Amazon added a non-compete after the employee entered the U.S. on an L1B visa
So here&#x27;s a quick summary of Amazon key benefits:<p>- Other FAANG companies vest 25% of your initial grant every year. Amazon works on a 5&#x2F;15&#x2F;40&#x2F;40% vesting schedule. Actually it&#x27;s unclear if this is now 10&#x2F;20&#x2F;30&#x2F;40. Either way, it&#x27;s weighted towards the end;<p>- Amazon will argue you get a starting bonus to cover you. Other companies give you a starting bonus and typically pay you in a lump sum, not over 2 years;<p>- Other FAANG companies use a fairly simple formula of Initial Grant Value &#x2F; Initial Share Price [1]. Amazon&#x27;s grants are valued assuming the share price goes up at a certain rate.<p>- FB and Google at least--possibly others--have no cliff. Up until a few years ago, you&#x27;d typically get no stock vest in  the first year. Not so now. I can&#x27;t find a definitive answer on this but I fully expect you&#x27;ll be waiting the full year for your 5% (or is it 10%?)<p>- Amazon has a 50% match on 401k contributions... capped to 4% of eligible earnings, which I assume is salary + bonus [2]. So at $150,000 eligible compensation, you&#x27;ll only get the first $6,000 matched at 50% (so up to $3,000). Google has no cap. Facebook has a cap of 7%.<p>- Amazon 401k matches are <i>unvested</i> for 2-3 years. Each year you work 1,000 hours or more counts as 1 year so join mid-year and it might only be 2 years. This means if you leave Amazon before those 2-3 years are up, Amazon will take back your match. Neither FB nor Google does this.<p>- Amazon PTO for US salaried employees starts at 6 paid holidays and 10 days of PTO [3] with 2 weeks (IIRC) of paid sick leave. In year 2 this goes to 15 days. In year 6, it&#x27;s 20. Google and FB have 10-12 company holidays a year with pretty much unlimited sick paid leave. Google starts at 15 days vacation going to 20 in the third year and 25 in the fifth. FB has 21 days.<p>To this list we can no add 18 month noncompetes. If you&#x27;re capable of getting a software engineering job at Amazon, you&#x27;re capable of getting much, much better benefits elsewhere.<p>Side note: attempting to put long form content in a series of Tweets is a trend that needs to die. It&#x27;s so awful to consume. Just post it somewhere and link to it.<p>[1]: Different companies use a different formula for this but it&#x27;s typically approximately the closing price at or before the time of joining.<p>[2]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.jobs&#x2F;en&#x2F;landing_pages&#x2F;benefitsoverview-us" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.jobs&#x2F;en&#x2F;landing_pages&#x2F;benefitsoverview-us</a><p>[3]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.jobs&#x2F;en&#x2F;landing_pages&#x2F;pto-overview-us" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.jobs&#x2F;en&#x2F;landing_pages&#x2F;pto-overview-us</a>