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Ask HN: Job decision: Apple vs Amazon

3 points by juggernauty 16y ago

Hi I wish to take your help in deciding my employment. I have got job offers from Apple and Amazon. Work in Apple (Cupertino) is mostly in wireless (internal tool development) whereas in Amazon (Seattle) I am asked to choose a team (for SDE) by mid November. I understand that both are good reputed companies but not sure which one to prefer. I think giving more insight into my profile would help you guide me better. I worked in Nokia for 2 years and interned at Apple this summer. I am presently doing my Masters in Computer Science. The work which I did as intern in Apple and will do as full time employee, is to build some tools for analyzing logs for internal purposes (in wireless team). In case of Amazon, I am yet to select the teams, for which I am called to Seattle by mid of November. Pros of Apple: * Brand value Cons of Apple: * Nature of work - only compsci guy amidst wireless brains.. (still good) Pros of Amazon: * Good pay and work (hopefully, depending on my team selection) Cons of Amazon: * Brand value lesser than Apple Sorry about the big description. Hope I have made myself clear. Would appreciate if you can come up with some suggestions to help me come to a decision. Thanks !

jamesteow 16y ago
Maybe I'm being naive (as I'm not a programmer), but the brand value in this case is negligible. The type of work supersedes anything and if you feel that you'll develop yourself more and embrace the work at Amazon, then that's an easy choice.
maxawaytoolong 16y ago
APPLE And work the employee stock purchase plan... E-commerce sucks nuts. Only do Amazon if it pays $50K more than the Apple offer. And even then it's probably not worth it.
mechanical_fish 16y ago
The "brand value" is a meaningless consideration. Ignore it. The question I'd ask is: Do you like your job at Apple? You've already worked there. You should have some idea of whether it's a place you want to keep working. If you're reading HN, studying CS, and willing to consider living among the world's sunniest collection of temporary buildings, don't be in a rush to leave Silicon Valley. If you decide in a year or four that you would like to leave Apple the alternatives are literally right around the corner. Seattle is not the worst tech city either, thanks to all those current and former Microsoft employees, but it will surely have fewer pickings. On the other hand, if you can't stand Silicon Valley, head north. It's not as if it would be some kind of career-killing mistake. You can change your mind later if you want.
- juggernauty 16y ago
  I do not have any personal location preferences. Bay area is cool but Seattle is cooler (thanks to the 9-month per year rain) :)
sp4rki 16y ago
There's no better brand in this case. Amazon and Apple are both juggernauts in their respective fields and both look as good as the other in paper. You should be thinking of three things: 1) Which one pays more and by how much? 2) Which one promises work you might enjoy more than the other? 3) Which one has a better culture in your eyes, which one is a better fit for your personality. Apart if you're a fanboy for webdev and server infrastructure I'd go for Amazon no questions asked. If I was more into the OSX ecosystem then Apple of course. My personal opinion? I'd work at Amazon. I don't think I'd feel comfortable working for Apple (which is funny cause I'm typing this from my macbook...)
- juggernauty 16y ago
  You are absolutely right. i) Pay - Both Apple and Amazon pay 90k, with Amazon pipping with 25k more as sign on bonus. ii) I feel that my work at Amazon would be better, even though I am yet to make my team selection iii) Both seem to have same culture.. which is slog for at least 10 hrs a day. :(
  - sp4rki 16y ago
    It really boils down to the fact that Amazon seems to be offering you a better chance to do something more "meaningful", while at Apple you will be working on an internal too and in a team that, in my opinion is not as interesting. Take that with a grain of salt since I don't really know what kind of development goes on on that group in Apple.
brudgers 16y ago
What I see as relevant is that you worked at Apple and are not enthusiastic about the work you would be doing. Discounting "brand value" you list neither a pro for Apple nor a con for Amazon. Good Luck.
- juggernauty 16y ago
  Nice observation brudgers. My work at Apple is developing internal tools using scripting languages. As a CS student, I feel that it is not challenging for my programming skills but is a good environment to learn latest mobile communication (2G, 3G and more). Without brand value taken into consideration, I feel inclined towards Amazon. Can someone please suggest which team in Amazon would be the best to work with?
nandemo 16y ago
Do you care a lot about having free time every week (as opposed to be willing to work a lot)? If so do you have any idea on how many hours a week you're going to work in each company? If you work at either team at Amazon, are you going to be on-call for support?
- juggernauty 16y ago
  I feel that my working hours per week is going to be the same at both places. I do not know about being on-call for support in Amazon.
juggernauty 16y ago
It seems that many of you suggest Amazon as a better choice. Thanks for your comments guyz.
tw1234 16y ago
From my offers, the benefit package of apple is much better than amazon. The salaries are about the same (amazon bonus is better). But apple has imo better health etc, stock purchase plan (which I don't believe amazon has), bigger discounts for apple products, better pay raise (I need to ask HR if amazon has yearly bonuses), amazons 401k matching is pitiful.

