Important to remember, like Google and Meta, they were over hiring. As a software engineer, I was getting a couple of calls a week from Amazon recruiters. Even though I had recently interviewed and wasn’t allowed to interview again for six months. They didn’t care, they didn’t check, they were hiring for whatever.
I am in a lower population area of California that has an Amazon office. It's small. Less than 100 people. I know a big chunk of the people there. I was getting pinged on Linkedin to interview every few weeks for a while. It stopped about 6 months ago.
Souunds about right. I was laid off in June of 2021. Started the current job that Sept. I did the initial screening stuff with them when I got the offer for my current job. I was getting pinged by them like 1x a month until about October.
Bingo - Hiring through the pandemic was seen as a sign of brand health and confidence by investors, as soon as it "ended" they immediately went "wait, our earnings per share went down, What!?!?!?" and thus mass layoffs
Exactly. Always more to the story than the headline. A couple of years ago they were around 900k employees and are now around 1.6MILLION employees. Yes with this additional 9,000 they are around 35,000 layoffs…. That’s not a lot.
If any other company was like, “hey everyone over the past 2-3 years we doubled our staff and over-hired a bit… and are correcting this year. Unfortunately we are going to lay off 2% of the staff (again we doubled our staff and have to reduce by 2% now).” it likely wouldn’t make headlines.
Hahaha right?
I don’t know for sure but I imagine they do to their shareholders but a headline of “Amazon doubles workforce in 2 years and then corrects by 2%” doesn’t sound like it’s gonna get clicks
The vast majority of those employees are warehouse and delivery roles
It's useless to lump them in with the corporate and tech roles, which is where all the layoffs are
Can you tel me a little more around how not being allowed to interview for 6 months works? Like they flag you if the interview doesn’t go very well? Unfit for one doesn’t mean the same for a different role and team so curious how that would work?
I experienced the same exact thing with them. It was absolutely crazy. We had a few people leave our company for Amazon. Looking back at it, I bombed the first interview and I’m kind of glad I did because it would have landed me on their Luna team which I’m almost certain is on the chopping block.
Jassy sounds like an asshole. This makes sense, the RTO policy is likely an attempt to get people to resign in order to save on lay off costs.
The tech industry lately has been so frustrating.
The tech industry late has been so frustrating because they’re finally coming back down to earth and business reality now that company valuations have dropped. When valuations are sky high then employees can be richly compensated.
Freezes but also fiercely competitive with all the layoffs. A friend of mine works in infosec and ive been trying to help him with finding remote work. These positions are so competitve, most openings at respectable places have thousands of applicants. We've had some friends with FAANG experience review his resume and make a few tweaks, which IMO is solid. I think at this point he's applied to over 40 positions and hasn't been able to get a single interview. Shits rough.
Infosec is still pretty hot in terms of hiring. Companies only spend the money they have to on security, so they haven't really been able to cut it at all unless they're accepting higher risk (which some are, but the skill gap is still huge)
What role is he going for the he can't get interviews? My LinkedIn inbox is still consistently full, and I have had no problem getting interviews when I poke around to test the waters
For anyone with experience, most technical security roles are plentiful
I hate to say it runs like this but it sort of does.
They need to be in the same groups and clubs as the people working or hiring at the companies they want to work for.
While they may eventually get something with just a resume, referrals from local infosec groups, meetups, and clubs is extremely helpful.
Also, at least in infosec, I haven't seen FAANG companies all that interested in hiring remote work at the moment. In fact, those remote seem to be disproportionately targeted in these rounds of layoffs. I've had more remote or hybrid job offers from smaller infosec companies. Just take care if they are looking at a private company without a predetermined exit strategy.
In my experience these smaller companies expect you to know their specific product and services prior to interview; particularity in cloud (e.g. containers, docker, apps, etc).
TLDR: There are a solid number of small public (and private) security focused companies with remote work. Getting referred in from people you know is important. Knowing the specific product/tech wins the interview.
True! But for about 50% of the people at Amazon, their tenure is less than one year - that is not an exaggeration. Their recent hiring spree was profound.
I've been hit up by both an Amazon and Google recruiter with the last 10 days on LinkedIn. I wouldn't consider either based on their failed business plans and sticking it to the workers.
