'Should I pick Amazon or eBay?': Techie's dilemma sparks career debate, netizens weigh in

A software engineer's career dilemma has gone viral after the professional sought advice on choosing between two lucrative job offers, one from eBay offering nearly ₹35 lakh per annum and another from Amazon with a ₹28 lakh package. 

While the eBay offer promises a significantly higher first-year compensation, the Amazon role comes with the coveted FAANG brand name, leaving the techie wondering which option would prove more beneficial in the long run.

The engineer shared the details in a Reddit post titled "Amazon Gurgaon vs eBay Bangalore choosing between FAANG Brand and a Higher Fixed Base." According to the post, the individual plans to join a new employer in September and eventually move to companies such as Adobe or Microsoft in the Delhi-NCR region within the next 12 to 18 months.

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Amazon vs eBay: Salary breakdown

The Amazon offer, based in Gurugram, includes:

• Fixed annual salary: ₹19.17 lakh
• Joining bonus (Year 1): ₹6.47 lakh
• Relocation bonus: ₹1.5 lakh
• Restricted Stock Units (RSUs): ₹15.56 lakh vested over four years
• This brings the estimated first-year compensation to approximately ₹27.9 lakh.

The eBay offer in Bengaluru includes:

• Fixed annual salary: ₹24 lakh
• Joining bonus: ₹1.5 lakh
• Relocation bonus: ₹1 lakh
• Performance bonus: ₹2.4 lakh
• Stock grants worth $25,000 vested equally over four years
• The total first-year compensation works out to roughly ₹34.8 lakh, nearly ₹7 lakh higher than Amazon's package.

Salary or FAANG Brand?

Despite the higher pay at eBay, the software engineer questioned whether rejecting Amazon's FAANG tag could impact future career opportunities.

The Reddit user asked whether choosing eBay would reduce visibility during recruiter shortlisting or resume screening at top technology firms. The engineer also wanted to know whether future salary negotiations are based primarily on fixed pay, which would make eBay's ₹24 lakh base salary more advantageous than Amazon's ₹19.17 lakh fixed compensation.

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Internet divided 

The post quickly attracted hundreds of reactions, with users split between prioritising career growth and maintaining a healthier work-life balance.

One user commented, "I would say eBay, having worked at Amazon you would probably regret choosing Amazon over eBay. Also How did you get these chances?"

Another user commented, "Ebay is GCC work. The opened office recently and lot of work they have in india today is work that is being moved from China to India. It's not that high quality. Amazon OTOH has much higher quality work. The culture is shit though."

Third user commented, "if you're joining fintech at amazon gurgaon, then its chill .but other teams here like : last mile ,shipping ,etc workload will kill you. i work in FINTECH here"