Should I renege an Amazon contract role for a Meta contract role?
Hi Taro. I worked at Amazon as an SDE for a couple of years before I was laid off. Recently, I signed an offer for a 6 month contract at Amazon. I might get a one year contract at Meta soon though. I never worked at Meta before. I wonder if it is worth burning the bridge with Amazon to take the role at Meta.
I have a few reasons for wanting to take Meta.
- Amazon is only 6 months and it may not get renewed. I don't want to put a short role on my resume and be looking for a job again in 6 months.
- Long term, I don't want to be at Amazon. Amazon really hurt my mental health.
- I would like to join Meta as a full time a lot more than I want to for Amazon. Their culture reputation is not great either, but I really believe it's better than Amazon.
I have one reason for wanting to stick with Amazon:
- It's not like jobs fall out of the sky. I am returning to Amazon now and I may return there one day for a full time role even though I prefer not to.
![Mid-Level Software Engineer [SDE 2] at Amazon company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Famazon_logo.jpg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Dff5f2302-08be-43bc-b7b1-d381ba508d99&w=48&q=75){kind=logo}
Discussion
(2 comments)- 24 months agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
The Meta contract role seems much better for you:
- You already have the Amazon experience on your resume since you worked there for several years
- Meta contract is 1 year vs 6 months at Amazon (longer-term is better)
- Meta will almost certainly pay more
However, I think this is a moot point until you actually have an offer in hand from Meta. Nothing is certain until you have something in writing. Stick with Amazon until you have the Meta offer confirmed, and you have more details around things like compensation, growth opportunities, and ability to transfer to full-time.
The chances that you "burn a bridge" at Amazon are far less as a contractor. Contractors are (intentionally) higher churn than FTE, so I would not be concerned about that at all.
FAANG contracting is a tricky topic, I put some thoughts here: FAANG Contracting. Is it worth it?
- 1
4 months agoTech Lead @ Robinhood, Meta, Course HeroAmazon is a great tech company, but I do think Meta is at least a decent amount better as it's a younger company (more cutting-edge, faster culture) and it pays more (Meta generally pays the most among FAANG). That being said, I am indeed biased being ex-Meta.
As Rahul mentioned, I think giving up a 6-month Amazon contract to take on a 12-month Meta one is worth it, assuming the teams are roughly the same quality and the chance of contractor -> FTE conversion is there. People aren't exactly expecting company loyalty from contractors and FAANG tends to treat contractors as 2nd class citizens.
