I joined Amazon last July with about 2 YOE at a small company where I did ruby development. When I applied to Amazon, I got down leveled from SDE 2 to SDE 1 because my system design round was absolutely abysmal. I spent about 9 months on a team where I actually did pretty well. I learned a lot when it comes to system design concepts, and I got really good feedback from my manager. Things were going well until my manager left Amazon, along with our SDE 3 and SDE 2 all within a 6 week span. I decided to switch teams because I didn’t want to be left on a team with all SDE 1s. Fast forward three months later to today. I’ve been on a new team that isn’t exactly what I thought it would be. I feel like I rushed my transfer process by picking a random team that sounded cool when I read the job description. It’s in the same org just under a different skip. However, it’s been extremely boring. I was told by my new manager that I would be building new features, but I’ve mostly done ops work along with little changes to the code base here and there. I’m starting to regret that I switched teams because I feel like I threw away my promo progress. My new manager told me that we will try to go for promotion next summer at the earliest assuming I meet the criteria. When I first joined Amazon, my plan was to stay here for at least 2 years so that I could build up experience. Despite that, I find myself wanting to try something new that’s more in line with what I want to learn. I feel like it would look bad to switch teams again since I would be a flight risk in the eyes of a new HM. Does it make sense to try stick it out on this team until I get (hopefully) promoted to SDE 2 by the end of 2023? I feel like my options at this point are to either leave Amazon or stick it out until a potential promotion. With all the hiring freezes and layoffs right now, does it make sense to interview externally? I often hear that the first to join a company are the first to get fired or laid off. I’ve improved my system design skills so I feel like I could get an SDE 2 offer, but I’m worried that 1 year at Amazon isn’t enough to apply for SDE 2 externally considering I came from a no name company before Amazon. 180 TC with 3 YOE Location: NYC
Ex Amazon. Even before considering leaving, consider the TC you get from offer RSU. Hit your 4 year mark and then look. Don’t let those offer RSUs go to waste unless another company is keen on buying them out. That said, I hit my 4 year mark, hit the dropoff, and left a few months ago. Frankly, Amazon isn’t that competitive anyway when it comes to benefits etc. 1 year is enough, but I don’t regret sticking around the full 4.
If OP gets an SDE II offer the TC jump will be good enough to cover those lost RSUs especially in today's market
Yah sorry. That’s what I was also trying to say with the RSU buyout option. It’s basically what happened with me but at a different level.
This is super helpful. Thanks
So your manager, all the Sr. SDEs AND all the SDE II left? Wtf? Don't take it the bad way, but I think you misread things quite a bit if you think things were going well Now with what you said next I think interviewing is the way to go, try maybe E4 at Meta or L4 at Google, you'll get paid better and will get less frustrated. Good luck OP, that honestly sounds tough, but it's not going to be like that every time :)
We had one SDE 3 and two SDE 2s. The senior engineer ended up going to google. One SDE 2 switched internally and another went to Microsoft. My manager was the last to leave. Looking back, I totally misread things. I don’t know why I left in the first place.
"Things were going well until my manager left Amazon, along with all of our SDE 3s and SDE 2 all within a 6 week span." That's a bit misleading. The situation still sucks, best of luck OP!