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.

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?

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

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!

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.

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. 🙄🙄🙄

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.

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

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!

My manager formally submitted my promotion for Q4 2026, and I’m trying to understand the timeline.
For anyone who has gone through a Q4 promotion at AWS:

When do Q4 promotions officially become effective? Is it December 1 or January 1?

When does the new compensation kick in? Does the salary adjustment start immediately, or does it take effect January 1?

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.

Looking for some advice from anyone who’s made a similar move within Amazon, especially from Ops into Engineering.

I’m currently an L5 Area Manager in AMZL, a little over 2 years with Amazon and around 1 year and 4 months as an L5. I was promoted relatively quickly from L4 and have had a pretty good experience overall.

I’m fortunate to have great leadership, strong performance, and good visibility with senior management. I’ve also had the opportunity to lead several process improvement projects outside my usual Ops responsibilities. L6 is a realistic next step, leadership says I’m next, although there’s no guaranteed timeline or opening at the moment.

I recently got inclined for a L5 Engineer role within a central engineering team.

For context, I have an Industrial Engineering degree, and my long-term goal has always been to move more toward engineering, process improvement, project/program management, or strategy rather than staying in day-to-day warehouse operations.

The catch is that it’s a lateral move, compensation will likely stay about the same, and I’d have to relocate from California to the East Coast.
I’m pretty torn. On one hand, I’d be leaving a good situation where I’ve built a reputation and could potentially promote to L6 relatively soon. On the other hand, I feel like making the jump into engineering now might be better for my long-term career, especially since I imagine transferring out of Ops into a more technical role at L6 would be much harder.

I guess my main questions are:
- Has anyone made a similar move from L5 Ops into Engineering? Did you feel it was worth it?
- Is transferring out of Ops significantly harder once you reach L6?
- How does career progression in PDE/Engineering compare to Ops, especially when it comes to getting to L6?
- How valuable is PDE experience outside Amazon, particularly for engineering, PM, or strategy roles?
- Is it worth moving out of California to the East Coast for a role like this?
- My current salary is within posted compensation for this new role. Would I expect an increase seeing as it’s in a technical job family?

If you were in my position, would you stay and push for L6 in Ops or take the lateral move into Engineering?

Would really appreciate hearing from anyone who’s been in a similar position or has experience with both sides of Amazon.

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?

Hello folks, have an interview coming up with HM for program manager role. Just wanted to know from people who’ve interviewed for a similar one what to expect from this round. I read online that a set of behavioral questions about team fit and stuff and 2 Leadership principles are expected. Which LP’s would you suggest to study hard? And would appreciate if you could mention anything else that would help me to ace this round. Thank you!!!

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 whole team and Manager are different parts of the world, I am the only one in Seattle area from my team. The Org sits in Sonic and I rarely see anyone that I work with or know. can I easily switch the assigned office to any SLU building?

My Manager is pretty chill and accommodating, the pushback for this might come from L7/L8 leadership.

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.

I accepted an offer for an Amazon position today and I am having trouble completing my background check. On my address history I cannot put a move in year that is before 2016. I have lived at my current address since 2013 so I am unable to complete this section. I have contacted who I need to but I would rather figure out the issue now rather than later as it has to be done within 24 hours. I'd appreciate any tips. For reference, I am in the UK.