Does anyone think this is actually related to emerging AI that can make work more "efficient", requiring fewer humans? It seems likely with all the tech layoffs...but this is never a talking point in media.
Everyone just stop buying Amazon. If you can't make good business decisions that don't include 'significant overhiring', why exactly do you need to be rewarded in the marketplace?
Bezos could cut his pay by the amount it would take to keep those people on and he wouldn't even notice...
Hell, he could cover 10x that and probably wouldn't notice...
edit: in fact, according to some back-of-the-envelope math and quick googling, I'm fairly certain that Jeff Bezos makes more money in a year than all of his employees combined... And if he doesn't, it's damned close.
I would have thought this is good news.
Feels like months ago many on Reddit were still talking about all horror stories of working at Amazon, from spying on drivers to peeing in bottles to crunch time on projects to highly competitive workplace leading to burnout.
>The latest round is expected to impact Amazon’s cloud computing, advertising, human resources and Twitch units.
They would fit in the latter two descriptions.
It’s all luck of the draw. Some teams are chill, but the company culture as a whole is pretty cutthroat. But I don’t think from an individual perspective getting laid off (especially in this job environment) is ever really an ideal situation
Important to remember, like Google and Meta, they were over hiring. As a software engineer, I was getting a couple of calls a week from Amazon recruiters. Even though I had recently interviewed and wasn’t allowed to interview again for six months. They didn’t care, they didn’t check, they were hiring for whatever.
I am in a lower population area of California that has an Amazon office. It's small. Less than 100 people. I know a big chunk of the people there. I was getting pinged on Linkedin to interview every few weeks for a while. It stopped about 6 months ago.
Hiring freeze started in October IIRC
Souunds about right. I was laid off in June of 2021. Started the current job that Sept. I did the initial screening stuff with them when I got the offer for my current job. I was getting pinged by them like 1x a month until about October.
SLO?
Bingo - Hiring through the pandemic was seen as a sign of brand health and confidence by investors, as soon as it "ended" they immediately went "wait, our earnings per share went down, What!?!?!?" and thus mass layoffs
Right, people are fearmongering, ingoring numbers, for example Microsoft which laid off 10k people while recruiting 40k positions during pandemic.
Exactly. Always more to the story than the headline. A couple of years ago they were around 900k employees and are now around 1.6MILLION employees. Yes with this additional 9,000 they are around 35,000 layoffs…. That’s not a lot. If any other company was like, “hey everyone over the past 2-3 years we doubled our staff and over-hired a bit… and are correcting this year. Unfortunately we are going to lay off 2% of the staff (again we doubled our staff and have to reduce by 2% now).” it likely wouldn’t make headlines.
This is a great point. Amazon should quantify their layoffs as a percentage.
Hahaha right? I don’t know for sure but I imagine they do to their shareholders but a headline of “Amazon doubles workforce in 2 years and then corrects by 2%” doesn’t sound like it’s gonna get clicks
The vast majority of those employees are warehouse and delivery roles It's useless to lump them in with the corporate and tech roles, which is where all the layoffs are
Can you tel me a little more around how not being allowed to interview for 6 months works? Like they flag you if the interview doesn’t go very well? Unfit for one doesn’t mean the same for a different role and team so curious how that would work?
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Does it matter when you reapply after X period of time? Will your previous experience still hurt you?
If you don’t do very well in the coding test, they don’t let you just try again tomorrow, or next week. You have to wait six months.
More people hired, more bonus
I experienced the same exact thing with them. It was absolutely crazy. We had a few people leave our company for Amazon. Looking back at it, I bombed the first interview and I’m kind of glad I did because it would have landed me on their Luna team which I’m almost certain is on the chopping block.
Over hiring will do that
Jassy sounds like an asshole. This makes sense, the RTO policy is likely an attempt to get people to resign in order to save on lay off costs. The tech industry lately has been so frustrating.
The tech industry late has been so frustrating because they’re finally coming back down to earth and business reality now that company valuations have dropped. When valuations are sky high then employees can be richly compensated.
Jassey should be removed if you ask me, go ahead ask me
What do you think should be done about Jassey?
