Ask HN: How does Amazon keep its best engineers from quitting? - Flopsy
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trcollinson
Who says that they do? Amazon is well known for having a rather high level of
acquisition of new talent and a relatively high level of turn over. Their HR
department literally looks all over the world for new talent constantly. So I
would say they don't keep their best engineers from quitting.

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tyh
At my previous company I remember some devs got fed up with things and jumped
ship for Amazon. After about 6 months only one was still there.

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Ellahn
[https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/tour-de-
babel](https://sites.google.com/site/steveyegge2/tour-de-babel)

Read the bit about Lisp. Explains what Amazon did And how it went wrong.

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hwstar
Noncompetes would be one way. They are based in Washington which unlike
California allows noncompete agreements.

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lingua_franca
they have a pretty bad reputation already. I'm sure they won't be able to hire
anybody with non-competes. Remember there are Microsoft/Google/Facebook and
many startups in Seattle; ppl have choices.

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hwstar
I'm not so sure they really want the best candidates, as they come at a
premium. They may settle for someone desperate for income they can lock in
with a non-compete, then use them up and wear them out.

