How long does it take to get up to speed at Amazon? What are the general expectations for a L5 engineer? Any tips for engineers coming from small teams/startups?
2-3 months ramp up time. 6 months to 1 year to become a solid contributor. In the beginning an L5 can ask clarifying questions, but later is expected to work and design systems by themselves. Is expected to actively contribute to improve team's systems and engineering decisions. For engineers coming from startups, expect lot of bureaucracy and process around the smallest of the things. Expect security being a big deal. Expect things to take a lot more time. And expect having an internal tool for pretty much everything which takes some time to onboard.
Do L5s have to design the system and build it all by themselves? And also how does teamwork come into the play? What are some pros and cons you’ve observed? Any insights on what to do and what not to do?
Principals, L6s or other more senior L5s are always available to consult, but you are expected to understand the problem well, enlist possible approaches, coordinate with different teams if needed and deliver the product. I've seen delivery of the product is the toughest part especially when it involves multiple teams. Teamwork comes into play when arriving at technical decisions. Usually teams conduct a meeting to decide schema of a database, deciding what tech to use, tech reviews, etc. Overall Amazon gives some really good ownership and responsibility to engineers so you learn a lot, but is struggling with headcount (more work, less people) hence delivery of a big project becomes really difficult. What to do? Have weekly syncs with all parties and stakeholders involved. Management plays a big part in headcount allocation to a project as well. Inform your manager early enough if you think project timelines are going to change. What not to do? Taking too much on your plate and thinking it will get done with unrealistic and overconfident timelines.
Switch companies once you ramp up.
It will take 6 months for you to run with a project on your own
Expectations from your manager will start growing after 3 months, and it will be enough for him/her to put you on exit path (DevList) if he/she prefers.
Can you give an example?
Gosh! Why can’t they run projects like other major tech companies run?
Prioritize learning to prioritize and say no. Most burnout is self-inflicted by trying to be "high performing" and making everyone happy, except yourself.
One trap I see people fall into is: Stakeholder asks “why will that task take 2 weeks?” Engineer interprets it as a challenge to competency and cuts estimate to 1 week. Does 70 hours week to meet revised estimate. Sets unsustainable bar for themself. Don’t do this. If it takes two weeks, stick to it, back up with data about what you know and what you don’t, and add buffer for safety in case things don’t go to plan. It never goes to plan.
Your SDM will decide at 6 months if you’re meeting the L5 bar or not. If you’re not, then the formal process to manage underperformance will begin. This means you have no more than 2 months to ramp up — you’d better be working on your first ticket by the end of your first. You’ll need those next 4 months to demonstrate that you are in fact in the top 50% of SDE 2s.
3 weeks
This