Hacker News Reader

Comment by intunderflow | Hacker News Reader

I've heard so many terrible stories about working at Amazon that I'm not sure I would ever work there, both in the media and from friends who were severely mistreated.

It's a shame, because some of the tech they work on (like S3) is super interesting and high scale, but I do not want to acquire a mental health crisis from work.

View on HN

I'm morbidly curious, like if I knew I had a solid job waiting for after and didn't have to stress over it going sideways. They'd probably smell my non-seriousness a mile away though and never hire me.

You'd come across as relaxed and confident, and probably stand a better chance of being hired as a result.

That's just leverage. Nothing non-serious about it. No reason to sacrifice one's life for a corporation when you have better options. They generally don't want people like that, they want people who will sacrifice. People without options.

That's the draw for me. Now that I've adequately licked my wounds from a life where I just never quite had the stability I needed (and got that stability too ofc), I now really want to work for Amazon just to see how hard I can push myself. I've told my wife the current plan is, once she has her degree finished, I'm going to crowbar my way into one of their software engineering departments by any means necessary.

Seems like a weird way to push yourself.

Like what if it turns out you join a team that ranks you more based on politics/caste/luck than any sort of talent or motivation and you just feel trapped in a weird game?

You come out of it with Amazon on your resume which makes it super easy to get jobs.

Not really, at least not right now. I know my workplace and a few others are weary of ex-Amazon employees. Usually get picked for interview if there's no one else and gets an extra behavioral round. For management positions, it better be a internal referral who is willing to vouch for you very highly.

There is an ocean of difference between a workplace located on the West Coast where you have your pick of the litter enough that you can filter out ex-Amazonians, and where I currently am, working as a tech lead on railway software in some city in Finland.

I'm the same way. It sounds horrible, but I would probably give a limb just to take a peek at the guts of AWS.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com