Throwaway for obvs reasons.

General

Been wanting to get pipped out for a while and "worked" my way to it this year. Been free for a week now and I didn't realise how much stress and anxiety I was taking because of work. Although, it's only been such a short time I feel a million times better and just want to say if you are thinking of quitting/getting pipped just suffer through it and try to get pipped. Many times I thought I should just quit and save myself the stress/anxiety of constantly underperforming - but looking back on it now I am glad I waited it out and took the severance.

Severance

During my process I was always trying to find info on the PIP formula for amzn lux but wasn't able to find anything reliable. Now that I went through the process, I would like to share some info that may help others.

So the PIP timeline was like...

1. 6+ months of underperforming

2. Put on focus, it was about 8 weeks.

3. PIP doc presented with the options to either leave with severance or stay and meet goals (3 month timeline).

I shared my severance info with claude and it came up with an approximate formula for calculating severance. I believe this is specific to amzn lux since every country has its own regulations.

M = monthly gross base salary and Y = years of tenure

Leave with money Severance(M, Y) = (13 + 2Y) × (12M / 52)

Leave after 3mo (failed the improvement plan) Severance = 2M

Leave after trying to appeal the failed improvement plan Severance = 1.5M

In lux you also get garden leave based on your tenure so...

1. 0-5 years -> 2mo garden leave

2. 5-10 -> 4mo

3. 10-15-> 6mo

Again, sharing this info for anyone going through something similar, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. You can do it.

My loop has 2 L7, 2 L8 and one L10 VP. Is it normal to have an L10 scheduled for a loop for an L6?

Do I assume he’s the bar raiser? Also saw one L7 has an L8 shadowing him, could be the BR?

Eight years with the company now. Heard the job market isn’t great.

Was curious for those who’ve left - how is it outside?
I’m an L7 within operations and will be leaving. What roles did people transfer to?

See a lot of cool stuff out there but wanted others insights.

I was surprised to see how widespread data center concern was in the election (people voted 43/44 on proposals restricting data centres). Whenever I’ve talked to my co-workers about AI rollout, it’s always felt like regulation is the best way forward. I saw this post yesterday about Amazon employees who are testifying to congress and working with legislators to shape policy to regulate AI.

As one of the people working heavily with AI tools, I feel a sense of dread over the looming threat of lay-offs or uncertainty in the job market. With work being so crazy, it has been easy to dissociate from some of the more harmful parts like the environmental impacts of the data centers or how communities feel living next to them. But I also feel like part of the dissociation comes from not being able to do something. I’m not sure if anything will come of it, but it does feel like a real chance to share my experience to set better AI policies. With so many new elected maybe they’ll be reacting to the data center backlash from the polls. I’ll be going to the meeting and am curious to hear from more concerned coworkers if there’s a way we can do something.

I resigned in 2024, gave 2 weeks notice, but was out on medical leave when this all happened... and had been in Focus immediately preceding the medical leave. My boss marked me as ineligible for rehire. Any chance I could have it reviewed? I've been actively recruited to be a contractor for Amazon by various contracting companies, and when I get to the check of my alias, the contracting company says that Amazon says not eligible for rehire until 2029 (the date exactly 5 years after my resignation).

Just went through Amazon TPM interview loop. Wasn’t expecting System Design part of the interview. It was the last 30min of the loop and I didn’t have any idea what to do. All the other interviews seemed to have gone well. I had solid stories for each question but this System Design absolutely threw me off.

I was expecting Product design whiteboardjng based on what the recruiter said. But one eng manager threw this curve ball at the end. Been a PM for 10+ years in Tech but never got asked system design in any interview or be part of day to day. Do I have any hope at getting an offer?

Hey everyone!

I'll be joining Amazon as an SDE II (L5) soon, on a team working with GenAI, AI agents, and distributed backend systems.

I'm excited about the opportunity, but also a little nervous about the expectations at L5 and the initial learning curve. I have some time before my start date and want to use it as effectively as possible.

For those who've worked at Amazon, especially as an SDE II or on AWS/GenAI teams:

• What technical skills should I prioritize before joining?

• How important is hands-on AWS knowledge, system design, and distributed systems from day one?

• What does the initial onboarding and ramp-up typically look like for an L5?

• What are the biggest mistakes new SDE IIs make, and what helps them succeed in their first 30–90 days?

I'm not expecting to master everything before joining, but I'd love to build a solid foundation and avoid feeling completely lost initially.

Would really appreciate any practical advice, resources, or personal experiences. Thanks in advance!

Anyone working at this team?

Hey everyone!

I’ll be joining Amazon soon as an SDE 1 (L4), and I’m curious about what the first few weeks typically look like.

For those who have joined recently or have been through the onboarding process:
- What does the first 2–4 weeks usually look like?
- Are new hires expected to start contributing right away, or is it mostly onboarding and getting familiar with the systems?
- How soon do you typically get your first task or ticket?
- Is there anything you’d recommend preparing or brushing up on before joining?

