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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

#271

Post by Elof »

endymi0n wrote: post #245
Salgat wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just wish companies that didn't have the applicant pool of a FAANG company understood this. Leetcode for your average dev company is a great way to lose a massive portion of the qualified talent pool. I can guarantee almost every SaaS developer never touches dynamic programming beyond simple memoization, yet its tested so much. You might as well test a French Cuisine Chef on how well his Chinese cooking is.

> You might as well test a French Cuisine Chef on how well his Chinese cooking is. A way more apt comparison would be evaluating him on his knive sharpening skills.

As someone who has worked in professional kitchens, I can say that any professional chef that isn't comfortable sharpening their own knives isn't there because they love cooking. All of the ones I know take great pride in their knives.

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

#272

Post by mgkimsal »

Jemaclus wrote: post #102
netizen-936824 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does PIP stand for? I haven't run into that acronym before

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 had a friend who was put on a PIP at a smallish company. Company had 200+ people, but this satellite office in a different state had about... 8-10, and was run more or less by a single guy. He put my friend on a PIP - which was just... strange, because they'd sort of built up that office on their own initially just the 2 of them, then it grew a bit more. He PIPs he, then leaves a couple weeks later, and no one had any idea how to handle this dangling PIP. IIRC the company just erased it, and she was there for another couple of years after that, with no issues (other than bad pay and shrinking office size).

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

#273

Post by ghaff »

wallscratch wrote: post #189
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…

> My biggest gripe is that Leetcode is systematically favoring candidates who have months of free time to […] Wouldn’t this be true of almost any other selective interview process?

No. An interview process can be very selective without really requiring prep beyond studying up on the company somewhat--and maybe not really even that to the degree you're already familiar with the company.

Not a developer (though was an engineer) but I've never studied for an interview beyond maybe spending an evening reading up on a company. But, to be honest, the (few) jobs I've had over the past 20 years or so have always come through knowing people.

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

#274

Post by jedberg »

jonny_eh wrote: post #264
endymi0n wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You might as well test a French Cuisine Chef on how well his Chinese cooking is. A way more apt comparison would be evaluating him on his knive sharpening skills.

And if they couldn't sharpen a knife? Would you still trust them to cook a 5 course dinner?

Sure. Just like I trust race car drivers to drive even though they don't know how to fix the car. As long as they understand the basics of how the car parts interact, they'll be just fine driving it.

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

#275

Post by exolymph »

batmaniam wrote: post #96

The article mentions aggressive delivery dates, conflicting goals between different departments that get in the way of career progression, and massive amounts of stress as being 'normal' at Amazon. And we already know that Amazon exploits and over-exerts their employees in other divisions, like warehouse. At what point do we say enough is enough? Amazon warehouse employees are already pushing for better working condi…

> If nothing changes, your friends and colleagues (and your future children if they do engineering) will all still suffer at the hands of Amazon.

????? it's super possible to simply not work there

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

#276

Post by treis »

dpark wrote: post #105
spike021 wrote: post #70

This is like my situation. I just left after being there for 20 months. Various reasons on the team side. Imposter syndrome is a bad excuse but it contributed. Tried switching but other teams insisted on a full interview loop before I could even see it that team would be a better fit.

> Tried switching but other teams insisted on a full interview loop before I could even see it that team would be a better fit. That’s because they have no consistency in their hiring bar. I know multiple people who were contacted immediately by Amazon recruiters after failing an interview loop. “Hey, that other team says you suck but I bet you’re perfect for our team.” When you know other teams are happy to take you…

> I know multiple people who were contacted immediately by Amazon recruiters after failing an interview loop. “Hey, that other team says you suck but I bet you’re perfect for our team.” When you know other teams are happy to take your reject candidates, you can’t trust internal candidates any more than external ones.

That happened to me too but I chalked it up to incompetence. They told me at the beginning of the process that I'd have to wait a year to re-apply if I wasn't successful the first go around.

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

#277

Post by eecc »

wallscratch wrote: post #189
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…

> My biggest gripe is that Leetcode is systematically favoring candidates who have months of free time to […] Wouldn’t this be true of almost any other selective interview process?

Well, as a contractor/consultant it’s such a waste of time when a company flips the Codility card. I simply walk away, it’s not worth the effort for a 6mo-1yr gig.

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

#278

Post by autokad »

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…

> "My biggest gripe is that Leetcode is systematically favoring candidates who have months of free time to memorize arbitrary logic puzzles. It makes me sad for the less privileged candidates who might be working a job while also trying to break into the IT field."

I told google that this style of interviewing is discriminatory, especially towards people with families, or other commitments. Never got another call for an interview since ^_^

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

#279

Post by AtlasBarfed »

"How manual most of the processes were" - manual processes are more durable to turnover

"Documentation is very important at Amazon" - helps alleviate the impact of constant turnover

"Teams are fragile" - um, because of turnover?

"Everything is urgent" - indirectly because of turnover, because if you don't nag people to enable your deliverables, you get fired.

"Everything is built in house" - helps make you harder to fire, gives you bully power over other new hires since you know it top to bottom, protects you from the organization that is trying to constantly turn over people

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

#280

Post by hemloc_io »

samspenc wrote: post #144
vishnugupta wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (5% - first year, 15% - second This is done on purpose because a vast majority of employees leave Amazon within 18 months or so. And those who can withstand that environment for 24 months and beyond develop thick enough skin and make enough internal connections to survive till 5+ years. (bit of a tangent) > in case HR is reading this HR's primary (perhaps only) job is to protect the upper management (execs and abov…

I heard that their (miserly) first and second year RSU vests are made up for with a cash component during those two years, or am I mistaken about that?

Haha what they probably don’t mention is second year bonus is prorated.

So it’s a double fuck you, bc it gets paid out as quickly as salary but is in permanent to your TC as a bonus lol

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