Amazon to hire only students for entry level software engineering positions
Leaked emails show

WORLD  04 February 2023 - 00:31

Amazon is only hiring current students or newly graduated people for its entry level software developer positions.

According to an internal memo obtained by Insider, starting on January 25, 2023, Amazon limited new job openings for SDE-1s — the lowest software development engineering position — to what it calls "campus" hires, or students in Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD program alongside recent graduates. The memo said those in part-time or executive programs with years of work experience can apply too, Insider reports.

The change will mean that those that have been out of school for more than 12 months, or candidates for more senior SDE-2 positions who might be a better fit for an SDE-1 position would not be considered for the latter.

The internal note said Amazon is making the change because of the "pipeline" of candidates available through student programs, but the memo nor Amazon's spokesperson clarified why the company believes campus hires are better than experienced industry candidates for entry-level positions.

The change is "global and Amazon-wide," the note said, indicating it's applied across the company. Amazon's S-team, a group of over two dozen most senior executives, and top HR leaders made the decision, and exceptions will be made only with a VP or higher approval, it added.

It's also possible Amazon is targeting a younger and more affordable group of engineers, as experienced engineers tend to command a higher salary.

"For the foreseeable future, we are prioritizing ready-to-place candidates through Student Programs," the memo said.

Students programs have been an important hiring pool for the company in recent years. But some engineers believe, Amazon has lowered the bar for recent hires. As Insider previously reported, the company dropped its renowned "bar raiser" interview process for some entry level postions last year.

August Aldebot Green, an Amazon spokesperson, told Insider, "Any implication that we have lowered our hiring bar is incorrect. We have well over 1 million employees and while we value everyone's opinion, just because a few say something is true doesn't make it so."

The change comes at a time of major restructuring at Amazon. In January, Amazon announced 18,000 job cuts, the largest in company history. It also shut down a number of projects and teams over the past year in order to cut costs amid significant slowdowns across the business.

Overhauling Amazon's engineering culture has been a priority for Amazon's CEO Andy Jassy. At an internal staff meeting in 2021, Jassy told employees that he was aware of developer complaints at the company and that the engineering culture needed to be "meaningfully better than what it is today," as Insider previously reported. It also created a new team called "Amazon Software Builder Experience" to address those concerns.

Still, some employees say Amazon is losing its intensity and a slower, bureaucratic culture has seeped in, internally dubbed "Day 2," as Insider previously reported.

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