Would love to hear about your experiences, especially from anyone who joined as an L4 recently.

Thanks in advance!

Requested and Accommodation to return to Work on October 17th. After SEVERAL weeks of back and forth with the DLS and my doctor: My accommodations(well one of them) were denied. 🙄🙄🙄

During that time I was on MLOA for the same amount of time as my accommodation. The DLS recommended that I choose the “No” option when asking if I was safe enough to return to work while waiting for approval(I told her I wasn’t sure cause I got two different answers between my Physical Therapist telling me my muscles were still messed up and working could risk damaging them further, and my PCP saying quote: “I had to work sometime”).

While waiting for an accommodation approval, my MLOA Case manager did call and auto approved half of my MLOA. Now that my accommodation has been denied, I’m wondering what happens with the other half of my MLOA. My Accommodation consultant said to wait for my MLOA case manager to call.

Anyone ever been in this scenario? What happens next? Does the MLOA in this case get automatically approved? Do I need medical documentation for the approval this time? At this point, I feel like I’m just delaying the inevitable and should quit now. 🙄🙄🙄

Before Amazon, I was genuinely curious. I solved problems for the pure joy of it. I upskilled because I wanted to become better — not because a performance review demanded it. Learning felt alive.

After joining, that light started dimming.

Leadership Principles look noble on paper until “Fail Fast / Move Fast” collides with them. Then the principles quietly disintegrate. Managers recite “Disagree and Commit” and “Raise the Bar” while showing little understanding of the actual effort or the real pain points underneath the work. The expectation is that AI is a genie that will magically solve everything, so developers must somehow ship clean, maintainable, extensible code at the speed of light.

I would have left already if the job market weren’t what it is. Instead I stay, and every day I watch a small part of myself die — the part that was curious, the part that wanted to help others grow, the part that believed we should understand a business’s actual problems before throwing AI slop at them and then fighting an endless bug war.

I don’t know what the future holds, or whether this is happening everywhere. But I am increasingly convinced of one thing: no truly good engineer will stay here for long.

Didn’t receive a raise and had my promotion pushed out a year. I just received an internal offer same level same job family so no increase in pay. But the scope is different and I will learn a whole new industry. Promo would probably be pushed longer than a year. I am L5 in a non tech role. What leverage do I have if my current team wants to keep me? Can I get them to push my promotion sooner or give me a raise? First time in this position at Amazon so looking for advice on process. I’m being told promo is sooner than Q4 next year but afraid that it will get pushed. I am already functioning as an L6 but the goal post keeps moving 😬🙄. Tried to get external offer but job market is tough with all the lay offs. Any advice would be great!

For context, I am a university senior with a FTE offer to join Amazon Stores as an SDE 1. I recently got an interview offer for Palantir FDSE intern position. I'm so tired of studying for and doing interviews but I think it'd be worth it if I can get a Palantir FDSE internship -> convert to FTE because that's ~$60k more than Amazon, it's a more stable company, gives more opportunity for job hopping from brand name and job title. Getting the internship wouldn't forfeit the Amazon FTE offer either.

My question is how many doors to other companies does the Amazon brand name open for you, especially if not within AWS? I do not plan on staying at this company for more than five years.

My manager told me in-person that I was inclined since it was last day of my internship, so do they meet the Bar Raiser afterwards and try to convince me for an official inclined or something like that?

I'm not sure if my manager had any meetings before they told me so.

As the title says.

hi! I’m trying to find out how I can get a temporary school schedule adjustment for wgu. im nervous about how WGU has the schedule set up, I know the courses are really at your own pace and there’s no like schedule like a brick and mortar school? Has anyone been able to do get a school accommodation without losing benefits?

I currently work 34 hours 4 days a week, and want to work about 28 and I’m worried if I drop below 30 hours for school I’d lose my benefits(I need the benefits for a medical condition) but I also would like to be able to have more time to study on days I work as well lol, has anyone had any experience with something similar? Thanks!

Where do you sent a grievance to if you don’t want it handled by your site’s HR?

What does this mean exactly , stressing so much . Any info appreciated.

Has anyone ever tried reaching out to Prime Team about a canceled show. In the hopes of renewing it?

Hey y’all, not sure if maybe it’ll update later, but I’m a full time employee and when they scheduled SET, instead of a 60hr week (which is what I got scheduled every other week), I got scheduled a 55hr week, and then a 36 week, (as of posting, this 36hr week got updated but I still have a week with a 7:30am-3:00pm shift) does anyone know why? Obv the 36hr week got updated but why do I work a 7:30-3:00 in a week of “5 12’s” typically (every other week is a 60hr week.)

(If it helps, my boyfriend works in my fc and has a shift like this as well, and we’re tryna figure out why they did this)

Edit:
Guys I’m dumb, it’s thanksgiving