Anyone here effected? Is it through PIP?

This is a throwaway for obvious reasons. So, I joined just before the 5 days RTO came into being. To say I was disappointed is an understatement, having to juggle family responsibilities and my kids, and the commute (75 mins each way), has been genuinely draining me.

Initially, I had some informal chats with my supervisor about flexibility and wfh. A lot of words and time just to say no. It was getting to the point where it was becoming impossible to keep working this way, getting home exhausted and not being able to spend proper time with my family, just wasn’t it.

It wasn’t even reasoned well, I only ever communicate with my team digitally, we’re scattered around.

I started to look into alternatives, mainly roles in other companies that were either fully or mostly remote working. Not much success there either…

I was browsing advice forums and watching too much content on hybrid/remote working and how to achieve it. And well, I did find something pretty good, it’s for UK employees only though (sorry burgerlanders).

So how it works is that employees have a right to request flexible working arrangements, and the Company HAS to review it discuss it and make a decision, if they want to deny it it has to be for one of eight reasons, and they have to evidence it.

I emailed HR with a formal request, and I received a response three weeks later, they responded to me, setting up a meeting (more of an interview, asking about my reasoning, etc). About 4 weeks after the meeting they got back to me.

THEY APPROVED MY REQUEST.

They allowed me to move to 2 days in office with the minimum of four hours each day on site.

I’m honestly surprised they accepted it, I don’t know if it was because of my team or if those heartless bastards actually had a fleeting flash of emotion. But I’m beyond happy it did.

If you have any kind of circumstances that would benefit from this, I would urge you to try at least.

This has been my first professional job and I am nervous but very excited to see what life is like on the other side. To new and potential employees that may see this post, please remember that the stuff you see on this subreddit is not indicative of working at Amazon / AWS as a whole. Treat opinions like yelp reviews, those that hate it are going to take the time to complain / make posts here and those that are happy are just living their life / less likely to post here.

I have gotten the chance to experience tremendous growth, opportunities, and am leaving with a smile on my face. There are plenty of intelligent and great coworkers but in any large organization you’re going to of course have some dysfunctions, politics, and improvements that could be made.

My advice to anyone in this subreddit, either learn to take everything you see here with a grain of salt or just leave the subreddit as I don’t see much of anything worth the negative mental health impact it can have on people.

Good luck and I genuinely hope others able to have the same positive experience that I’ve been lucky to have during my time here.

Hey, I have my bar raiser round scheduled for day after, needed some guidance, a helping hand for this poor will highly be appreciated!🥹

10+ yrs, program governance background. L6 IC role. 60 minutes, hiring manager plus one other interviewer, three deep-dive questions. First interview I'd done in about six years. (No TMAY, No Why amazon)

The first half was rough and it was mostly nerves.

The opening question was about a tool the team uses heavily. I've used it extensively, but I led my answer with the limits of my exposure instead of the volume I've actually run through it. Gave zero numbers. HM said "got it, thank you" and moved on.

Then on the first deep dive HM asked what mechanisms made my work survive without me, and I went blank for what felt like 20 seconds. HM filled the silence for me. I started drifting toward a different example and she stopped me and told me to answer the original question. I got there eventually, but only after being cornered. I had a brain freeze.

Second half was much better. Once I settled I gave a solid answer on stakeholder management and system improvements. Both said these were a good examples.

Ended with asking solid questions about the role and HM said these were really great questions.

So the shape is: weak start from freezing up, decent finish.

Question:

1. Is it a good idea to email the recruiter with the specifics I failed to give in the moment and ask them to pass it to the hiring manager?

   Anyone done this successfully, or seen it backfire?

2. Opinions about will I get to the loops?

YouTube announced a partnership with Amazon Thursday that will allow creators to tag products in videos and livestreams which viewers can then purchase directly from Amazon.

The program, which comes as competitors like TikTok have beefed up e-commerce offerings, rolls out immediately to U.S. creators who are already part of both YouTube's Partner Program and Shopping Affiliate Program, as well as Amazon's Influencer Program or Associates Program.

YouTube says its auto-tagging function "may review [creators'] recent uploads to automatically identify and tag eligible Amazon products."

cant accept vto, got here asap, refreshed and logged back in, vto is still up just doesnt let me take it.

Can anyone tell me if speaking about my Amazon termination on social media could affect my unemployment claim or an EEOC case?

