I just received word that I will be receiving an offer for a L4 Cloud Support Engineer - I role. I should receive a call sometime today or tomorrow but I want to prepare for how to respond to the verbal offer. I did poorly on the technical interviews but well enough on the behavioral interviews, so I am not sure if I want to negotiate because I didn’t really think I would get an offer anyways. Also, I understand that many on Blind look down on Support roles, but for my situation it would put me down a better career path than my current position. Any thoughts on what my approach should be? Non-coding Sys Admin background YOE: ~2.5 TC: ~110k Thanks in advance#tech
Remember to work harder!! Know your VP in support was once a support engineer
Negotiate anyways, though I know it can be nerve wrecking. I literally fumble on a negotiation but was able to get 20% more than initial offer. There are a lot of great videos on tech negotiation especially gears toward Amazon on YouTube. Watch them and practice, I hope that helps.
Wow that is awesome, great job and thank you for the advice!
No prob, best of luck 🤞
I had friends negotiate offers for CSE I successfully. I would definitely go for it! I started in support and liked it quite a bit. Don’t let poo talkers get you down about support roles. Making it for CSE I at Amazon is not trivial. Wishing you the best of luck - and do recommend negotiating. Worst they can say is no 😉
Thank you for the reassurance, that gives me more confidence going into it.
Can I dm you? I have a loop for CSE coming up
Can you describe the interview process and what types of questions were asked? Interested in applying to a Cloud Support Engineer role @ AWS
Sure, first there was an Online Assessment 45 mins of answering questions in a faux email/chat format (as if you were answering clients questions) Some Tech questions mostly on networking Culture fit questions (are you more like this or that) Then normally a technical phone screening but my recruiter skipped that portion for me Then a virtual loop interview. 4 interviews 2 behavioral 2 technical. Each one an hour long and you get an hour break in between the 2nd and 3rd interview. They gave me a document filled with resources to brush up/learn and I watched most of them (took a long time to get through them) I think the reason I got it was my practice on answering the Behavioral questions (knowing Amazons LPs and using STAR)
Did you accept the offer? Which location did they ask you to join? Also, how did the negotiation go? I'm about to sit for my loop interviews for CSE I too, so will be grateful if you could share the details. Thanks!
Yes, remote, 8k bump after negotiation
That's great! Congratulations btw! Wish you all the best!
What was final TC breakdown?
Ngl that TC is a low ball. They told me TC to expect is $130k. Got downlevel offer for CSA and it was still like $100k. 1YOE
I wish I got down leveled instead I got rejected I wonder what the criteria is for down level
I think I did really well with my HM and bar raiser loops. My technical loops were fine but I didn't know anything about load balancers which is pretty important for the work. It was weird though because they outright rejected me and then I got a cold call from a recruiter like 3 weeks later offering me CSA.
Hi! Could I dm you? I recently had a recruiter reach out for the same role. I have a similar technical background in analytics and would love to hear more of your process and journey.
Just as you said. Support engineers roles at AWS is a good stepping stone into the company. Go for it and good luck
Thanks, given my lack of technical skills in the role does it make sense trying to negotiate if the offer comes in lower than my current TC?
Well, think of it this way.. they wont take the offer away if you ask for more! So try