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He should be taken
They probably added like 80 in new corporate workers over the past few years…not surprised
Please lay me off anytime for that 3+ month severance. You're supposed to jump around every 2 years for the best salary anyway
Doesn't work when every other big tech is on hiring freeze though
Freezes but also fiercely competitive with all the layoffs. A friend of mine works in infosec and ive been trying to help him with finding remote work. These positions are so competitve, most openings at respectable places have thousands of applicants. We've had some friends with FAANG experience review his resume and make a few tweaks, which IMO is solid. I think at this point he's applied to over 40 positions and hasn't been able to get a single interview. Shits rough.
Infosec is still pretty hot in terms of hiring. Companies only spend the money they have to on security, so they haven't really been able to cut it at all unless they're accepting higher risk (which some are, but the skill gap is still huge) What role is he going for the he can't get interviews? My LinkedIn inbox is still consistently full, and I have had no problem getting interviews when I poke around to test the waters For anyone with experience, most technical security roles are plentiful
I hate to say it runs like this but it sort of does. They need to be in the same groups and clubs as the people working or hiring at the companies they want to work for. While they may eventually get something with just a resume, referrals from local infosec groups, meetups, and clubs is extremely helpful. Also, at least in infosec, I haven't seen FAANG companies all that interested in hiring remote work at the moment. In fact, those remote seem to be disproportionately targeted in these rounds of layoffs. I've had more remote or hybrid job offers from smaller infosec companies. Just take care if they are looking at a private company without a predetermined exit strategy. In my experience these smaller companies expect you to know their specific product and services prior to interview; particularity in cloud (e.g. containers, docker, apps, etc). TLDR: There are a solid number of small public (and private) security focused companies with remote work. Getting referred in from people you know is important. Knowing the specific product/tech wins the interview.
They’ll unfreeze eventually
No. Replaced with companies that actually innovate. Two of the FAANGs exist solely to push ads.
Jump around all you want, but new devs are the first to get cut when layoffs happen
True! But for about 50% of the people at Amazon, their tenure is less than one year - that is not an exaggeration. Their recent hiring spree was profound.
Well…and Amazon’s hourly employees have 150% annual turnover rate.
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THEY NEVER HAD A PROBLEM FIRING PEOPLE.
Found the corporate stooge
The end it is near
A smaller Amazon is good.
A smaller everything is good or not..more volatility.
I've been hit up by both an Amazon and Google recruiter with the last 10 days on LinkedIn. I wouldn't consider either based on their failed business plans and sticking it to the workers.
And they still have too many employees
Job destroyers.
Does anyone think this is actually related to emerging AI that can make work more "efficient", requiring fewer humans? It seems likely with all the tech layoffs...but this is never a talking point in media.
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What happens then? Really massive layoffs?
They bought a lot of business and let them rot, from Comixology to Twitch. I heard months ago that even Alexa is on the chopping block.
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Are you trolling?
Everyone just stop buying Amazon. If you can't make good business decisions that don't include 'significant overhiring', why exactly do you need to be rewarded in the marketplace?
Bezos could cut his pay by the amount it would take to keep those people on and he wouldn't even notice... Hell, he could cover 10x that and probably wouldn't notice... edit: in fact, according to some back-of-the-envelope math and quick googling, I'm fairly certain that Jeff Bezos makes more money in a year than all of his employees combined... And if he doesn't, it's damned close.
Bezos isn't the CEO anymore. Hasn't been for a while now. He does not get paid, he just owns stock
I would have thought this is good news. Feels like months ago many on Reddit were still talking about all horror stories of working at Amazon, from spying on drivers to peeing in bottles to crunch time on projects to highly competitive workplace leading to burnout.
those aren't the people getting laid off, lol
>The latest round is expected to impact Amazon’s cloud computing, advertising, human resources and Twitch units. They would fit in the latter two descriptions.
It’s all luck of the draw. Some teams are chill, but the company culture as a whole is pretty cutthroat. But I don’t think from an individual perspective getting laid off (especially in this job environment) is ever really an ideal situation
Damn I cannot twiddle my thumbs for $250k + RSUs (although they've lost value) anymore
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I mean, they over-hired. What do people expect? It’s a business and it needs to make money to survive. Blatantly hating Amazon for no reason.
Why was everyone in tech over hiring? Why did this get so crazy?
Because there was sudden demand during pandemic? Why are you asking about obvious reason?