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BREAKING: Internal sources confirm another round of layoffs just hit emails at Tesla. For real.
Having worked at Amazon Google and Meta. I can say that Amazon has the least technically depth/awareness EMs. And SDMs who lack technical awareness/depth are handicapped in both broad and deep technical analysis, and so can’t really take independent decisions with technical perspective without relying on someone else. Following are three paths that lead to SDM with less technical awareness at Amazon. 1. Amazon allows QA, TPMs to transition to SDM. Both QA and TPM roles at Amazon are not core technical roles. 2. Amazon has a SDE 2 to SDM2 transition. Again I think this is pretty bad. SDE 2s who are not technically competent to be SDE3 become SDM. SDM 2s also tend to be generally immature in my experience. 3. External SDMs don’t take coding test. Again inability to even do basic coding is something that is a proxy to general love for programming. Both Google and Meta don’t have 1 and 3. And now Meta is getting rid of 2. #tech
Spot on, my previous manager is from Amazon and he/she always talk a lot about Amazon like what they or Amazon has done in the past (story tellers). Sometimes I felt I was working for Amazon and left my job 😂 Less knowledge on tech and always relies on me or the team.
Isn’t it your job to do the work and for him to manage, delegate, and make sure you are unblocked and on track?
yes, but technical knowledge helps, sometimes explaining it is easy, but explaining what you're doing constantly at a simple enough language for them to understand can grow exhausting eventually. Especially if you need to explain why something is not possible or a different approach needs to be taken, you might explain enough to convince them, but they won't be able to push back other managers effectively if they're just parroting what you told them.
Amazon managers are BS in general. Google managers are much more informed. Other than Gayle's books, some amazon L7 have never read any books. Sad!
Meta is not getting rid of 2, it is getting rid of EMs in general 😅
Ex Amazon SDM from TPM spotted
What will you do spotting people. Understand the gist of it. AI can replace coders soon, count your days if you are relying on for loop.
🍿
They are just good at piping why they need to technically strong
Are you serious ?
Yes I am damn serious They are just trained to create pressure on poor ICs that's it.
This post is highly biased! Of all the 7-8 managers in our group, only one came up the TPM route (and TPMs do need to get techie as well!). Rest 6-7 have a strong technical SDE background. OP and others, don’t generalize! SDM here. Coded 11 years before moving to Management
There are a few good and technical SDMs at Amazon. Just like there are a few republicans who voted to impeach.
most coders are people who are okay with career stagnation, they'll complain in their 40s and 50s when a few people around them become "upper management" or "corporate"
At Amazon I have no interest in becoming an EM … i tried the track and went back to L6 sde …. I can steer technical direction without needing to worry about managing other people’s career. Really a waste at Amazon becoming an EM if you are a strong IC.
Not sure what EMs day to day at Google or Meta that needs them to be so technical.
There's some bias here - I agree that SDMs at Amazon are not super technical, that's because they are focused on a longer term strategy of their teams and growing their engineers, nothing wrong with that! I write code often, but I also believe a strong L5 in my team writes better code that I would, just because I haven't been involved in writing code day to day. Doesn't mean I am not technically strong, I am good at system design and that's a bar you want to hold as a manager. If you want to be a coding pro, manager is not a role for you!
Amazon managers are technically the weakest. Most of them I interview are suprised when I actually ask anything besides team management and politics
I don’t think they know anything about management either, no growth culture.