3 points by juggernauty 16y ago

jamesteow 16y ago

Maybe I'm being naive (as I'm not a programmer), but the brand value in this case is negligible. The type of work supersedes anything and if you feel that you'll develop yourself more and embrace the work at Amazon, then that's an easy choice.

maxawaytoolong 16y ago

APPLE And work the employee stock purchase plan... E-commerce sucks nuts. Only do Amazon if it pays $50K more than the Apple offer. And even then it's probably not worth it.

mechanical_fish 16y ago

The "brand value" is a meaningless consideration. Ignore it. The question I'd ask is: Do you like your job at Apple? You've already worked there. You should have some idea of whether it's a place you want to keep working. If you're reading HN, studying CS, and willing to consider living among the world's sunniest collection of temporary buildings, don't be in a rush to leave Silicon Valley. If you decide in a year or four that you would like to leave Apple the alternatives are literally right around the corner. Seattle is not the worst tech city either, thanks to all those current and former Microsoft employees, but it will surely have fewer pickings. On the other hand, if you can't stand Silicon Valley, head north. It's not as if it would be some kind of career-killing mistake. You can change your mind later if you want.

juggernauty 16y ago
I do not have any personal location preferences. Bay area is cool but Seattle is cooler (thanks to the 9-month per year rain) :)

sp4rki 16y ago

There's no better brand in this case. Amazon and Apple are both juggernauts in their respective fields and both look as good as the other in paper. You should be thinking of three things: 1) Which one pays more and by how much? 2) Which one promises work you might enjoy more than the other? 3) Which one has a better culture in your eyes, which one is a better fit for your personality. Apart if you're a fanboy for webdev and server infrastructure I'd go for Amazon no questions asked. If I was more into the OSX ecosystem then Apple of course. My personal opinion? I'd work at Amazon. I don't think I'd feel comfortable working for Apple (which is funny cause I'm typing this from my macbook...)

juggernauty 16y ago
You are absolutely right. i) Pay - Both Apple and Amazon pay 90k, with Amazon pipping with 25k more as sign on bonus. ii) I feel that my work at Amazon would be better, even though I am yet to make my team selection iii) Both seem to have same culture.. which is slog for at least 10 hrs a day. :(
- sp4rki 16y ago
  It really boils down to the fact that Amazon seems to be offering you a better chance to do something more "meaningful", while at Apple you will be working on an internal too and in a team that, in my opinion is not as interesting. Take that with a grain of salt since I don't really know what kind of development goes on on that group in Apple.

brudgers 16y ago

What I see as relevant is that you worked at Apple and are not enthusiastic about the work you would be doing. Discounting "brand value" you list neither a pro for Apple nor a con for Amazon. Good Luck.

juggernauty 16y ago
Nice observation brudgers. My work at Apple is developing internal tools using scripting languages. As a CS student, I feel that it is not challenging for my programming skills but is a good environment to learn latest mobile communication (2G, 3G and more). Without brand value taken into consideration, I feel inclined towards Amazon. Can someone please suggest which team in Amazon would be the best to work with?

nandemo 16y ago

Do you care a lot about having free time every week (as opposed to be willing to work a lot)? If so do you have any idea on how many hours a week you're going to work in each company? If you work at either team at Amazon, are you going to be on-call for support?

juggernauty 16y ago
I feel that my working hours per week is going to be the same at both places. I do not know about being on-call for support in Amazon.

juggernauty 16y ago

It seems that many of you suggest Amazon as a better choice. Thanks for your comments guyz.

tw1234 16y ago

From my offers, the benefit package of apple is much better than amazon. The salaries are about the same (amazon bonus is better). But apple has imo better health etc, stock purchase plan (which I don't believe amazon has), bigger discounts for apple products, better pay raise (I need to ask HR if amazon has yearly bonuses), amazons 401k matching is pitiful.