I was recently terminated from Amazon, and I’m trying to understand what I can and cannot say publicly while I pursue unemployment and potentially an EEOC claim.

I had workplace accommodations through the ADA. I repeatedly explained to management that I was experiencing pain and that certain work they were asking me to perform was outside of what I understood my accommodations to allow.

I tried to work as a team and did some of the work they were asking me to do, including pushing light inventory, but I continued telling management that I was in pain and that I could not continue doing work that was outside my accommodations. I told them this multiple times.

After management continued pushing the issue, I contacted the appropriate internal support channel and was told to respond to the email where my accommodations had been communicated to management. I also submitted a complaint and explained what was happening. HR responded to the email, but I never received a follow-up or resolution.

I was also previously approved for approximately six weeks of short-term disability, including payments. Then, shortly after returning/around this same period, I suddenly had approximately 40 negative UPT hours/points added to my account. I repeatedly contacted Amazon trying to understand why this happened, but I could not get a clear explanation.

I have screenshots and documentation of my emails, complaints, accommodation information, and attempts to get an explanation.

Then on Monday night, August 31, I noticed that my schedule had been completely wiped out, although I still had access to A to Z. On Tuesday, September 1, I received an email stating that my employment had been terminated.

The timing concerns me because I had been raising concerns about my accommodations and had made multiple complaints, and then I was terminated shortly afterward. I don't want to assume that this automatically means retaliation, but I feel like the circumstances deserve to be investigated.

I have already applied for unemployment, and I am considering filing with the EEOC.

My question is: Can speaking honestly about my experience on Reddit/TikTok/social media hurt my unemployment claim or an EEOC case? I would not post confidential information or make accusations that I can't prove. I would simply be talking about what happened to me and sharing my experience.

Has anyone been through something similar with Amazon, ADA accommodations, UPT/attendance issues, or an EEOC retaliation claim?

I would especially appreciate advice from people who have dealt with employment attorneys, the EEOC, or Texas unemployment.

Hey everyone, throwaway account for obvious reasons. I'm a engineer at AWS in Europe, and I've been with my team for less than a year.

I’ve been grinding on a heavily ambiguous project, but the goalposts have been moved multiple times by L7s and leadership, either because they forgot what was agreed upon or because they kept pivoting to chase "early impact." Because of these constant shifts, I’ve made solid technical progress (including foundational infra work), but it hasn’t translated into the flashy, high-visibility business metrics leadership is looking for yet.

We just had our OLR (Operational Leadership Review / talent review), and I had my 1:1 with my manager right after. Here is where I’m confused:

 My manager told me I am meeting expectations.

 However, he said he is "yet to see the impact from me," and he is seemingly discounting the earlier infrastructure and foundational work I delivered.

 To make matters worse, a senior engineer has now been brought onto the project with me to "drive it faster and see impact quickly."

Naturally, my anxiety is through the roof. I know Amazon's performance management system has a "Focus" designation (the precursor to Pivot/dev plan), and I've heard that managers sometimes hide whether an employee is actually in Focus or not.

I have a few questions for those familiar with AWS culture:

1. Am I likely in Focus right now, or is this standard "raising the bar" manager-speak after an OLR?

2. Should I ask my manager directly in our next 1:1 if I am in Focus?

3. How do I salvage visibility on a project where leadership keeps changing the definition of success?

Any advice would be hugely appreciated.

I was put on focus. Do I apply for FMLA at the end of my focus? What is the process to apply for FMLA?

Just wanted to share this because the number is kinda insane when I think about it now.

I’m an international student in the US and over the course of my job search I’ve probably submitted somewhere around 7,500 applications. I stopped keeping the exact count after a while.

A LOT of ghosting, automated rejections, failed interviews, interviews I thought I did well in and still got rejected, resume changes, Leetcode, applying to the same companies again and again etc.

And somehow the search ended with two offers from Amazon and Apple.

The funniest part is that I didn’t even apply to the Apple role. A recruiter found my profile/resume and reached out to me about an AI/ML Software Engineer position.

Went through the technical interviews, the loop, manager conversations and eventually got the offer.

Amazon also came through with an SDE offer around the same time.

I ended up choosing Apple.

Not really posting this as a “never give up!!!” thing because honestly 7,500 applications is fucking absurd and nobody should need to do that.

Just wanted to put one data point out there for anyone currently getting destroyed by this market.

7,499 applications can go nowhere and application 7,500 can completely change the outcome.

