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Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

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Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#71

Post by johnward »

mirceal wrote: post #41
algaeontoast wrote: post #31

Working for amazon is like joining a fascist cult - you made the right decision. Source - worked for a startup that was acquired by Amazon. My team was slowly managed out of the company and replaced by teams in Seattle. Most of my team was let go by PIP, essentially claiming we weren't "performing at a high enough standard" since they weren't willing to reprehend my boss for being incompetent. However, I'm proud of t…

exit interview advice (applies everywhere): politely decline the exit interview. there is zero upside to doing an exit interview

I recently had an exit interview at IBM and my manager basically told me not to say anything. There is no point or benefit.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#72

Post by oarabbus_ »

I interviewed with AWS for an analyst/business intelligence engineer role.

When asked to write a query to get the total GDP by month per country, I wrote a query along the lines of:

select date_trunc('month',datecolumn) as month, country, sum(GDP) over (partition by date_trunc('month', datecolumn), country) FROM the_table order by 1

The interviewer asked me if I was missing something. I said no. "Don't you need an additional clause if you're doing a sum?"

"No," I responded, "in AWS Redshift (and postgres and mysql 8.0+ and...) if you do a Sum Window Function a group by is not necessary"

The interviewer made a noise and demeanor changed as if I knew not what I was talking about. While I can't be 100% sure, I'm almost positive I was failed for "missing" the group by.

I went home later that day and wrote exactly the same query, which ran successfully. The AWS BI Intelligence Engineering manager didn't even know how to use a sum window function. I was a bit frustrated at being failed because the interviewer didn't know of a (well-known, well-used) feature, but perhaps I dodged a bullet.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#73

Post by lawnchair_larry »

philsnow wrote: post #20
ses1984 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many friends do you have who worked for a company more than 5 years? Work for Amazon for 2 years, learn a lot, get paid a lot, move on.

Except the vast majority of your equity award, which itself makes up the vast majority of your total compensation at Amazon as an engineer, vests in your third and fourth years. Your first and second years you vest 5% and 15% (reportedly).

You get a first and second year signing bonus that is equal to the total comp target that you’d have with your 3rd and 4th year stock, so it’s the same thing.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#75

Post by guitarbill »

cameronbrown wrote: post #62
GoodJokes wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also a thing called unions.

The tech industry has the best horizontal mobility of any other right now. Why do we need the downside of unions when we can just move company and have only the upsides?

Because not everybody will be in a position to "just move" for various reasons, and you care about your co-workers? Or you simply have the sense to realise that you may be in an unfavourable position sometime in the future that may not be your fault?

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#76

Post by JakeStone »

dickeytk wrote: post #49
mirceal wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

exit interview advice (applies everywhere): politely decline the exit interview. there is zero upside to doing an exit interview

Call me a naïf, but I think exit interviews are a great way to speak candidly to skip-level managers about dissatisfactions you have—with the aim of making the company you’re leaving potentially a bit better for your colleagues. EDIT: I think “feedback” here is somewhat vague. You guys are talking about issues there would be no point in raising. For me this is not systemic issues. I would bring up more minor things,…

Exit interviews can lead to you being marked as "Do not rehire" depending on the degree of your candor.

It's obviously your call, but for the most part, I've just been as vanilla as possible when leaving, maybe remarking about the lack of compensation increase while working for a state budget determined salary position. That one, everyone groks and I didn't have it bite me in the butt when I came back to work for the local university a year later.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#77

Post by oarabbus_ »

dvt wrote: post #5

I've also turned down countless Amazon interview offers. In fact, I don't get how I'm still on their recruitment lists after asking several times to be removed. Amazon has arguably the worst culture out of any large tech company, and generally treats its workers like dirt. Given all my friends that worked for them, almost all have quit within 5 years. Given their abysmal warehouse management, it's no surprise they ha…

> Given all my friends that worked for them, almost all have quit within 5 years.

You lost me here. I don't know many people who have stayed in a tech company over 5 years. Also, if you're just a SWE at the same place for 5 years (as opposed to moving up the ranks), many people I know would view that as a black mark.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#78

Post by lawnchair_larry »

ohaideredevs wrote: post #44

The only thing that scares me is the IP factor if I work on stuff after work. From what I am hearing, if I am not in Cali, I am at risk even if I don't use company time/equipment? Amazon pretty much doubles salaries in areas outside of California, so it's extremely appealing money-wise if you stick around for the vest.

No, this is a common misconception.

Re: Why I Turned Down an AWS Job Offer

#79

Post by burtonator »

oarabbus_ wrote: post #72

I interviewed with AWS for an analyst/business intelligence engineer role. When asked to write a query to get the total GDP by month per country, I wrote a query along the lines of: select date_trunc('month',datecolumn) as month, country, sum(GDP) over (partition by date_trunc('month', datecolumn), country) FROM the_table order by 1 The interviewer asked me if I was missing something. I said no. "Don't you need an ad…

These things can always be childish when working with a bad interviewer. I once had an engineer keep interrupting me while I was explaining how sockets work because I wasn't covering small minutia details. Interviewing is an insane process. This is why building networks is more valuable so you're basically being interviewed by people you've already worked with.
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