Amazon Web Service - Seattle WA ?

What it is like?

I've been approached by a recruiter today for a potential job @ Amazon Web Services, in Seattle WA.

What's the place like? Is Seattle a good city for young single professionals?

How's work life balance?

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the_Grinch

Don't know a whole lot about working for Amazon, but I have a friend in Seattle who I just spoke with at a wedding and she loves it there. Just a heads up though, known for their "rainy" weather. Definitely a good city for young professionals though!

NightShade03

Some very sharp people working there. There can be some political hell given the size of the org, but you'll find that any place honestly. The interview process is fun and you get to build stuff.

The city itself is definitely good for young(er) singles. Agree about the rainy weather though, you really have to like water to live in or near this city. They have a ton of cool/good places to each and things to do.

emerald_octane

Pro:
-Good (professional) rep in Seattle. Jealous people will tell you that "practically everyone has worked for amazon at some time," which is false, but I do see a fair number of resumes with amazon on them.
-Beautiful new offices/campus and the surrounding area in South Lake Union is a veritable oasis in the city. None of the downtown cruft.
Con:
-the interview experience is pretty intense. I hear that ,If anyone of the in person interviewers don't like you/your answer then you probably won't get in (vs ranking type hiring).
-az is driving up the cost of everything. Young,monied and generally childless, Az workers scoop up a lot of the local apartments in the desirable places. You definitely won't go hungry on salary but just be aware that $100k is just solidly middle class (less so if you have a family), and doesn't go far in Seattle proper. The gotcha is that commuting into Seattle absolutely blows so it's not as fun to live further away.
- burnout rate is high due to the intense demands.

UnixGuy

Thanks for the information everyone!

I have a phone interview Saturday morning (Friday US time).

Any idea what I should be expecting?

darkerz

Hey, this is pretty familiar.

Pretty intense, culture is obsessed but very effective.

Seattle is expensive, so is the stress toll / bridge toll (Lol) - but the experience is golden.

Very common for AWS folks to eventually burn out in 2-3 years, then move / work in Redmond for Azure with almost double the pay and a normal schedule & life balance, heh.

This area overall is great to get into, so many big companies,

UnixGuy

I will go through with the interview, but it's a huge move from Australia to the US, so unless it's worthwhile I'm not gonna do it.

Mind you, I have no experience with AWS. This should be interesting.

I've never been to Seattle either...

TeKniques

UnixGuy wrote: »

Thanks for the information everyone!

I have a phone interview Saturday morning (Friday US time).

Any idea what I should be expecting?

Hello - I interviewed with Amazon about a year and a half ago. The initial phone interview was with one person from the team you would be working on. The questions are more soft skill hitting and lightly technical. I was asked a few situation questions related to the job position. The questions I received were imo not too difficult. I'm assuming you're interviewing for some sort of UNIX position given your credentials - the position I was interviewing for was for security and I only received 2 questions on UNIX and they were user permission oriented.

After the first interview you will be notified if you will be receiving a second phone interview. This usually takes a week or two, in my case I was told to prepare for a second interview about a week after the initial. Make sure you follow up with the Amazon recruiter if you don't hear anything, they are quite responsive. Ultimately, in my situation my wife did not want to relocate so I turned down the second interview unfortunately, so I can't give you any tips for that. From what I have heard is that the second interview is pretty deep and quite a bit tougher than the first. If you make it past that you go onsite for round table interviews (from what I've heard from others).

Best of luck, let us know how it goes!

UnixGuy

Phone interview went fine, it was a chat not an interview. He implied that it's going to be on H1b visa, so I think I'll pass.

tprice5

UnixGuy wrote: »

I will go through with the interview, but it's a huge move from Australia to the US, so unless it's worthwhile I'm not gonna do

Personally, I wouldn't move so far away for such an average salary unless you are just trying to get to the US. I know a lot of folks who would take an average salary to move to Australia but us Americans tend to romanticize that part of the world.

UnixGuy

No I'm not trying to go to the US, I just wanted to see what they have to offer, but it was a standard role on an h1b visa, not my cup of tea!

tprice5

And now I've been contacted by AWS for a position ha.

UnixGuy

They're really in need of people. The guy was willing to wait for my visa even if takes a year to get issued. You'll get the job methinks!