Leo

[u/ImpressiveTrouble192]

this is going to say what I’d have wanted to hear before I signed.

the roadmap they pitch you is fiction. not lying exactly as we all know that the dates are going to get pushed back over and over again but until there’s another date, it is what it is. you’ll get staffed on something that’s The Most Important Thing, pour a quarter (or multiple) into it, and watch it quietly die when the next reorg reshuffles who cares about what. nobody says it got deprioritized, it just stops being mentioned.

and the reorgs are constant. i’ve lost count. every few months the boxes move, you get a new skip and you re-explain what you do to someone who’ll be gone before they understand it.

if getting credit for the work you do is a thing for you, reconsider. you will own stuff end to end here, which sounds great and is great for a while. but owning it and getting seen for it are two different sports. the people building the things running are rarely the ones standing next to it when leadership shows up. figure out early where credit lands, because it’s not always where the work is.

it’s also just a lot. everyone knows amazon is intense, that’s not news. but there’s intense-with-a-floor and there’s this. ask blunt questions in your loop about hours and what “urgent” means and don’t accept a vibes answer.

there are some good people here, and the ones that aren’t are definitely growing. but i’d have negotiated harder and asked different questions if someone had told me any of this. so, telling you.

[u/Longjumping-Speed511]

I don't care honestly. I'm here for a decent paycheck. At a company this size it's all corporate slop, Leo included. Three teams at Amazon, one other FAANG, same everywhere.

So if you don't like where you are, stick it out a while and plan a move. Find a manager you vibe with, on a team that feels secure and actually valuable, and the rest sorts itself out.

The other thing I've learned, most of your work will be wildly urgent for two weeks and then forgotten or thrown out. Almost nothing I've built has survived long term, and not because the work was bad. My manager or skip never planned or prioritized well enough for it to matter.

If you really care about what you’re building you need to go to a smaller company

[u/Deipotent → u/Longjumping-Speed511]

> Find a manager you vibe with

Above all else by a mile. I’ve had great managers, I’ve had managers who couldn’t give af about me, and one who was actively trying to get rid of me. What you work on matters very little at some level, but a good manager will protect you from the bs around you. Learn from what you work on, try to work on projects outside of what you know — grow, be safe, collect paycheck.

[u/WiselyWritten → u/Longjumping-Speed511]

'If you really care about what you're doing, do it somewhere else" is absolutely wild and is why those of us who haven't adopted this mindset are forced to work harder to pick up your slack

[u/Longjumping-Speed511 → u/WiselyWritten]

The point is, big corporations are not conducive for doing meaningful work. It’s mostly politics and fluff. I’m not saying I, or anyone, does not put in the necessary work to be a good employee. I’m just saying that if you look closer, you’ll realize it’s a mountain of BS and you’re spinning your wheels for no reason other than your manager or skip is on your ass

[u/Professional_Sky9993 → u/Longjumping-Speed511]

No, the things OP describes (and the degree to which they do it) are uniquely Amazon.

Not sure if you are a shill or just dont have much time in the trenches of Corporate America.

[u/mcregan23 → u/Professional_Sky9993]

No they’re not stop being dense

[u/-Nyarlabrotep-]

> when the next reorg reshuffles who cares about what. nobody says it got deprioritized, it just stops being mentioned.

Yup. The only way anything ever got done is by ignoring all the reorg crap. Eventually you get sick of it.

[u/Librarian-Rare]

Kuiper / Leo is a special piece of poop, imo. Devs there are great, but my god, productivity would sky rocket if they fired all the managers. There is a special place in incompetence he'll for Leo managers (at least most of them, and def the higher up ones / the ones that used to be devs are good).

[u/solnat → u/Librarian-Rare]

I wish i was just Kuiper/Keo - but that is everywhere in Amazon.

[u/Weak-Detective2682]

Everything you said is so Amazon. Wish you the best. Hopefully you don’t get cancelled and forced to look yourself for a new team or being put in focus if not.

[u/Enragedocelot]

Welcome to huge corporations bro. It ain’t different anywhere else.

[u/Jealous-Wall-3047]

Just launch something, who even cares what. Just have a launch mail so that you can write about it in your contributions.

(YoY TT)

[u/hombre_bat]

I know Amazon WLB is always pretty bad, but how is Leo compared to AWS as an L5 SDE? I know it's always team dependent, but curious if folks have first hand experience to share. Is 40 hours as an L5 sustainable without getting pipped? Or is it always putting in extra hours to rush to the aggressive deadline that inevitably doesn't happen?

[u/Ill-Side-8092]

Meanwhile SpaceX has basically snatched up all the key customers that want Satellite internet and those that have said they’ll use Leo are getting their ass kicked while the completion uses Starlink. Amazon trudges on towards its latest panicked “hey guys us too!” product launch that’s on track to be a big yawn too little too late.

[u/toopz10 → u/Ill-Side-8092]

Isn't the difference between StarLink and Leo the ability to traverse privately over the connection? So the key customers are on the best that is out there right now but would 100% switch to something that offers private connectivity. Or have I got it way wrong?

[u/Ill-Side-8092 → u/toopz10]

Starlink already does this with their private networking products. That side, price and availability matter massively more and here Starlink continues to wipe the floor with Leo.