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Amazon is hungry for MBAs, so getting one might be a good idea--if you want to work for Amazon in a non-technical role.

by kyllo 11y ago

mason55 11y ago
I have a good friend who went into Amazon after his MBA (formerly a MechE at Intel). They have an awesome leadership program where they start you on the line at a warehouse and work you up until you're running a big part of it, then move you to Seattle to start running pieces of the business. It's not easy, he was at the warehouse at 5am every day and worked many, many long days, but if your end goal is to be running a big company one day then it seemed like a great experience.
Nicholas_C 11y ago
Amazon seems hungry for folks without MBAs as well. I've had two friends without MBAs leave our company for Amazon, one was hardly out of school for two years, and they both received incredible compensation packages.
- littletimmy 11y ago
  What does "incredible" mean here? Over and above market?
  - kyllo 11y ago
    Well it seems like the market is bifurcated. One is the Google/Microsoft/Apple/Amazon/Facebook market where the starting salary is between 100-130k USD/year. My understanding is that Amazon is basically on par with this group, possibly at the lower end of it depending the specific position. Then there's all the other companies out there that employ software development teams, and probably pay 20-40% less than the aforementioned behemoth firms on average. If you work at one of those companies (and I do), Amazon's compensation package seems incredible. But maybe a bit less incredible if you divide it by the actual number of hours worked. Amazon is notorious for being a workaholic environment.
  - Nicholas_C 11y ago
    Above market. My friends are financial analysts by the way.
ExceptioNullMan 11y ago
Amazon was eager. I'd highlight the non-technical role bit. Anecdotal but heres my story regarding them: Recruiter was very excited to fly me to Seattle. I attribute the MBA to that(CS Undergrad). Unfortunately I find a common stigma attached to the MBA for technical roles. During my Technical Program Management interview none of the interviewers had a business degree. PhD in cs, and an MIS, but I didn't connect much with 2/4 of the interviewers. 'So you don't want to be a developer anymore' was one of the opening comments I received. To address this i'm currently working on an intermediate step (title=founder?) to further distance myself from pure dev and thinking about PMP & Marketing certifications to help downplay the 10 years work experience developing. On the other side of the coin, they say that Amazon hires only one out of every 5 candidates, my sample size of 1 is too small, and I cant claim I aced every conversation.
- ryandrake 11y ago
  I think it's more of a tech company culture thing, not specific to Amazon. I've been to interviews where the interviewers were genuinely bewildered that I left a coding-only career to do a full-time MBA program. The degree (even from a top school) doesn't really seem to help out here in the Bay Area (maybe Seattle too, I've never been there). The banks and consultancy firms would rather you had a finance or consulting background, and won't hire you unless you're fresh out of MBA school. The tech companies either can't get over their anti-MBA stigma (as if merely getting the degree makes you suddenly forget math/engineering fundamentals) or just assume you went back to school because you were a bad coder. Most tech companies seem to have a "Chinese wall" between the tech side and the business side, and there aren't many roles out there with the opportunity to overlap. Unless you want to do a start-up, where everyone wears many hats, but I like to be able to pay my mortgage and eat.
- _yosefk 11y ago
  PMP? Seriously? (I'm not saying I know anything about the value of having this certification in terms of career prospects. What I do know is that you get to memorize a ton of horseshit to then spit it out in a brain-damaged multiple-choice test, and instinctively - not based on experience - I wouldn't want to manage a project in an org which values the "PMP" label, because it sounds like the kind of project where every pencil/square of toilet paper/etc. counts, the thing as well as the org in general being barely profitable.)

Amazon is hungry for MBAs, so getting one might be a good idea--if you want to work for Amazon in a non-technical role.

by kyllo 11y ago

Amazon is hungry for MBAs, so getting one might be a good idea--if you want to work for Amazon in a non-technical role.

I have a good friend who went into Amazon after his MBA (formerly a MechE at Intel). They have an awesome leadership program where they start you on the line at a warehouse and work you up until you're running a big part of it, then move you to Seattle to start running pieces of the business. It's not easy, he was at the warehouse at 5am every day and worked many, many long days, but if your end goal is to be running a big company one day then it seemed like a great experience.

Nicholas_C 11y ago

Amazon seems hungry for folks without MBAs as well. I've had two friends without MBAs leave our company for Amazon, one was hardly out of school for two years, and they both received incredible compensation packages.

littletimmy 11y ago
What does "incredible" mean here? Over and above market?
- kyllo 11y ago
  Well it seems like the market is bifurcated. One is the Google/Microsoft/Apple/Amazon/Facebook market where the starting salary is between 100-130k USD/year. My understanding is that Amazon is basically on par with this group, possibly at the lower end of it depending the specific position. Then there's all the other companies out there that employ software development teams, and probably pay 20-40% less than the aforementioned behemoth firms on average. If you work at one of those companies (and I do), Amazon's compensation package seems incredible. But maybe a bit less incredible if you divide it by the actual number of hours worked. Amazon is notorious for being a workaholic environment.
- Nicholas_C 11y ago
  Above market. My friends are financial analysts by the way.

ExceptioNullMan 11y ago

Amazon was eager. I'd highlight the non-technical role bit. Anecdotal but heres my story regarding them: Recruiter was very excited to fly me to Seattle. I attribute the MBA to that(CS Undergrad). Unfortunately I find a common stigma attached to the MBA for technical roles. During my Technical Program Management interview none of the interviewers had a business degree. PhD in cs, and an MIS, but I didn't connect much with 2/4 of the interviewers. 'So you don't want to be a developer anymore' was one of the opening comments I received. To address this i'm currently working on an intermediate step (title=founder?) to further distance myself from pure dev and thinking about PMP & Marketing certifications to help downplay the 10 years work experience developing. On the other side of the coin, they say that Amazon hires only one out of every 5 candidates, my sample size of 1 is too small, and I cant claim I aced every conversation.

ryandrake 11y ago
I think it's more of a tech company culture thing, not specific to Amazon. I've been to interviews where the interviewers were genuinely bewildered that I left a coding-only career to do a full-time MBA program. The degree (even from a top school) doesn't really seem to help out here in the Bay Area (maybe Seattle too, I've never been there). The banks and consultancy firms would rather you had a finance or consulting background, and won't hire you unless you're fresh out of MBA school. The tech companies either can't get over their anti-MBA stigma (as if merely getting the degree makes you suddenly forget math/engineering fundamentals) or just assume you went back to school because you were a bad coder. Most tech companies seem to have a "Chinese wall" between the tech side and the business side, and there aren't many roles out there with the opportunity to overlap. Unless you want to do a start-up, where everyone wears many hats, but I like to be able to pay my mortgage and eat.
_yosefk 11y ago
PMP? Seriously? (I'm not saying I know anything about the value of having this certification in terms of career prospects. What I do know is that you get to memorize a ton of horseshit to then spit it out in a brain-damaged multiple-choice test, and instinctively - not based on experience - I wouldn't want to manage a project in an org which values the "PMP" label, because it sounds like the kind of project where every pencil/square of toilet paper/etc. counts, the thing as well as the org in general being barely profitable.)