Job search finally over. Thank god. Radhe Radhe 🙏🏼

Hey everyone,

Looking for honest insights on the CaSE (Compliance & Security) team within AWS DCN / Core Networking (under Matt Rehder):

• Layoffs & Headcount: Is the org stable, or has it been hit by recent cuts?
• Internal Politics: Is there too much internal politics and friction ?
• Culture & Morale: How is day-to-day management, WLB, and overall team morale?
• Growth: Good technical and career progression ?

Any candid feedback or DMs appreciated! Thanks

Title. Previously i think fmla paused pivot. especially if you have legitimate reasons like mental health breakdown. But i hear that is no longer the case. Is that true?

Any L7s or L8s out there ?
I’m looking for advice here.

I recently initiated an internal team transfer. The hiring manager was interested in taking me, and the transition process was progressing normally.

Before I personally discussed the transfer with my current manager, the hiring manager had already contacted him on Slack regarding my interest in joining the new team and asked about my potential relieving timeline. At that point, I had not yet directly discussed the transfer with my current manager. I had also pinged him to schedule a 1:1, but he did not respond immediately, and we connected a couple of days later. So, before our direct conversation, my current manager was already aware of my potential move through communication from the hiring manager.

When we eventually connected, I formally informed him about the transfer and apologized that he had heard about it from someone else before I had the opportunity to discuss it directly with him.

What makes me confused is what happened afterward.

Later that morning, I had a completely normal discussion with my current manager. We discussed the transition, KT, and my potential last working date. He was even giving me referrals and suggestions for potentially better teams. Honestly, after that conversation, I felt really positive about my manager and even had a second thought about whether I should leave the team at all.

Then, around 30 minutes later, my hiring manager informed me that I was suddenly no longer eligible for the internal transfer.

I checked with my current manager and was told that I was on Focus.

This was completely unexpected to me. I was never explicitly informed that I had been placed on Focus or that I was part of a formal performance management process. We had regular discussions about areas of improvement, but I understood those as normal coaching and development discussions.

I later had another conversation with my manager and asked specifically when the Focus process was initiated and when I was officially placed on it. However, I was unable to get a clear answer. During the conversation, I received multiple different timelines regarding when the process was initiated.

My hiring manager is still interested in taking me into the team if the Focus status is cleared or removed.

I'm trying to understand:

• Is it normal to be placed on Focus without being explicitly informed?
• Is there normally documentation or formal communication when someone is placed on Focus?
• Has anyone experienced their internal transfer eligibility suddenly changing because of Focus?
• Given the sequence of events, what would be the best way to handle this internally?
• Should I raise this with HR and request the exact timeline and documentation related to the Focus decision?

I’m not trying to avoid feedback or claim that I have no areas to improve. My concern is mainly about the process, timing, lack of clear communication, and the fact that I only became aware of the Focus status after my internal transfer eligibility suddenly changed.

Would really appreciate advice from anyone who has experienced something similar.

I’ve had enough of this one manager who just treats me unfairly every time. And other people in the warehouse have seen it too. Whenever I work with her , she always put in a very hard sections while others get the easiest one ALL THE TIME. Last night when everyone finished theirs, my coworkers tried helping me and she literally told her to not help me at all while the others got help for theirs. No one likes this manager at all. I reported her to ethics, but would I get in trouble

My manager has scheduled a "stay" conversation call with me for next week. It's the first time I've heard of a stay conversation. What is it and what should I expect?

Has anyone received some odd notifications about Hurricane Andrew? it says sure leader ensure each … is no longer assigned

Wonder if this has any cryptic meaning? (ie layoffs ,PIPs) or what is this about

I recently interviewed for an Amazon SDE I position and was allocated to the Cambridge team. I went through four interviews and, although I ultimately got rejected, I genuinely loved the whole experience.

I spent about a month grinding DSA and preparing my Leadership Principle stories. Looking back, at least based on my experience, the LP preparation was probably the most important part.

I have around a year of experience as a developer, so I had plenty of real stories to use. I prepared them with ChatGPT and Cursor and made sure I knew everything behind them: numbers, percentages, what I personally did, why I did it and what measurable impact it had.

Every LP I focused on preparing came up during the loop, and they definitely dig into your answers.

Interview 1 – LPs + coding/design

The technical part was a fixed-capacity logging system with Debug, Info and Error messages and different severity levels. There were specific rules around how messages should be handled based on their severity when the system reached capacity.

