A junior software engineer recently shared on Reddit the challenges faced during their brief stint at Amazon, highlighting a high-pressure work environment and confusing team dynamics. The post was titled, “I joined Amazon for 5 weeks and resigned.”
The engineer, who joined as an L4 SDE, was assigned to a high-visibility project just three weeks into the role.
Mixed Messages and Conflicting Feedback
“In one of my 1:1 I was constantly being told that I was going fast, which I thought was a good thing?” the Reddit user wrote. The post revealed that senior engineers appeared annoyed whenever the junior engineer asked for tasks. The manager advised: “just not care about my mates feedback and to keep working hard and fast.”
Escalations and Office Politics
The Reddit post detailed growing tensions and passive aggressiveness from colleagues. “A lot of people in my department were angry at me, a lot of passive aggressiveness that at some point I believed something is happening behind the scenes, I’m not sure what but a L7 bar raiser who recently joined the department started joining my meetings, assigning me tasks and escalates on my behalf,” the engineer explained.
The situation escalated further with unclear instructions and indirect communication. “Next 1:1 my manager started to ask me to slow down, stop taking deadlines so strictly and focus more on learning,” they added, describing the shift in managerial expectations.
Stress, Long Hours, and Resignation
Despite adapting to the feedback, the engineer faced ongoing criticism. “A lot of my coworkers started asking me to ‘watch out for my working hours’ (I used to stay in the office for 10 hours everyday),” the post read. Ultimately, the engineer chose to resign due to mounting stress and a hostile environment.
“Manager was so frustrated saying that I was under very high visibility and that I should be mentally strong but I kept insisting on leaving, because I was really worried things would just be worse later,” the post stated. The user also noted that several L6 managers were particularly annoyed by a topic included in the documentation.
The Reddit story has sparked discussion among tech professionals about the pressures faced by junior engineers and the challenges of navigating office politics in high-visibility projects.