[villedespommes]

I find it insane there are folks who unironically claim Amazon's pay is mediocre when there's only a handful of companies that pay more and Amazon's pay L5/6 is 2+x of the higher end of the the average for a senior eng.

Good for them, I guess, but also has nothing to do with the reality

[saagarjha]

I claimed Amazon's pay is mediocre in the context of this conversation, which was talking about FAANG companies. This is demonstrably true and backed up by data. You might feel that Amazon's pay is not mediocre if you compare it in some other bracket, like all US salaries. Or I could downgrade it from mediocre to "bottom-of-the-barrel" in specialized fields like AI research. But that's not what was being discussed.

[villedespommes]

The parent doesn't mention FAANG at all.

> The word balance never came up. Probably why it’s considered one of the worst places to work for. Works well when you are a small company that is trying to attract talent to build great things with the promise of big rewards. Doesn’t actually work that well when you’re trying to keep an established company stable and don’t offer much in return. If all you can offer is mediocre pay and a threat of PIP if I don’t work 60+ hours, I’d rather stay unemployed.

In his next comment he explicitly confirms he wasn't even comparing to the FAANG companies but to his very own "crème de la crème" set of companies.

> I’m not sure what you mean by FAANG standards, but Meta and Netflix both pay way more and Google and Apple pay similar if not more with waaay better work culture. Tech companies of the last decade like Uber, DoorDash, Block, Snap, Airbnb, Snowflake etc. all pay more than Amazon while the new generation of AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic are not even comparable. The only way you would consider Amazon pay to be very good is if you come from Microsoft or one of the old school companies like Cisco and IBM. I would put Amazon pay as middle of the pack or mediocre.

That was the context and this context was just so unrealistic and absurd.

[saagarjha]

> Amazon doesn't actually pay mediocre, they are very good for FAANG standards.

[seanmcdirmid]

I just provided anecdata of a family that has both Amazon and Google incomes, where, without revealing details about our incomes or levels, I claimed that Amazon pay one spouse receives is very competitive from what the other is receiving from Google (clouded by the different roles, SWE vs. UXD, a SWE at Amazon would probably make more than a UXD but I have no evidence that is true).

[saagarjha]

Salary ranges are quite broad, there is of course some overlap especially at the middle of the ladder

[kelipso]

> clouded by the different roles, SWE vs. UXD, a SWE at Amazon would probably make more than a UXD but I have no evidence that is true

Lol, give up already. No shit SWE makes significantly more than UXD.

[seanmcdirmid]

Ya, you don't know the industry then. SWEs often make more than UXDs. It is the difference between getting into computer science and going to art school (admittedly, the latter can also be very competitive).

[kelipso]

You need better reading comprehension

[n4r9]

Better punctuation wouldn't have gone amiss either.

[seanmcdirmid]

> No shit SWE makes significantly more than UXD.

Ah, I guess you were claiming that I was a shit SWE out of left field (because I'm just comparing myself to my wife)? I don't really get your context, you are going need to spell it out for me.

[lumost]

Keep in mind, L6 senior engineer at Amazon maps to staff at most firms. L5 has a crazy wide band to accommodate everyone from folks with 2 years experience in-house to 10+ years of experience.