Art requires no function, it exists as a representation. (Professional) code, and software engineering generally, must produce valuable things, and sometimes the process of making those valuable things isn't "fun", but that's never been part of the equation. Aligning "fun" with "valuable" is nearly impossible, and when you try you're dooming yourself…

A few years ago I visited New York City and went to the MoMA. At the time, they had an entire floor dedicated to mid century design. I was always particularly taken with the Kennedy Armchair and the Eames lounge chair. Those pieces to me are undoubtedly art. But they also serve a function. They're chairs. A business analyst once told me - "you programmers have it so easy. It either works or it doesn't!" as if the vag…

Thanks for this. Well said and very quotable.

You should think about writing a book :)

Re: Laying myself off from Amazon

#270

Post by innocentoldguy »

p0rkbelly wrote: post #233
innocentoldguy wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was an L6 and my RSUs were worth sticking around for a year ago. Not so much today.

yeah...different story now. The target comp numbers ) assume 15% stock growth per year from when it's allocated to you. That model is now broke for the first time in a decade+. How it gets fixed... I'm not sure, but, there is history of cash payments to compensate. Point being, if you're not making more in year 3 than year 2 -- something is broke and/or your manager wasn't supporting you appropriately, or not hitting…

My last manager at Amazon was, and this is being kind, a shit whistle, so no support there whatsoever.
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