Welcome to Pirate King
I'm Daniel, a Software Engineer at Microsoft, ex-Software Engineer at Amazon and ebay
and also a Software Engineering Mentor at two educational startups
In this video, I'm going to talk about the reason why I decided to leave Amazon three months after joining it
So make sure to stay until the end if you are curious about it
In this time, I'm going to do it in a Q&A format
I hope you guys enjoy it!
Alright, so
Let's start with the first question
How long did I work at Amazon
I worked at Amazon for about 13 months
So I started working for Amazon in April of 2017
my last employment was on April 30th of 2018
So that's about 13 months
and
Like I said earlier
I decided to leave Amazon three months after I joined
So yeah
Several factors
Compensation wasn't really a major issue to me
but I think I kinda knew that I wouldn't be happy staying here
Combine that with the poor company benefits and the oppressive company culture
It really didn’t take me long to make that decision
So that's the thing
Amazon doesn't really have that much perks
benefits
So I don't know about you guys, but for foreigners like me
The first things that comes to my mind when people talk about these tech giants in the US
is
free food
So the company gives the employees free food
And it's only after I started working for Amazon and moved to Seattle
that I learned that
there are two major companies in the US that still do not provide free food to their employees
Amazon and Microsoft
And I've worked for both
FML 🤪
And another thing that was critical in my decision was
Amazon green card sponsorship
So I think they changed the corporate policy to sponsor green card for all SWEs now
But it wasn't incorporated during my employment
And being restrained to work and living as a foreigner
really sucks you know
And I know this because I have lived my entire life as a foreigner
in Canada, South Korea, Japan, and the US
And I already knew that
other companies sponsor permanent resident cards
But why not Amazon?
So you know
another compelling reason not to stay
Lastly as I've mentioned at my previous videos
Amazon doesn't really have comparable benefits
They give you free Starbucks coffee
$100 to spend on amazon.com per year
And also
Free bananas 🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
That's literally it
Nothing else
It made its impact to the local community though
It killed the local banana market because nobody was buying bananas from grocery stores anymore
I'll say that it's really competitive
I honestly can't say most of my coworkers were actually coworkers
Everyone kinda felt like they were my competitors
There's the thing called PIPs
It's short for Performance Improvement Plan at Amazon
And if you get that, you got PIPed
Then you can pretty much say that
you are fxxxed
Cuz it basically means that the company wants you to leave
And unfortunately even during my short tenure at Amazon
I had already witnessed quite a few number of people suddenly disappear without a word
I had also seen a few managers get demoted too
And this all happened within that 13 months while I worked at Amazon
So I can openly say that the job security is not great obviously
Another compelling reason why I shouldn't stay
you know, get the hell out of here as soon as possible
You know
nobody wants to work under fear right?
One last thing that I'd like to mention is
this really intriguing internal website that an Amazonian employee had made
So what's very interesting about this platform is that
this internal website gives you some kind of a rank as an Amazonian currently working at Amazon
A rank in terms of how many Amazonians joined before and after you have and are still in this company
For example when you have just started your Day 1 at Amazon
Obviously you would be at like rank 100,000 out of 100,000 Amazonians?
So on my last day at Amazon 13 months after I started working for it
I went back to this website to see where I stand in terms of ranking
And to my surprise
I found myself in
somewhere in the middle
I think I was a little above middle
So it had only been about a year since I joined Amazon
And I was already at that 50th percentile in their chart
I said earlier that money and compensation are not the really most important things to me
I guess I'm not alone in that sense
So I think I've already talked enough about Amazon's work culture
Just like the company name says
it really is a jungle where you have to survive
Again don't get me wrong Amazon is a great company
They're one of the FAANGs They pay Software Engineer well
Their stocks have grown substantially over the past few years
And I've mentioned countless times that
they give you free bananas 🍌
And despite all the things that Amazon is notorious for
I still think that it is a great company a great business and a great place to work
But how does that really matter if you are not actually happy working there?
It's like how they say money cannot buy happiness
Likewise great company and great compensation did not really correlate to my happiness either
And I guess if I'm not going to be happy Then I guess I shouldn't be there
So going back to the question
I honestly don't think it's fair for me to say that I was unhappy at Amazon
I was simply unhappy at my team
The work wasn't fun
Not only that, I didn't think the team would help me grow into a better Software Engineer
Which is another factor that I was really afraid of
So yeah I think a mix of unsatisfying work plus a lack of growth with a little more emphasis on the former
is what made me decide to leave Amazon so early
So the division was Amazon Prime The team was called CMX Content Management Experience
We were responsible for building a platform that marketers use to conduct experiments like A/B testing
And my team was responsible for building the frontend of it
And here's the thing
I don't enjoy working on frontend
Well to be specific it's not that I don't enjoy frontend but I don't like writing my own HTML and CSS
It wouldn't have been an issue if I was given the HTML and CSS and I only have to code on top of it
But the thing about this platform and my team is that it's not customer facing It's an internal tool used by in-company marketers
So software engineers were really responsible for writing up their own HTML and CSS
Which really sucks
I mean I don’t wanna deal with the visual design stuff
Let me tell you an anecdote
There was an incident where I sent out a code review And one of the code reviewers came to me with a serious face saying
Why is this color green?
