Community for Amazon employees across the network. 2 comments. The Amazon Career Choice Program will pre-pay 95% of tuition and associated fees at accredited schools for courses that lead to technical and vocational certifications or associate's degrees in eligible in-demand health care and other fields. Then you will be out. And on and on. And during those years where you don't buy coffee for half the managers in your org on a rotating basis and get the expected "achieves the high bar" (middle/normal) rating, you can expect a de facto pay cut (i.e. Amazon is a dev ops culture from top to bottom. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast, More posts from the cscareerquestions community. Wrong. Fine. No! Just remember, they will be tattling on any misstep you make too; and right to your micromanaging boss! You will likely be spending your days keeping the lights on. LOS ANGELES – Want to work in one of Amazon.com’s warehouses? Don’t say you didn’t. Heard from multiple people they just tell you to be back in 30 minutes and leave you to your own devices. But it’s the intensity most people don’t know about. Until they get LE’d. Answer: Amazon believes its own press, and they are too hypercritical and xenophobic to see when something isn’t working. I remember people joking about finding ways to "disagree and commit" while still managing to "earn trust." Relevance. Here is a top 11 list of what sucks the most about working at Amazon: Micromanagement. And now all active, regular part-time hourly field associates (20-29 hours per week) who have been employed for one continuous year at Amazon sort centers, … What if the company paid for the cost of your higher education? Micromanaging is what “Dive Deep” is really about. Employees, including those who work part time, are eligible to participate after one year of employment, and Amazon will spend up to $3,000 per year for up to four years to help them launch their careers. You need to do it the Amazon way. For eligible employees, Amazon will pay up to 95% of tuition and fees (up to a yearly maximum) towards a certificate or diploma in qualified fields of study, leading to in-demand jobs. what I was doing) or because they were brought in as fodder to plug holes on ops-heavy teams or burn on the stack and are going to get PIP'd or managed out because they aren't actually that good. Yes, if the course is from an accredited school and in an approved field of study. Here's the thing: group interviews and most recruiter-sponsored contacts are mostly just attempts to find bodies to grind. yikes, where are you working now? What are the pros and cons of leaving your job to pursue a masters degree? Is online course work eligible for Amazon’s program? Amazon’s fulfillment centers are the engine of the company — massive warehouses where workers track, pack, sort, and shuffle each order before sending it on its way to the buyer’s door. They don’t care that you know how to do something better or faster for the customer. The program is designed to provide you with financial assistance as you plan your future career path, whether you choose to continue at Amazon, an Amazon Subsidiary company, or pursue your next opportunity in another . Amazon doesn’t care about what is going on outside of Amazon, and they are so inwardly focused, they don’t even know that they are getting passed by open source technologies. Because they like the cold or whatever?? share. Most people use them to badmouth others and even better, and they use them incorrectly and qualitatively (which is totally hilarious at such a data driven company). Amazon increases its tuition assistance for hourly workers by Todd Bishop on May 22, 2013 at 5:46 am May 22, 2013 at 5:50 am Comments Share Tweet Share Reddit Email After working there for a period of years I am free, and want to prevent others from falling into this hell hole. Long hours and intense days. Every team hires for themselves in practice, which leads to incredibly inconsistent standards and necessitates actual interview loops for internal transfers (because you have no idea if the other team's bar is as high as your own). This is what leads to ops and not being able to work on anything cool (refer to points 5 and 6). The intern/college-hire allocation process is a bit more equitable, but not by much. They are constantly behind the curve on scaling, their projects are always late, there is nothing documented, there is no architecture (or even respect for having an architecture or design). As what careers Amazon is focusing on, the company specifically listed aircraft mechanics, computer-aided design, machine tool technology, medical … Used to be they would at least get you lunch (granted it was an interview, so good luck eating). They look okay, right? No matter that you just moved from Pakistan or whatever.. Tough crap. The e-commerce giant on … 15 minutes response time. Performance reviews are extremely clandestine and political, and appear to have little to nothing to do with peer feedback, what you delivered, or the value of your contributions to the company. Bar raisers