Amazon vs Doordash: Software Engineer Offers & Deciding: Comparing the Offers & Making a Decision

A friend received offers with similar comp from Doordash and Amazon and asked for advice on how to decide. I have plenty: and share how I evaluated offers when I was early in my career, and how I do it now.

Bonus: my take on Amazon's "PIP culture", quotas and which company I would choose, and why.

Places to look for public tech company reviews:

00:00 - Intro
00:44 - 1. Compensation
01:56 - 2. Glassdoor reviews
00:44 - 3. Compensation
04:55 - Stock price
07:41 - 4. Blind reviews
11:02 - Amazon and "PIP culture"
15:10 - Doordash Blind reviews
18:33 - 5. Ask people who work at the company
22:58 - 6. Negotiate compensation
23:24 - 7. Reverse interview before accepting (and how I did this at Uber)
27:31 - What I would choose

Connect with me on other platforms:

Books I've written (and am writing):

[pragmaticengineer]

Update: my friend took my advice, reverse interviewed both Doordash and Amazon, and went with Amazon!

They said the reverse interview - and talking with their future manager - made a *huge* difference. I really recommend doing a reverse interview if you are in doubt. (Don't forget: each situation, offer and team is different! Don't take any signal on whether Amazon or Doordash is "better", in general. There is no "general"!)

[ProgramadorSagaz]

On the reverse interview topic, I think Facebook beats almost any company out there because you get to choose your team after joining. I joined FB 1 year ago and I interviewed ~6 teams before making my decision. The difference was huge and I'm sure I wouldn't be as happy as I am now in most of these teams.

[HassanElMghari]

This is pure gold Gergely, thank you so much for these videos! Especially loved the part the inside thoughts about Amazon and door dash as well as that bit about reverse interviewing after you get an offer. Would love more of these videos where you give your own thoughts on other big tech companies and also interested in the calibration video. Keep killing it!

[balazsgyurak]

Please do a video on negotiation tactics - very interested in that!

[caliwolf]

The amount of knowledge in these videos are too much, many thanks buddy.

[suhassreenivas]

This is such good advice and I loved how you showed your process of going through the reviews in blind and glassdoor and not just take it at face value. I'd be interested in a negotiation video that starts at step -1 haha, like what should I type in the email to recruiter or should I request a call with them or hiring manager.

[sadBoiDev]

Thanks man, I have am close to the offer stage with Doordash and this vid was super helpful to get some insight on the culture of Doordash. Much thanks!

[vpv-pp]

Thank you very much. Video about calibration sounds very interesting!

[sbvkrishna]

Really informative and thanks for sharing this. Would love to see your views and insights on the Calibration.

Also, curious to know when can we expect the Eng Guidebook (hopefully it's on track for release in next few months).

[luisaceo]

Great video! I'd have never thought about asking for a short interview with a future manager in case the candidate gets an offer. I'm surprised you didn't mention as well things like engineering blogs where teams outline their coding practices or their onboarding process.

[damercy]

Would love the calibration video you talked about. I've no idea on it but would love to know more, thanks Gergely! :)

[juandager]

I unsubscribed from the Teach Lead (and bl4cklisted him for good!) And then I found this channel: The Pragmatic Engineer seems to know a lot more about the current, real Big Tech. I appreciate these videos. Thanks!

I hope to join Big Tech soon (as a millionaire)

[MattClimbs]

Great video, thanks for the insights! Small note is that Atlassian is pronounced At-lass-ian not Alt-ass-ian. I only notice because I made this mistake myself for ages.

[kwabenaberko]

Great video once again, Gergely!. Can you do a video on Design Docs?

[AlexG-cmky]

Wow, your videos are getting better and better!!!!

[vshah]

I would chose Amazon. It's an easy choice. Doordash is much more limited. Amazon has a bigger product portfolio, which means there are more possibilities on the projects you could work on.

[ejborba]

Very interesting video! Could you please explain this PIP better? And how to use apply one of those (in the correct way, not to threat everyone)?

[SajalNagwanshi]

I am currently interviewing with Amazon. Just after the first round I asked whether I can speak to the hiring manager.

[yjli]

Thank you for the great tips! For companies such as Facebook or Robinhood where they do team match after one joins, what would be a good replacement for the reverse interview?

[kileNoe]

Ive been a full time doordash delivery guy for 2.5 years now. I have recently struck an interest in learning development. Im starting to learn now.

The doordash app is so buggy. I currently gave 9240 lifetime deliveries. I have to constantly refresh the app, the app just has a lot of bugs.
Maybe someday i can help them solve these issues XD