That's a very good question! I should have left after 3 years.
I did not know any better. Specially when it came to compensation, I only knew about my promised stocks' grown value, and not what other companies would have offered me.
Year 1: learning, excitement, keen to prove myself, also economy had just crashed
Year 2: under pressure, but feeling ownership and hopeful that we would "fix our problems"
Year 3: jaded, but waiting for the growing stock to vest (Amazon's RSUs start vesting in the 3rd year)
Year 4: over-stressed, extremely unhappy
Year 5: detached, not really working, interviews, exit.
Amazon discussed an offer with very backloaded RSUs. They must think engineers are idiots: if you offer 5/15/40/40 vesting (those may not be the exact numbers but they're not far off), it's a giant flashing sign with a klaxon on top that you expect the majority of your eng to churn inside of 2 years.
I replied anything but 25/25/25/25 wasn't even worth discussing and that was that.
Year 1: learning, excitement, keen to prove myself, also economy had just crashed
Year 2: under pressure, but feeling ownership and hopeful that we would "fix our problems"
Year 3: jaded, but waiting for the growing stock to vest (Amazon's RSUs start vesting in the 3rd year)
Year 4: over-stressed, extremely unhappy
Year 5: detached, not really working, interviews, exit.