Do Senior SDEs code at work?

Amazon
NgxW86

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NgxW86
Feb 10, 2021 8 Comments

I am close to start promotion from SDE2 to SDE3. But all SDE3 around me do not code at all. It is tones of meetings, architecture designs and hep SDE2s to push another team to get help.

Maybe it is different outside of Amazon.. or maybe it is even different outside of my organization. But I am not ready to leave coding and have only pet projects at home.

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TOP 8 Comments
  • Amazon
    2CLdnV

    Go to company page Amazon

    2CLdnV
    It depends on the organization, team, and individual. I know three SDE 3s who do a ton of coding throughout the year, a couple who spend most their time on design and in review meetings with some coding, and one who is almost entirely in meetings with upper management and helping SDE 1-2s with design/architecture level problems.

    If you want to focus on design and coding, you can look around at what teams are working on problems that seem interesting to you where they're early in the design/implementation phase (check the internal JobFinder website), many will be glad to take on a SDE 2-3 with solid implementation skills.

    SDE 3+ seems to often be focused more on multiplying impact across teams than on being a super-coder. There's a limit to how many times better a good SDE 3 will be at implementation compared to a good SDE 2, while you may be able to anticipate design issues that less experienced developers will run into, and give suggestions that result in far better outcomes and save hundreds of developer hours.
    Feb 10, 2021 0
  • Google
    lx500

    Go to company page Google

    lx500
    Amazon is heavily biased against ICs. It is one of the reasons I left. Only places I know with good IC growth would be s3, database, and alf.
    Feb 10, 2021 2
  • Microsoft / Eng
    /Seattle/

    Go to company page Microsoft Eng

    PRE
    Amazon
    /Seattle/
    I was an SDE3 at Amazon until I left about a year ago. Most of the SDE3s I knew didn’t code much, except for a couple who were working in early stages of new products that didn’t have big teams. Otherwise the role is often about scaling your impact, and it’s just usually more effective to help others instead of doing it yourself. That’s the path to Principal anyway for most people, save a few exceptions. The most coding I did was to focus deeply on some new service or tool for a month and then spend the rest of the year trying to release it and getting people to use it. Based on conversations with friends at other major companies, that seems to usually be the case for senior+ engineers.
    Feb 10, 2021 1
  • Dell
    mfence

    Go to company page Dell

    mfence
    Dell distinguished engineers still code
    Feb 10, 2021 0
  • Amazon
    Bobate

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    Bobate
    AWS SDE 3s code full time
    Feb 10, 2021 0