3 ms·

Sorry for going off-topic here, but I'm curious. You say you "had to" work a fulfillment center over peak season. Were you an engineer at Amazon at the time? I

Sorry for going off-topic here, but I'm curious. You say you "had to" work a fulfillment center over peak season. Were you an engineer at Amazon at the time? I'm asking because I've been told that Amazon makes engineers work at their fulfillment centers when it's peak season. If that's true, are people paid extra to do so?

mabbo 10y ago
I was a software developer for Amazon for five years, the majority of which was writing software for the fulfillment centers. Recently left to join a startup. My answers represent my experience, not Amazon's response. > I've been told that Amazon makes engineers work at their fulfillment centers when it's peak season Good god, no. An engineer salary has got to be 4 to 8 times the salary of an FC Associate (or more), and generally speaking we're terrible at manual labour! Besides which, the engineers are generally busy making sure the software doesn't fall over from the X-times load increase of all the extra users during the peak season. That said, the better engineers tended to try to get on-site frequently to better understand the tools, problems, etc. I sure tried to be there often.
GabrielF00 10y ago
Not true. Managers are required to work in fulfillment centers (not necessarily during peak season) for a couple days as a means of giving them experience with that part of the company. I think is only for managers above a certain level, but don't remember the details. There's a similar program for customer service call centers.
krapp 10y ago
No, I actually literally just work in a fulfillment center at the moment. I moved near Austin, TX, Amazon was hiring, and I needed something to have health insurance and start saving up to pay off my student loans (for a business application programming degree, ironically.) I would like to be an engineer there but I think I'm underqualified for most of those positions. I learn what I can about the software and the processes when I can, though.
- mabbo 10y ago
  There's a very rare path from FC associate to the software side at Amazon. I've met a few people who've done it. This includes a senior principle engineer and an L8 director of software.
  - krapp 10y ago
    I did find their internal Twitter clone and notice that it was open source. If I could find a way to contribute to it without violating Amazon's policies I'd consider it.

mabbo 10y ago

I was a software developer for Amazon for five years, the majority of which was writing software for the fulfillment centers. Recently left to join a startup. My answers represent my experience, not Amazon's response. > I've been told that Amazon makes engineers work at their fulfillment centers when it's peak season Good god, no. An engineer salary has got to be 4 to 8 times the salary of an FC Associate (or more), and generally speaking we're terrible at manual labour! Besides which, the engineers are generally busy making sure the software doesn't fall over from the X-times load increase of all the extra users during the peak season. That said, the better engineers tended to try to get on-site frequently to better understand the tools, problems, etc. I sure tried to be there often.

GabrielF00 10y ago

Not true. Managers are required to work in fulfillment centers (not necessarily during peak season) for a couple days as a means of giving them experience with that part of the company. I think is only for managers above a certain level, but don't remember the details. There's a similar program for customer service call centers.

krapp 10y ago

No, I actually literally just work in a fulfillment center at the moment. I moved near Austin, TX, Amazon was hiring, and I needed something to have health insurance and start saving up to pay off my student loans (for a business application programming degree, ironically.) I would like to be an engineer there but I think I'm underqualified for most of those positions. I learn what I can about the software and the processes when I can, though.

mabbo 10y ago
There's a very rare path from FC associate to the software side at Amazon. I've met a few people who've done it. This includes a senior principle engineer and an L8 director of software.
- krapp 10y ago
  I did find their internal Twitter clone and notice that it was open source. If I could find a way to contribute to it without violating Amazon's policies I'd consider it.