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People say that working for Amazon for a year is enough “training” to serve as a resume badge. However, I’d like to provide a counter to that: when I see Amazon

People say that working for Amazon for a year is enough “training” to serve as a resume badge. However, I’d like to provide a counter to that: when I see Amazon on a resume, I actually discount the candidate. In my opinion, the branding has suffered tremendously and I view the candidate as a compensation maximizer beyond all costs- why else would you join Amazon despite the well known horror stories, as well as their complete disdain for human life in the name of “customer obsession?”

qbasic_forever 5y ago
Um, you realize people need a job to put a shelter over their head and food in their mouth--right? For everyone below vice president Amazon is just a J-O-B to them. It's not their lifestyle, it's not their worldview. You're missing out on an unbelievable amount of good candidates with that view.
- bodge5000 5y ago
  I have noticed on HN a weird idea that most programmers are insanely rich and can pick and choose any job they like (I even saw one person say "lets be honest, none of us need a job..."), so I guess they're going by the logic that if you work for them you either endorse their worldview or don't care, which as you say I doubt is true for the majority of us
  - qbasic_forever 5y ago
    You can look up the average salaries for Amazon folks on sites like glassdoor. They're known for being competitive but not particularly larger or better than any other tech company. They pay well enough to live in a high cost of living area like Seattle but that's about it. Someone who spends a couple years at amazon is not going to be 'insanely rich'.
  - pm90 5y ago
    Well, not insanely rich. But let’s not pretend that the profession doesn’t compensate way above average and lots of options to choose from. definitely favorable for labor in this market, which is unlike most other labor markets.
- operatingthetan 5y ago
  I probably wouldn't want to work for a manager who filtered out names from their list based on previous employers alone. That seems like petty and self-sabotaging behavior.
  - beachy 5y ago
    That's actually one of the strongest signals that recruiters look for - who do you work for currently/ previously.
boustrophedon 5y ago
I joined Amazon after being laid off towards the beginning of the pandemic when many companies had hiring freezes in place and having happened to be contacted by a recruiter during the same day. I also left for mostly the same reasons everyone else does.
dvnguyen 5y ago
Mind sharing your company name?
evgen 5y ago
"Oh, those grapes were probably sour anyway!" Some people work a short period to get a taste of the tech stack and pace of a FAANG while other people post to HN about upcoming interviews at Meta and how they may hate the company's morality but want that big fat comp package. Everyone has their own reasons for taking a particular job and sometimes that calculation needs include the cost of associating your work history with the brand of the company you are working for, but if you think that what you are doing and the impact it has on the rest of the world is important then that warm and fuzzy feeling is a part of the compensation you are maximizing. In the long run no one will care, so anyone who is not maximizing compensation is probably a fool.
kstenerud 5y ago
I wouldn't be so quick to judge. Big companies are actually like a conglomeration of small companies under an umbrella company. The culture is 20% upper management, 80% local management, and so your experience will differ greatly from department to department. Bad managers exist in most companies. They can and do target people for personal reasons, and usually the targeted person doesn't have the protection or political clout to defend themselves, so they're killed off and life goes on. I had a similar experience at Canonical of all places, which was a real drag because they were one of the few fully remote companies at the time, and I like the company.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ikiris 5y ago
It's always kind of amazing the level of privilege that can be displayed in HN comments. Not everyone has the opportunities you have had. Some people actually have to struggle to climb for X reasons, and make tradeoffs to enable them to survive / grow. Some people actually need money and can't just ignore wads of cash being thrown at them for the first time in their lives.
schrute 5y ago
> when I see Amazon on a resume, I actually discount the candidate You're fighting ignorance with more ignorance.

qbasic_forever 5y ago

Um, you realize people need a job to put a shelter over their head and food in their mouth--right? For everyone below vice president Amazon is just a J-O-B to them. It's not their lifestyle, it's not their worldview. You're missing out on an unbelievable amount of good candidates with that view.

bodge5000 5y ago
I have noticed on HN a weird idea that most programmers are insanely rich and can pick and choose any job they like (I even saw one person say "lets be honest, none of us need a job..."), so I guess they're going by the logic that if you work for them you either endorse their worldview or don't care, which as you say I doubt is true for the majority of us
- qbasic_forever 5y ago
  You can look up the average salaries for Amazon folks on sites like glassdoor. They're known for being competitive but not particularly larger or better than any other tech company. They pay well enough to live in a high cost of living area like Seattle but that's about it. Someone who spends a couple years at amazon is not going to be 'insanely rich'.
- pm90 5y ago
  Well, not insanely rich. But let’s not pretend that the profession doesn’t compensate way above average and lots of options to choose from. definitely favorable for labor in this market, which is unlike most other labor markets.
operatingthetan 5y ago
I probably wouldn't want to work for a manager who filtered out names from their list based on previous employers alone. That seems like petty and self-sabotaging behavior.
- beachy 5y ago
  That's actually one of the strongest signals that recruiters look for - who do you work for currently/ previously.

boustrophedon 5y ago

I joined Amazon after being laid off towards the beginning of the pandemic when many companies had hiring freezes in place and having happened to be contacted by a recruiter during the same day. I also left for mostly the same reasons everyone else does.

dvnguyen 5y ago

Mind sharing your company name?

evgen 5y ago

"Oh, those grapes were probably sour anyway!" Some people work a short period to get a taste of the tech stack and pace of a FAANG while other people post to HN about upcoming interviews at Meta and how they may hate the company's morality but want that big fat comp package. Everyone has their own reasons for taking a particular job and sometimes that calculation needs include the cost of associating your work history with the brand of the company you are working for, but if you think that what you are doing and the impact it has on the rest of the world is important then that warm and fuzzy feeling is a part of the compensation you are maximizing. In the long run no one will care, so anyone who is not maximizing compensation is probably a fool.

kstenerud 5y ago

I wouldn't be so quick to judge. Big companies are actually like a conglomeration of small companies under an umbrella company. The culture is 20% upper management, 80% local management, and so your experience will differ greatly from department to department. Bad managers exist in most companies. They can and do target people for personal reasons, and usually the targeted person doesn't have the protection or political clout to defend themselves, so they're killed off and life goes on. I had a similar experience at Canonical of all places, which was a real drag because they were one of the few fully remote companies at the time, and I like the company.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ikiris 5y ago

It's always kind of amazing the level of privilege that can be displayed in HN comments. Not everyone has the opportunities you have had. Some people actually have to struggle to climb for X reasons, and make tradeoffs to enable them to survive / grow. Some people actually need money and can't just ignore wads of cash being thrown at them for the first time in their lives.

schrute 5y ago

> when I see Amazon on a resume, I actually discount the candidate You're fighting ignorance with more ignorance.