Indeed Technical Business Analyst
How is this role ? Is it hard to get into SWE after this role ? It’s at Austin, TX. Culture seems nice, plenty of engineering projects. I want to eventually internal transfer to SWE or jump ship to SWE elsewhere. Thanks in advance!
It's easy. If you think getting in and transferring to SWE will work, it wont. You will still go through the same process as an external hire. TBAs were created because Indeed needed people who could program but lowered the bar and put them in a different org bc not enough people were passing the swe interview.
How often do TBAs at other companies end up being junior programmers with analysis experience?
I wonder this too ^ Thank you indeedian !
TC?
It’s 90k ish according to Glassdoor, but it’s in Austin so you know
New TBA here. For me it’s a good fit because I was a self taught developer at a big consulting firm looking to transition into tech and software development. Now I do React and Java Spring. Other teams do variety of stuff including python Django and data science. Perhaps it’s not “real” engineering because we tend to work on internal stuff rather than consumer facing, but my manager, who came from the engineering side, says the TBA organization is much more relaxed.
Nice, sounds like the cool position doing many engineering projects. Just the title is a bit not appealing ... I don’t wanna sound ignorant but I feel other companies will take the BA title less serious than a SWE title
I’ve been wondering about the title too, but I was still able to get SWE interviews back when my job title was “consultant”
Indeed has a weird hierarchy where the CTO doesn't control the vast majority of engineers. TBAs seem to be his way of bringing more engineers into his organization. Moving to SWE is possible but Indeed has a painful internal mobility process so it can sometimes be a fight.
One thing that the TBA org has going for it is that it's placing (in my opinion) really talented SWEs as TBA managers. I don't doubt that our TBAs are learning real skills while receiving real mentorship. If you want to transfer departments, don't go through the standards means of doing so. Instead, ingratiate yourself to someone high up in the eng org, and have them advocate for you. Director level, and even important SWE3 managers can bypass HR's red tape when it comes to transfers. Switching to SWE by doing a good job and telling HR that you want to switch departments will likely be an uphill battle. Hyams has joked about our semi-technical departments as pools from which to poach motivated folks for PM and SWE roles. If you understand how to show impact and develop relationships, switching to SWE is not out of the question. Don't take that lightly - I think that most hires have more difficulty with those soft skills than with excelling at the prescribed duties of their job.
Thanks, the advice sounds very realistic and difficult at the same time. I have no doubt now that I will learn a lot in TBA, but transferring to SWE does sounds a lot difficult than just leetcode to a SWE position elsewhere.
Curious any TBA eventually becomes PM? Remember the interview for this role heavily focuses on product/business side.
Anything is possible. Keep in mind that the TBA org is trying to grow and retain its TBAs. You can network your way into anything with enough effort and luck (really, it will take a lot more than just being good at your job), but the TBA org will do what they can to retain you. This includes attempting to stymy your efforts to switch. Also, in general, Indeed blocks internal job transfers for 1 year after joining.
Does tba get ltips?
I mean even I still stay within TBA, but if I could become PM or receive related training in TBA, that will be cool. And then I could jump to other company for PM role. The unique part of this role is flexibility for new grad to try different things to figure out true interest, which is super important for young people, right?
Yeah, I'm confident you'll gain great skills and work on interesting problems. But, if you can pass an interview for a PM or Dev role, I would totally go for those over TBA. The compensation, respect, and growth potential in those roles is much more than in a TBA role. If you can't land a Dev or PM role, then TBA sounds like a nice starting point to build up skills and move on to something else.
I wonder what is the impact in the job search for people whose title is title 'technical business analyst' vs 'sw enginneer'. Definitely don't feel that the name 'tba' describes what I do on a daily basis.
Indeed 🤣
Does Indeed has a bad reputation in the industry ?
No, not really. People on Blind are just messy sad people and lack any vision beyond FAANG. Indeed is a private company and it's not based in the valley so people are dismissive of it, but in scale of size, revenue, and scope of problems it's equal to a high level B tier like Uber or Airbnb.