(rofl...) I’m like
what the f
Like can’t I ask the same question for red? orange? blue? or any other color?
But obviously I didn’t do that and instead asked him back
What is your favorite color? 🔴🟡🟢🔵
Of course I always do and here's the thing
I always do it once cuz I don’t believe there’s a point in doing it twice
Here’s what I’ve learned from working at these giant corporations
You have an issue and you bring it up to your manager You surface it
If the manager is really the kind of person who really cares about you And sincerely wishes to turn the wheels around so that things do change for you
They’ll make it happen without me having to say it twice
On the other hand if they don’t listen to you show objections or say they will but do not take any actions
The chances are it’s not going to change even if you say it multiple times
a.k.a. It's time for you to leave
So I brought it up to my manager and explicitly told him that I want to work more on backend and not frontend
I mean I’m a software engineer not a frontend engineer right?
Amazon is actually a little special in that sense that the roles are explicitly separated
Frontend engineers, as the name suggests, only work on the frontend And Software engineers, well, work on a mix of both or just the backend
Anyways I did tell him my true feelings And asked him whether a change would be possible
And I remember him saying yes but with a very reluctant face
He actually said I’ll try my best
But that best didn't really sound like a best to me
You know if he did really try his best he would have at least come to me and say something like
I did my best but I wasn’t able to find any backend work for you now
Would it be okay for you to wait a little until I find it?
But instead I heard nothing back from him ever since
I waited about a month And as my third month at Amazon was finishing up
I told my wife
I’m changing my job
So well, here’s the thing
At Amazon If you want to change teams you still have go through that full onsite coding interviews to make that happen
That means months of leetcoding Lots of preparation
So if you think about it
If you are going to put that much amount of effort and time into preparation anyways
Why not give other companies a try?
I can always fall back to switching teams within Amazon but only if I fail to do so outside of it right?
Besides, it’s not like Amazon has the best benefits and compensation anyways
So the RSU system at Amazon is quite messed up too
The restricted stock units only vest 5% on the first year 15% on the second year and 40% on the third and fourth
We call it a back-weighted vesting schedule
Compare this with the ‘normal’ RSU at other companies where stocks vest 25% every year for four years
Where you would have collected half the RSUs at other companies after two years you wouldn’t even have reaped a quarter at Amazon
And I explained earlier that money and compensation isn’t really the most important factor to me
I mean if those stocks are going to make me into a millionaire then the story might be different
But it’s only 5% I don’t think it was even worth $10,000 at that time
And like I said the price I’m paying by not growing at Amazon was greater than the money the stocks bring
I didn't think a few stocks is worth the career stagnation
So I made that decision three months after joining Amazon But changing job needs preparation
And for software engineers, that means leetcoding
But Amazon is my first company in the US
And I had relocated all the way from South Korea for this job
So I spent the next three months to first get settled in Seattle first Then another three months preparing for leetcode
I started interviewing and decided to accept my offer from Microsoft 9 months after I joined Amazon
I actually wanted to leave as soon as possible now that my next destination had been determined
But since I was on a work visa back then there was this process of going through the visa queue
getting the work authorization, etc which delayed the entire process by additional three months
I honestly didn’t really care about that 5% RSU but because my visa approval took so long
I had no choice but to complete that full year at Amazon
and I guess get that 5% 😎
Nope I absolutely don’t
I have never regretted leaving Amazon even after their stocks have quadrupled since I joined
Not only would they take four years to fully vest I just didn’t want to leave my career at stake
I mean that’s four years!
Besides, Microsoft is a lot more chill and they offered me a position that I really wanted
There was nothing more I could ask
at that time...
So this is my story These are all the reasons why I decided to leave Amazon so early
So what do you guys think?
Should I have still stayed at Amazon given that their stocks have nearly quadrupled since I joined?
Would the compensation, the stock, the money have been really worth it?
And if you're wondering how I aced my Microsoft interview
You can check the full story out here
Alright guys thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed it or at least found some values to it
What is the most important thing for you when you are choosing your company?
Is it the money? The compensation?
Or growth? Career? Anything else?
Well whatever it is and wherever you are
I just wish that we all be happy
Thanks for watching I'll see you on the next one
Bye