Why I Rejected My Software Engineering Offer At Amazon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0e-k9HB3NUThe employee turnover rate at big-tech companies is crazy, at 50% to 70% turnover rate. That is an absolutely insane number for highly skilled labour. When the average tenure is between 1.6 to 3 years, despite having the highest salaries and best benefits in the market (in the world), that is a symptom of a seriously unhealthy work culture and industry. It's also interesting to note that the median age at big tech is less than 30 years old. If I only gave you these statistics, and asked you to guess which industry it is, most people would probably guess the fast-food industry because that's how bad those numbers are. Unsurprisingly, Amazon is amongst the worst, alongside companies like Apple, Meta and Tesla. It seems to me from my "European perspective" that they just want a steady stream of naive worker-bees, fresh out of university, who can pass the leet-code interview, so they can work them to the bone for 18-36 months until the employee get's burnt out, dissolutioned with the industry and quits. The unfortunate thing is that this is slowly transpiring in all OECD countries.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; French: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, OCDE) is an intergovernmental organization with 38 member countries,[1][4] founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum whose member countries describe themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices, and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OECDThis was incredibly informative. Coming from Wall St for a decade, and then finally moving to opening my own tech co, your analysis of the work environment is exactly what we all know for big tech nowadays, but few speak about. In short, this vid “says the quiet part, out loud.” In sum, my assessment on your decision? Two words: well done. The rest of the world needs people like you. The big tech firms can churn and grind out 22-25 yr olds as much as they like… committing professional burnout runs on these people, with zero consequence. As for your bit regarding the stock options… I chuckled a bit coming from Wall St. These guys have the turnover rate as a well substantiated piece of data right under their thumb. And they know it. Wall St knows it and the big tech owners know it. And there’s an Actuarial Desk Employee somewhere who knows exactly what you just said… but he’s not doing what you just did… “speak the quiet part, out loud.” Well done 👍