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My company (Amazon) is hiring fast right now. Somehow I feel like you aren’t going to consider us because you think we are inherently inferior engineers though!

cmrdporcupine 6y ago
Your engineers sound very impressive. Too bad about the management.
wutbrodo 6y ago
Personally, I have no reason to believe Amazon engineers are inferior, but I've been hearing bad things about how they're treated for almost a decade now. That isn't to say I absolutely wouldn't consider Amazon without trying to look into it more, but I definitely know people who, for that reason, don't consider Amazon when planning a move to a bigco.
- cmrdporcupine 6y ago
  Exactly. And some of the company's recent moves re: labour practices etc. have also been questionable, or up for debate at least. What I also hear about Amazon is that the experience varies wildly from group to group. That's not a gamble I'd be willing to take. Google is not nearly so balkanized; there are fairly consistent expectations across the company in terms of what is acceptable manager behaviour. I am not happy at Google. But if I were to jump ship it would be to a small or medium sized company that is more agile and internally cohesive and where things move quickly, not to another BigCo with all the excessive bureaucracy and politics that goes with that. I miss the teams I worked on where there were less than 30 or so engineers in the company.
  - lowiqengineer 6y ago
    You’re really just implying that if the experience is worse and we are treated badly (aka no company paid off sites to Hawaii or seasons working remotely in Tahoe) the only people at Amazon are there because they aren’t capable of getting better offers.
    - cmrdporcupine 6y ago
      That I doubt very much. They're there because they're motivated by different things. I wouldn't last at Amazon, from what I have read. But some people thrive with different motivations. The most satisfied Amazon engineers I've spoken to spoke with pride about the pace and intensity of development. Goes for Apple, too. Those people would not be happy at Google. Things move slow there, and most people have little control over tech stack or many design choices at all, TBH. I hear that's better at Amazon. The era of Hawaii offsites at Google is long over.
  - scarface74 6y ago
    Exactly. And some of the company's recent moves re: labour practices etc. have also been questionable, or up for debate at least. The only reason that you don’t hear as much about labor practices with the other tech companies is because they outsource all of the low skill employees that make their products to China. Google has a lot fewer physical products but the people who make their few hardware products are treated worse than any Amazon employee. Yes the same applies to Apple. I’m not making a value judgement. Just calling a spade a spade.
- lowiqengineer 6y ago
  Of course. It’s the same code words people use when they describe neighborhood schools while avoiding race. “Wouldn’t consider Amazon when planning a move” seems to have the same tenor as “Wouldn’t consider moving to a less white neighborhood”

cmrdporcupine 6y ago

Your engineers sound very impressive. Too bad about the management.

wutbrodo 6y ago

Personally, I have no reason to believe Amazon engineers are inferior, but I've been hearing bad things about how they're treated for almost a decade now. That isn't to say I absolutely wouldn't consider Amazon without trying to look into it more, but I definitely know people who, for that reason, don't consider Amazon when planning a move to a bigco.

cmrdporcupine 6y ago
Exactly. And some of the company's recent moves re: labour practices etc. have also been questionable, or up for debate at least. What I also hear about Amazon is that the experience varies wildly from group to group. That's not a gamble I'd be willing to take. Google is not nearly so balkanized; there are fairly consistent expectations across the company in terms of what is acceptable manager behaviour. I am not happy at Google. But if I were to jump ship it would be to a small or medium sized company that is more agile and internally cohesive and where things move quickly, not to another BigCo with all the excessive bureaucracy and politics that goes with that. I miss the teams I worked on where there were less than 30 or so engineers in the company.
- lowiqengineer 6y ago
  You’re really just implying that if the experience is worse and we are treated badly (aka no company paid off sites to Hawaii or seasons working remotely in Tahoe) the only people at Amazon are there because they aren’t capable of getting better offers.
  - cmrdporcupine 6y ago
    That I doubt very much. They're there because they're motivated by different things. I wouldn't last at Amazon, from what I have read. But some people thrive with different motivations. The most satisfied Amazon engineers I've spoken to spoke with pride about the pace and intensity of development. Goes for Apple, too. Those people would not be happy at Google. Things move slow there, and most people have little control over tech stack or many design choices at all, TBH. I hear that's better at Amazon. The era of Hawaii offsites at Google is long over.
- scarface74 6y ago
  Exactly. And some of the company's recent moves re: labour practices etc. have also been questionable, or up for debate at least. The only reason that you don’t hear as much about labor practices with the other tech companies is because they outsource all of the low skill employees that make their products to China. Google has a lot fewer physical products but the people who make their few hardware products are treated worse than any Amazon employee. Yes the same applies to Apple. I’m not making a value judgement. Just calling a spade a spade.
lowiqengineer 6y ago
Of course. It’s the same code words people use when they describe neighborhood schools while avoiding race. “Wouldn’t consider Amazon when planning a move” seems to have the same tenor as “Wouldn’t consider moving to a less white neighborhood”