
Ballmer Says 'People Don't Want to Work' at Amazon - petethomas
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-23/ballmer-says-microsoft-has-advantage-over-amazon-in-hiring
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NotSammyHagar
Every programmer in Seattle knows that Amazon is a really unpleasant place to
work. I'm a programmer in Seattle and I personally know at least a dozen
people who worked there. Several of my friends worked over the magic 2 year
limit, & one person is there right now, about on year 4. People almost always
quit around year 2 because they just can't take it anymore.

When they offer you a job, it almost always comes with a bonus package payable
each quarter over 2 years. I even interviewed there a few years ago and
received that kind of package (which always comes with below market pay, plus
a stock package which is often worth more than salary).

It's terrible because they way overwork people, and it is a super cutthroat
environment. At the same time, they have very good people there, and
accomplish a lot. It's amazing how they move their infrastructure along faster
than microsoft, and are more nimble than google.

They also import thousands of young programmers, many of whom who are naive,
from all over the us and the world. One friend who worked there for about 6
years said the core of good experienced people made it work, shepherding a
large army of new people always coming and going.

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staticfish
It's true. As an engineer working for a large company in Seattle, there's
almost a disdain for the employees, which I admit is unfair.

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anonbanker
Clickbait headline to mask an advertisement for Microsoft.

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bitmapbrother
>Microsoft Corp. has the upper hand in its “intense competition” with
Amazon.com Inc. for talent and is the only company that can compete with Apple
Inc. over hardware, said former Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve
Ballmer.

I can see he's still batshit crazy. No wonder he was exiled.

~~~
anonbanker
I'm not so sure that's true. Nadella is still executing Ballmer's playbook,
with a kinder, gentler face.

