Amazon

Amazon is great at manipulating people to make them join the company by making all kinds of false promises. Amazon is great at defining the compensation terms to the best interest of the company rather than the employee. Amazon is great at making people believe that it's a great company to work for.

Do not believe what HR promises you.

Do not believe the compensation offered is correct.

Do not agree to a year-over-year share price increase of 15%.

HR will say if the share price decreases, it will be compensated, but nothing will happen.

You are indirectly signing the offer for 15% less every year.

You will come to know the true compensation from the second year onwards.

Example: When you join, if they offer 100K including base, cash, and stocks, in the third year, they can come up with a new number saying you are eligible to get only 50K as compensation instead of 100K by considering rating and your performance.

Nowhere in the world can such a thing happen, but it is very much possible in Amazon.

Let us say when you join, you got 100 stocks at $100 per share for the third and fourth years each. During the third-year appraisal, they may offer the same 100 stocks at $50 per share for the fourth and fifth years.

When you talk about share price, they talk about quantity, saying they allocated a similar quantity.

If the share price became $200, then they don’t talk about quantity; they talk about cost.

They will offer only 40 stocks, saying the share price has increased and your salary increases so much from the offered amount.

When the share increases, you get nothing.

When the share decreases also, you get nothing.

You will end up working years and years without even getting your initial offered salary for any year in your Amazon tenure.

This is the greatest strategy you won’t see in any such great company.

Do not get tempted with the offer and company as you feel from the outside.

Check with people and make a wise decision.

Last but not least, it is known for worst work-life balance.

Despite your sacrifices, nothing will be considered, and you will definitely regret your decision of joining.

Be careful.

Take care of employees well with respect to all aspects. Do not think Amazon is doing a favor by offering a position to an employee; recognize employees are sacrificing their personal lives for the company. Show this recognition through benefits or compensation, and not just through words, which doesn’t cost anything.