The question was a little poorly explained initially, but after clarifying the requirements I got the idea, worked through the solution and explained my approach. Overall, really good conversation.

Interview 2 – LPs + checkout system

Probably one of my strongest rounds.

I had to build a checkout system with different products, categories, discounts, promotions and tax rules. There was quite a lot to implement, so I coded as much as I could and then explained exactly how I would complete the rest.

The interviewer basically said, “Yeah, perfect, that makes sense to me.”

Again, not really a typical LeetCode question. It felt much more like solving an actual development problem.

Interview 3 – LPs / behavioural

This was basically an LP deep dive and honestly an amazing chat.

I had strong stories for everything they asked and they went quite deep into the decisions I’d made, the numbers and the actual impact of my work.

There was also a very experienced interviewer shadowing the session and the conversation with both of them was genuinely one of my favourite parts of the process.

It completely destroyed this image I’d built in my head of Amazon engineers being these terrifying, unattainable people. Everyone was incredibly normal, friendly and genuinely interested in having a good conversation.

Interview 4 – Hiring Manager

LPs again followed by another technical problem.

I worked through it, found the correct algorithm and explained my reasoning. The interviewer checked it and literally said:

“Congrats, that’s the algorithm.”

I started coding it but didn’t manage to finish the entire implementation before we ran out of time. I explained exactly how I would complete the remaining part and he made it clear that the solution made sense, so I left feeling like it was a time crunch rather than me not knowing how to solve it.

Then I waited.

Seven business days later, I got the rejection.

Obviously, I don’t know what happened internally because I didn’t receive feedback. My personal feeling is that I probably remained under consideration and it ultimately came down to comparing candidates, but that’s purely speculation.

Regardless, I’m genuinely proud of how I performed.

The biggest thing I would tell anyone preparing for SDE I based on my experience is: don’t let LeetCode consume your entire preparation.

Do your DSA, obviously. I’m glad I spent that month grinding it.

But none of my technical rounds involved some insane LeetCode trick. They seemed much more interested in whether I could understand a problem, structure a solution, communicate what I was doing and explain my decisions.

I also know someone interviewing for the same level this year who got something around Number of Islands difficulty.

Meanwhile, LPs mattered A LOT.

Don’t just memorise STAR stories. Know your stories inside out. Know your numbers. Know exactly what YOU did. Know why you did it. Know the measurable result.

If you say you improved something, know by how much.

I prepared mine heavily using ChatGPT and Claude 🫪, but everything came from real situations I’d experienced at work. Having concrete numbers and strong examples made answering the follow-up questions so much easier.

And honestly, the whole experience was a massive confidence boost.

The role was technically Cambridge while I live in London, and if I’d received the offer I would’ve pushed pretty hard for London anyway. I already have a great place here and live about 20 minutes from an Amazon office, so moving to Cambridge wasn’t particularly appealing 😂

But regardless of the rejection, I genuinely loved the experience.

I know I performed well, I’m proud of how I handled the interviews and the whole process actually made Amazon feel more attainable, not less.

So if you’re preparing:

Do your DSA.

But nail the f out of your LPs.

I’d absolutely interview with them again.

Hi, everyone I am working at Amazon (Vancouver) and I heard some employees cash out their benefits like massage and ECT( they don't use the service instead they take money from the shops) they have connections with shops. If you know someone please let me know.

I just finished the appointment today and the lifting test was super easy, so no need to worry! However, there was an issue with the manager/system today, so our whole group (about 8–12 people) was told to come back tomorrow at 10:00 AM for the contract signature and data check. My online portal already shows a fixed start date for September 14th. My question to the community: Does this mean everyone in our group basically has the job secured now? Is it guaranteed that we all get our contracts tomorrow since the practical test is already done? Thanks!

In germany:
Kurzes Update: Ich hatte heute den Termin und der Hebetest war super einfach, man muss sich keine Sorgen machen! Allerdings gab es heute ein Problem mit dem Manager/System, sodass unsere ganze Gruppe (ca. 8–12 Personen) morgen um 10:00 Uhr noch mal wiederkommen soll für die Vertragsunterschrift und den Datenabgleich. In meinem Portal steht schon der 14. September als Startdatum. Meine Frage an die Community: Bedeutet das, dass jetzt wirklich alle aus der Gruppe den Job sicher haben? Ist das quasi garantiert, dass wir morgen alle den Vertrag bekommen, da der praktische Test ja schon erledigt ist? Danke!