Always amused on Blind about people posting leaving Microsoft for Amazon because TC is the only thing folks seem to focus on there. I've known dozens of Amazon engineers and I've never met one that was happy.
I left Amazon due to it being a total shit show (for me and my mental well-being but also for the team I was on). Went to Microsoft and found it to be absolutely wonderful. I was working at 6pm one day and my manager, as he was leaving, chided me and said, "Go home to your family. Work will be here in the morning."
I have had friends/colleagues leave to go to Amazon for the TC. One even tried to get me to go over there for a PE role that likely would have meant a huge pay increase. But I value my sanity and have no plans to go back there ever.
I've been working at Microsoft (in the Office org) for a bit over three years now and this managerial attitude is very common. I'd go so far as to say that managers making sure their reports have a good work life balance is standard.
It comes with the age of the company. Unlike start-up land, loads of people in Microsoft have families and kids, and value their family more than they value work. It's normal to leave work on time, and it's concerning if someone stays late.
TC seems to be the only focus on Blind. It's almost laughable, but I suspect the demographics on it skew very early stage career/young.
And yes, I've met two people who worked at AWS and liked it, essentially because they were hyper-specialized and had the rare cushy gig there. Everyone else loathed it within months, and no one lasted longer than a few years because AWS squeezes out 'productivity' with everything short of rusty pliers.
"its incredibly high pressure and demanding, but worth it"
The money is the drive. And I worry about going for a money job that I hate because getting used to the lifestyle will mean it is that much harder to leave. I am already in that boat where leaving my current job basically means a pay cut or going to a FAANG. It is very limiting especially with family pressure.
In my experience, "incredibly high pressure and demanding" is code for:
- Hacky code with quick turn around times.
- Lots of reporting and CYA.
- Very conservative behavior (nobody's going to go out on a limb to write something new because they're too busy churning through those "high pressure" Jira tickets).
In the long run you just have an army of engineers, their backs whipped raw, toiling frantically at a mountain of tech debt.
The Microsoft boomerang is very common. Leave, get some better pay elsewhere, then come back and get hired into the level you feel that you should have been promoted into internally (with more pay).
Amen. Worked for AWS for 6 years. 6 years I'll never get back, 6 years of abusive practices, corruption, lies, and bullshit. This is the bed they've made, let the sleep in it.
Is this just AWS that has such a broken culture or it is all other teams? Although AWS is big, but Amazon has other organisations and teams. (https://www.amazon.jobs/en/search-teamcategory).
Their reputation is catching up with them and their lack of stock growth is highlighting their comp deficiencies.