are overworked and many just don't care. And project management. Intern conversion rates are far too high and it's far too easy for managers to override/disregard team feedback and get bad interns hired anyhow because they just wanted bodies (I saw this happen frequently)--this was a problem because our intern hiring bar was too low to begin with, so we had a steady stream of pretty poor entry-level hires that put a lot of pressure on myself and the other senior engineers with respect to mentorship responsibilities and trying to keep technical debt in check. Türkiye'nin en büyük teknoloji haber sitesi ShiftDelete.Net üzerinden en güncel teknoloji haberleri, son dakika gelişmeler ve incelemeleri uzman ekibimiz sayesinde bulabilirsiniz. Or the way your inexperienced manager says is the Amazon way, anyway. Hi,I'm an SDE 1 at Amazon. comments. I know they do for up to 12000 for associate degrees but what about for MBA students? You also have to meet the one-year mark first, and be working full time while you're in school. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. -If for some reason you live, breathe, and die for the Amazon culture and the Amazon way you just might make it here and be an Amazon success. save hide report. I did three years at Amazon as an SDE2/3 and left on good terms; my team was world class and my manager was a great guy who took care of his people. Your friend can give you inside knowledge, you'll get a normal interview loop with the actual people you'd be working with, and the manager will take you out to lunch at a nearby restaurant (assuming he isn't an asshat--some of them will just drag you to one of the Amazon cafeterias). That’s what matters. Still not convinced? The chances of being randomly assigned to a full time position on a great team are low (but not impossible). Many people at Amazon have health issues, are taking meds, get divorced, or have other family issues. Ops. Once employees have been with Amazon for a year, they only need to cover 5 percent of tuition and fees -- Amazon covers the rest up front and also reimburses 95 percent of textbook costs. Everyone does ops. OP definitely has an axe to grind, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't see most of the issues pointed out above in some capacity or another throughout other teams and the company as a whole. Press J to jump to the feed. Press J to jump to the feed. But they're a fundamental part of evaluating candidates for hire (regardless of their job function) and there's actually an entirely separate rating and process for leadership principles in your performance review. After a bunch of industry hire SDE2s and college SDE1s flooded our team, the overall "bar" got worse, and I've been spending more and more of my time having to hand-hold "new" folks to our stack, despite myself not needing that much of a leg up when I first started. Welcome. Fulfillment Centers, Sort Centers, Delivery Stations, etc. In addition, the Amazon Career Choice Program will pay tuition and fees in advance rather than reimbursement after the completion of the course. I ramped up pretty easily within a couple of months (1-2), and was fully productive within 4. I forget the amount that is reimbursed off the top of my head but there is a yearly amount and you have to get a grade of 'B' or above in order to qualify for the reimbursement. Be aggressive and ask for what you want. Is it a lot better? Those benefits include stock grants and 95 percent tuition reimbursement for college students, regardless of the topic they choose to study. As for experienced candidates: the bar was still relatively high there when I left, but I did see recruiters pulling stunts like recycling "borderline" candidates over and over again because they were so desperate for people who were interested and had some shred of a chance that they gave them multiple chances (and many eventually got in this way, because they learned how to game the broken interviews most people ran). Has anyone ever used the tuition reimbursement thru Amazon? You can read more about Amazon’s Career Choice Program here. Learn about Amazon Tuition Assistance, including a description from the employer, and comments and ratings provided anonymously by current and former Amazon employees. Amazon’s got it! These new folks have had between 2-6 months to ramp up, and almost all of them seem lost. My friends who are still there right now are absolutely miserable. They are desperate and will likely give you what you want. Amazon tuition reimbursement ? It's not just the oldfart tool--there's just this almost palpable sense that people are going to bail/leave because they're just using Amazon as a springboard to something else (i.e. No respect for experience: At Amazon, it’s about Amazon. Why? Seriously? I went to their onsite "group" coding thing and it was basically a bunch of candidates coding in a room stressing about finishing individual mini projects with cold, half-assed lunch mid-way through that you kinda picked at while staring at your screen for 8 hours straight. a 0-1% raise, which is a reduction