amazonIt’s early July, which means it’s peak intern season at big tech companies, with many of those interns positioning themselves for future full-time employment. One Amazon veteran, identifying himself as “an old man who has been at Amazon way too long” has some advice for interns who might be considering taking jobs at the company: Don’t do it.

“You are smart, driven, and are no doubt going to be successful in whatever you do, which is why I want to urge you to STAY THE FUCK AWAY from Amazon when it comes time for you to leave school and jump into the workforce,” reads the post, published last night on Reddit.

The post is anonymous, and it might be easy to dismiss as the rantings of someone who has, in fact, been at the company too long. It also comes at a time of intense competition for tech talent, and you never know how far a rival might go for an edge. However, the general sentiment rings true based on what we hear from former Amazon employees, and the comment thread is also worth a read, with veterans of other tech companies chiming in to provide perspective. It’s the top post right now on /r/Seattle.

The post goes on to detail the unexpected “gotchas” of Amazon stock options, the company’s review system and its work-life balance.

“The most fucked thing about bright young engineers such as yourselves going to work for Amazon is that you have your choice of ANY technology company out there,” the post says. “If you are smart enough to get through an Amazon interview loop then you’re smart enough to get through a Google/Facebook/Apple/etc. loop without any problems. So why throw yourself into an environment that is designed to chew you up and spit you out?”

One thing is clear: This is not someone who works in Amazon recruiting. For the record, we’ve asked Amazon if it wants to issue a rebuttal to the Reddit post.

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