4 ms·
How common are these huge annual salary bumps at Amazon?
by nicolashahn 8y ago
How common are these huge annual salary bumps at Amazon?
- kornish 8y agoThose total comp bumps from 2015-2019 were probably due to massive stock appreciation more than salary increase.
- DVassallo 8y agoOnly 2016 and 2017. The other years had minor impact from stock appreciation (~$5-15K). In 2016 I got a big bump because I got a competing offer from Oracle at $380K, and Amazon matched it.
- bitcoinmoney 8y agoCan you share what sort of skills related to cloud would net me 380k/year? Got a phd ee doing C++ mostly.
- DVassallo 8y ago5 years experience at one of the leading cloud companies (AWS, Azure, Google) will very likely put you right in that market. Nothing special to join. It’s very hard to enter directly as an SDE-3 (or equivalent) without having experience at one of the big companies. I think in 8 years at Amazon I’ve only seen 1 person doing that. With a phd and some work experience you can likely join as an SDE-2 and get to an SDE-3 level in about 5 years. The exact timing depends a bit on the opportunities you’d find, but I’d say that’s definitely very realistic. I can put you in touch with a recruiter from Amazon if you’re interested. My email is in my profile.
- bitcoinmoney 8y agoDo SDE3 interviews still do it leetcode style?
- DVassallo 8y agoNo, they shouldn't. But it depends on the interviewer. SDE-3 interviews will be more behavioral than technical.
- bitcoinmoney 8y agoAlso, what language were you using?
- DVassallo 8y agoJava mostly. But I didn't write a line of code in the last 2 years.
- bronxbomber92 8y ago"Cloud" can mean a lot of things, so what does it mean to you in this context? Edit: Put another way - day to day, what are people in such roles working on exactly?
- DVassallo 8y agoDeep knowledge of how services like those offered by AWS, Azure, and Google are built, operated, and designed to scale.
- DVassallo 8y agoI got a big bump in 2016 because I got a competing offer from Oracle, and Amazon matched it. 2017 and 2018 growth was from stock appreciation. If the stock hadn’t increased so much, the last 2 years would have been at around the 2016 level. AFAIK, people with ~10 years experience commonly get offers at around my 2016 level.
- opportune 8y agoThis is less a direct question and more of a discussion: I always thought it was considered a bad move to stick with your old company after receiving a competing offer and negotiating a higher wage at your old company. Conventional wisdom I've read is that your old company will slowly phase you out (thus missing out on promotions/raises). Have other people been so successful using an offer for a raise at your original employer and staying?
- mercutio2 8y agoI have never retaliated against employees who gave me competing offers; some times I haven't been able to meet them and they left, but every time I did meet them, people stayed. The people who stayed basically pulled forward a stock grant that was coming anyway, and increased this year's raise while decreasing it a fair bit for the next two years. I've always been explicit that this is what's happening; the area under the income curve does end up larger, but not by a large amount. Of course the option value of having a grant vs. hoping for a grant is worth something, too. DVassallo's $160k bump across one year's W2 is much larger than I've ever seen granted.
- DVassallo 8y agoAt big companies I don't think that happens. Everyone understands that everybody is there for a temporary period. In my case, I think only about 3 people knew about this, and I believe they genuinely wanted me to stay.
- opportune 8y agoThis is really good information to know, thanks.
- anth_anm 8y agoIt's stock increases.
- DVassallo 8y agoOnly 2016 and 2017. Those 2 years would have been at 2016 level if stock didn't increase. The other years had negligible impact from stock increases.