in comp after accounting for inflation). Good for you. It's only for associate's programs. People drink a lot, and generally everyone is miserable. Needless to say, I rejected their offer. They don’t care that you know how to do something better or faster for the customer. I think it speaks for the culture of grinding beyond personal health that I often see expressed about a lot of teams at Amazon (and I'm well aware not all teams at Amazon, or any company, are like this). About Tuition Assistance. In total, Career Choice will pay up to $12,000 in tuition, textbooks, and associated fees over four years. PEOy02 Aug 9, 2018 15 Comments ... facebook twitter reddit hacker news link. Does amazon have tuition reimbursement? It’s a horrible place that will ruin your health, your self esteem, your drive, and your relationships. The right way to join Amazon is to have a friend whose word and judgement you trust on a team you respect refer you for a position on that team. And yes, each team needs to hit the bell curve. Thanks for a great year, and fuck you! Your chances of being “the man” on that project are small. It's not a healthy/happy environment. TOP 15 Comments Amazon. It was by far the worst on-site experience I've ever had. But, most of them moved for Amazon, and now they are stuck. Then double it. By using our Services or clicking I agree, you agree to our use of cookies. This was a point that hit home for me very recently: The hiring process and hiring bar is a mess... Intern conversion rates are far too high and it's far too easy for managers to override/disregard team feedback and get bad interns hired anyhow ... we had a steady stream of pretty poor entry-level hires that put a lot of pressure on myself and the other senior engineers with respect to mentorship responsibilities and trying to keep technical debt in check. Not just mine. Health problems galore. Look at the principles. Desperate for help. They need to search far and wide for people who don’t know or don’t care about what I am telling you. As an example: my team, which had just 6 people (R&D, all top flight SDE2 or higher, and a veteran manager) always got 2-3 interns each year even though we were small and rarely had actual openings because we had low turnover, easy hours, and actual cutting edge projects...and a really high conversion offer acceptance rate. Wait until you go through a couple years of good (e.g. The hiring process and hiring bar is a mess. Want to comment? You aren’t that dumb. Refer to point 5. Amazon has grown way too fast, and everything is brittle and messed up. As horrible as it was towards the end, the good times were pretty awesome (great team, cool project, pretty low pressure). That’s what matters. "We're hiring more than 5,000 people to join our team and help us continue to innovate and serve our customers," said Dave Clark, vice president of worldwide operations and customer service at Amazon, in a press release. Amazon will pay up to 95% of the tuition, textbook, and associated fees up to a maximum of $2,000 per year for four years. Would be strange to try to employee someone better than yourself in such a toxic environment. Clearly I am not alone, and there is plenty of data out there to show it. No respect for planning. And I am talking about intense hardcore tell me everything you are doing, and 5 reasons why, while I yell at you micromanagement. It is 12k total but there is a yearly max of 3k that you can use for 4 years consecutively. Cons -Although the starting salary + bonus is in fairly in line with other post MBA employers, you’ll be working i Banking hours, without the i Banking pay, nor the scope for fairly rapid and substantial income jumps that the field provides. Thanks a lot! Good thing you didn't take it. Judy. That's right: they recalculate the value of your vesting shares (even if they were granted 2-3 years ago) each year and factor that into your "total compensation," so if the stock goes up by 75% (as it did one year I was there) and is worth far more than they expected at the beginning of the year, your vesting shares for that year now mean you're making $15k more than you're "supposed" to for your level/role/performance rating so they give you a virtually non-existent raise and an RSU bonus that doesn't vest for another year. I always had achieves/solid strength or better ratings, but there was so little transparency to it that I don't have trouble believing that people really do get low ratings or PIPs out of the blue (that said, I rarely saw anybody get PIP'd and fired who didn't deserve it, at least in my org--more on that in the bits about turnover and the hiring bar). In addition, Amazon will reimburse 95% of the cost of all required textbooks. And the reason they have all these hiring events? You can go to the Career Choice tab on AtoZ under resources. Of course, there’s a catch. Do you think it makes sense to do so? The following is a list of 10 reputable companies in the United States that place a high value on tuition assistance benefits, providing reimbursement for the cost of an MBA. Seriously, if you're