How is AWS team? How does Amazon level ranking works?
Hello Amazonians, Can you please shade some light on AWS team, culture, etc..? Also can you also tell me how does leveling works at Amazon? Thanks
How many hours on average do people work per week? Is there some flexibility to time when you start working such as at 10am?
40 hours. And yes.
Really depends on team. I personally don't think AWS is like a strict place. However, there are a lot of things that have to be done and are on the line, and because of this fast paced environment, you have to get work done obviously. But you can get work done at a schedule that works for you. Only thing is sometimes being on-call can take up a lot of your team, but if your team manages it well it will only be once in a while.
It depends heavily on the role and team. If you’re an engineer, expect to join an on-call rotation if the service you’re working on is already in production. As you’d imagine, a lot of AWS teams are Ops-heavy If you’re on a greenfield project that isn’t released yet, it will be a lot less Ops How many years of experience do you have ?
Thanks this helps. I have about 15 years experience and looking for ops role. I know AWS is at very stage and does not have systems and tools in place.
If you are already in an OK spot in Amazon you should avoid AWS as much as possible. Upper management is terrible and it trickles down. Some directors and managers are able to shield their teams from it but in general AWS is what generates 80% of the Amazon horror stories about terrible culture and work schedules.
Wow..for real?
The other 20% is Fresh. There are always exceptions but in general yes.
Depends on your team. What is your expertise? There are so many stuff under AWS... I personally like the DB team and storage team most, cutting edge stuff, very smart people. Others I have not have too much experience with.
Okay, what are the bad AWS teams people are referring to? What I’ve seen across the teams I know, people are respectful, authority is challenged, the leadership welcomes being challenged, and the work is difficult but mostly interesting. It can also be frustratingly bureaucratic but what big company doesn’t suffer from that at times. I’d never go back to anything retail.
The fact that you think AWS would be a team makes me concerned. Do you really know nothing about AWS? 🤨
You can go there and learn with your own tears.
AWS is massive, and by massive I means they have their own HW team designing their own servers, SoC, firmware, Bios, networking switch, SSD, and then a whole software dev and manufacturing operation under it. Imagine it is like the navy and it has its own fighter jet under it, in addition to just the air force flying jets. They have ops, even some greenfield teams also have on calls (for the main team, to prep them for the roll out). My understanding is most of them are OK, because they do not hire leetcode monkeys with 3 yoe into SDE2, but rather hire veterans from industries with proven records, and compare to places like Lab126 or retail, you are respected more and will be able to jump into other FANG much easier. It is like the comparison of being in the Marine vs Army.
AWS is many, many different teams and the experience varies widely. Seriously, open the management console and each individual service in there is (often) a discrete group, and there are often teams within teams. Within teams. What specifically were you looking at? Levels.fyi is...mostly accurate, if you’re trying to line up with Google.
Pay is out of date though. L4 pay is 11k higher now with more stock.
^Updated