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Originally Posted by DETRoadster
That's how they get you and the stock options are how the keep you for 4 years. There seems to be a culture there that actually values turnover so they incentivize the Hell out of you to hang on for dear life and do anything to survive until your options vest.
I have one close friend who works for Amazon and 7 former employees who do. My brother worked on contract at Amazon. I've also interviewed a handful of former Amazon execs for positions far below their paygrade. I'll explain...
The close friend is, no joke, the smartest person I've ever met. Harvard grad, MIT Sloan School of Management MBA. He was working 70 to 80 hours a week at Amazon developing and maintaining the software code that predicts ordering patterns months and even years in advance so that inventory and warehousing can react. He's insanely smart and one of the most interesting, charismatic, and genuinely nice people you'll ever meet. And, he got put on a performance improvement plan. It was brutal and it all pointed back to a shitty manager. He ended up moving departments and things got better. He jumped departments again and is now completely bored with what he does but it's also very survivable. It seems that once you are in the door, and vested, the game is to find a department where you can survive as opposed to finding one doing something you actually enjoy.
My brother LOVED his time at Amazon but he worked for a contracting company so he had a layer of protection there from the BS, but also did not enjoy any of the benefits. He was doing video production so more on the creative size. he said that generally, people on the creative side find things more laid back than those on the operations side. Not sure where tech writing would fall as it kinda bridges those two worlds.
The company I work for now hires smart kids right out of college and gives them their first break. We train them, give them practical and transferrable skills like project management, and dont pay them all that well. They stick with us for 2 to 3 years and then they are off to a big paying tech company job, many with Amazon. I keep in loose contact with a few and it's the same story when it comes to overall satisfaction: It all depends on the department you are in.
Finally there's the burnt out ex-Amazon execs I interview for Director and VP level positions making 25% of what they were making at Amazon. Same story every time: They killed themselves at Amazon for years, developed mental or physical health problems, quit, took a year off, and are now wanting to contribute their skills and knowledge in a fun and collaborative environment where work/life balance still means something. My wife does primary care medicine and has a dozen or so upper level management Amazon employees with job related anxiety, stress, depression. She patches them up and tells them all the same thing: "You need to take a year off, get healthy, then get a new job."
Anyway, that's my experience. Personally I would not touch them with a 10-foot pole unless I was literally recruited by a manager I knew saying "come work for me in my department and this is what it will be like." The risk of hitting a "bad" department is just too great.
I wish you all the best. Keep us posted on whether you score the position! I've hired a number of tech writers in my time and worked with many. As you said, you are a rare breed. Good tech writers are hard to come by so if Amazon realizes that you might just find yourself in a highly valued and well treated department.
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I left the aforementioned employer in my post above for the exact same reasons you outlined. Was too stressful. Things management was doing was unethical. I was placed on a PIP for nothing I had control over yet the partner we were working with that was responsible for this issue was still being entertained by upper management at socials.
I found another job where I took a $20k per year base pay cut and it was totally worth it.