good enough to get an onsite at Amazon, get an onsite at any other comparable company and you'll notice how cheap, work-centric, and depressing the overall environment of Amazon is. That will almost never improve because Amazon's culture makes it very difficult to pay down technical debt and handle an out-of-control operations burden without a heroic (and probably senseless, because there are no real rewards for it) effort. If Amazon’s hiring practices were so good, why would they need to control people with nutty cult like principles? Full-time employees are eligible for $3,000 in tuition assistance a year up to a maximum of $12,000; part-time employees, half that. You thought this would be number 1? I know they do for up to 12000 for associate degrees but what about for MBA students? I could go on, but I have things to do and that should be enough for now... Wow, that is bullshit that they count your vesting RSUs that year at market price as part of your band. As for why I left and why I'll never go back, I'll focus instead on the systemic problems that no manager or team can shield you from, because they're intrinsic to the function of the company as a whole: Compensation model is absolute bullshit. Or the way your inexperienced manager says is the Amazon way, anyway. Obviously I can't do it from where I am now, but damnit, if anything can be done, I'm going to insist on higher standards from here on out. In other words, once you start you have 4 years before it expires whether you use all 12k or not. Amazon pays 95%. Nah. And, let’s say you get on a team that is doing something cool. You just sold your soul to the devil. Thanks. You are tired when you leave. Thousands of high sev tickets in many teams. Intel. The process of getting employees motivated is a major concern for most big companies today and Amazon is not an exception. Obviously, the severity of the issues you've mentioned vary depending on the team and the org, but in general, I'd argue Amazon is one of the worse "top" companies to work for. You are moving and multitasking all day. Why do you think they had a hiring event in your hometown in the Ukraine? And deployment. Amazon Web Services ... Walmart also offers associates and eligible family members tuition discounts, financial aid assistance and education coaching … Negotiate a great comp deal. You hit the nail on the head with the majority of your points. Something I've noticed: The bar is definitely lower across the company for new grad/college hires/intern conversions, and that needs to change. Amazon pride its self on the motivating factors employed to improve and increase employee morals. Anytime feedback. However, keep in mind that with about 1 year average tenure, you are not likely to get that money for long. But everyone does planning. A subreddit for those with questions about working in the tech industry or in a computer-science-related job. LOG IN or SIGN UP. 8 months ago. Or they think they will make it. Yes, there is backstabbing, and if you are in the bottom 10% you will be termed “LE” and given a PIP which you aren’t meant to succeed at. Glassdoor is your resource for information about the Tuition Assistance benefits at Amazon. 17-16 of 16 results for "tuition reimbursement". According to Verizon’s Tuition Assistance Program, employees can get reimbursement and assistance for approved courses or degree programs taken through an accredited institution. Amazon has begun a new tuition-reimbursement program to encourage hourly employees to further educate themselves in disciplines relating to their careers.. Yea I've conducted a few of those group interviews and did one myself when I was hired. Skip to main search results Amazon Prime Once a team falls behind the curve, they're usually doomed until they throw enough bodies at it or scrap it and start over. Want an app to anonymously tattle on your coworkers? Technical debt is huge, and the environment is too big to ever clean it up. It says they cover 95% of tuition up to 1500 but which is it? Turnover is insane and everybody knows it. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Compensation packages for employees at Amazon’s North Haven fulfillment center have featured what Freda called a “very generous” 401K match along with full healthcare and dental and full tuition reimbursement. In that case, you choose the orgs you like best, and will then be placed into an org's queue based on some combination of who has openings and what you picked. You like pain, I guess…. There is no time for architecture, planning, or proper testing. More Ops. Amazon pays a lot. I think you'd be glad of that policy if the stock tanked, or you'd get a "raise" but in effect be making much much less money than your level/reviews would otherwise indicate. Hopefully you ended up someplace that gives a sh!t like FB for example. Doing something cool the nail on the motivating factors employed to improve and increase employee morals what Dive... Eligible for Amazon ’ s Career Choice Program will pay up to 12000 for degrees. 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