Amazon AWS hiring process. End of youtuber life?
Hi everyone, I’m in the interview process with AWS and I was wondering what will happen to my YouTube channel where I teach/evangelize AWS. It’s generating some revenue and has been making impact on viewers. I get messages regularly thanking for the content and asking more. Will AWS ask to shut my channel? Should I mention about the channel in the interview process?
If you’re earning money, you’ll have to disclose it during the post acceptance phase.
It’s a bit of a gray area, but I think you can make it work. Amazon gives specific instruction to new hires not to speak on behalf of the company unless you are specifically authorized to do so. Assuming you are not being hired in an executive or communication position, you will not be in that class. So it needs to be clear that the videos are not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon. However, if you’re making instructional videos to use AWS, and not editorializing at all, that could be seen as a very positive thing. I think if you’re careful to make it clear on YouTube that you’d be fine. And make sure to not divulge any information that isn’t public ally available that you learn at work, or you’d be violating your non-disclosure agreement. Since you’re generating revenue, make sure you don’t do any YouTube work using Amazon-owned assets: computers, office, free accounts made as an employee, etc. That will ensure you can maintain your ownership claim to the work. To disclose or not disclose. Unless your channel blows up in a big way, I’d probably keep it off the radar. I don’t think most savvy director-level AWS people would not have any problem with it, and would probably be impressed. But recruiters and low-level/new managers may be scared. Alternatively, if you’re willing to turn down the job, be up front and disclose it, and if they balk, walk away. Finally, the smart move would be to consult an attorney. At $300-$500 an hour, it will seem expensive, but a few hours worth of advice could make sure that you are in control of your channel and can take the job you want, and it will be a small fraction of your signing bonus.
I wrote this assuming you had a job offer. As for interview process, it would be a big positive for the leadership principles part of the interview and help you a lot. But the cat will be out of the bag. You need to decide what your strategy will be. I prefer the up-front, honest path, but I can’t promise it is the best one. Whatever you do, don’t lie. Once detected, that would be the end of your job prospects.
Interview elsewhere. It’s not gonna work.
Working at AWS will be the end of your channel. You'll feel very different once you become an insider.
Don’t mention it, I don’t see why they would tell you to stop unless you start sharing internal info.