Amazon L5 and number is years of experience ...
I have 15+ years of experience ... recently a amazon recruiter contacted me and offered me to interview for a L5 SDE II position in Seattle. I did some research and it seems that L5 is a beginner level (although is very wide). Do you think I can negotiate and ask for L6? Or will that be over reaching ....
Ok .... so I guess I’ll ask for L6. Let’s see what happens
I contacted the recruiter again and asked clarification on the level. he said that the position is L6 SDE III. I don’t know why I recollected that it was L5 SDE II from previous conversation
“Be right a lot.” Be sure to work on this leadership principle before going there. Amazon has low error tolerance in their culture.
How do people do this? Everything I know is learnt through a mistake. No matter how much I analyze a requirement there is always an fucking edge case. The only way I’ve survived is by being humble when the edge case becomes visible (not blaming others) and not giving up when things go wrong. So Amazon is not for me I guess. I’ll just interview see how hard it is. Haven’t interviewed in a long time.
That’s part of being right a lot, pivot and adjust fast without ego. Read the LP explanation again with this in mind, you will get a better understanding
Definitely Insist on what you deserved !
Amazon hires anyone and everyone depending on their current need to fill the position. shoot for the highest possible thing and they downlevel you cruelly anyway. I recently left amazon and have no respect for the company’s interview and leveling process. Be right a lot is a load of bullshit. I have never seen ppl being more wrong than amazon, making too many short term decisions and burning out the teams with painful and intricate processes.
L5 sadly has become a career position at Amazon. I have seen so many L5s with years of experience in Amazon doing similar things over and over again. An external hire on one of the teams I was in was hired with 20 yoe - at L5. He made L6 2 years after being hired, mainly because he got a good project to deliver. Not sure how desperate you are to work at Amazon, but you have to be ready to walk away during negotiation since you will be downlevelled even if the hiring team and hiring manager has a slight doubt about your fit for L6.
L5 can be 3 to 20 years, depending on skill and interview performance.
Wtf! It's one level up from fresh grad, which people can get to 2-3 years out of college ( there's no upper limit obviously coz they shamelessly offered it to 15 yoe guy )