Is it a stupid move? I'm curious about solving something of slightly higher scope, for similar TC, and a bit higher stress level. Because why not? Anyone at Google or Meta who has made the change has stories / thoughts?
No. Your peace of mind is worth more
Rofl. Clearly dreaming…do you really have an offer from L5 in G to L7 in Amazon?
Correction, L5.9 at G
Of course yes! Remember that Amazon also needs competent people to keep the business running, and offset the mediocre folk who try to sink the ship :) Especially given how mediocre the average engineer at Amazon is compared to places like FB and G. A good analogy is to say that the top 1% of people in a group of idiots are just... lesser idiots, right? And Bezos can't make all his money by relying on lesser idiots alone.
L7 in Amazon is a big deal. Most Google and Meta L6s are not up to it. Even if they pass the loop, they leave in less than 1-2 years. It requires people who are engineers in their bones, good instincts and strong judgement. This is on top of people leadership skills. If any of that does not sound immediately familiar to you, then I'd say stay at Google. It's more like L7 in Meta and Google.
Search on blind says many people who got both offers preferred Google Staff over Amazon L7. So, I'm going to call into question the assumptions made here. Do keep in mind that the dimensions that matter the most are competence and core skills, not "bigdealness". Think about the large differences in competence between engineers in tier-1 vs tier-2 FAANGs.
I know a L5 Googler and another L65 Microsoft person went to Amazon L7
Amazon L7 is much closer to Senior Staff than it is to Staff.
My understanding is that when you overlay it with the caliber / competence of the people, the equation balances out in favor of Google Staff being better. Not sure how it's at Twitter though.
Amazon L7 is an extremely broad level, and actual “engineering” is a very small part of what you do day to day. Your tech depth, or breadth, alone doesn’t get you promoted to L7 at Amazon, and if you’re an external hire who somehow made it through the loop based mostly on tech skills, it’d be hard for you to be successful without quickly learning the soft skills (basically chug the koolaid). While I haven’t worked at Google, I have at Amazon (6 years) and no amount of money, or leveling, or prestige, or bananas, can ever make me go back to that place.
I think people underestimate how hard engineering is, and how easy the non-engineering work is. Soft skill are fairly easy to learn and navigate. If that's what Amazon L7s do, without additional tech depth, then I don't see it being particularly hard to be honest.
Nailed it ! I’ve been hearing this soft skills shit all the time when I was at Amazon! While it’s good to discuss and improve soft skills nobody discusses how to improve tech skills 🤣
It's not about soft skills being hard or easy. It's about it being draining. It's constant noise and that noise is your work! Do you get the picture ? At L7 you will improve tech skills by actually doing the work - architect / design / define. I doubt you will do lot of hands-on coding. And for "code-comfortable" devs that might be uncharted territory.
I worked at Google and now at Amazon, I'm trying for an L7 promotion. I feel L7 is generally at org level, defining the tenets of services under the org, anticipating the problems, driving vp goals. Just being super smart or a great engineer is not enough. Experience is needed at that position. The work at Google in many orgs is not challenging. If you're an L6-L7 at GCP then you can try for L7 at AWS. Experience is important at that level
@op don't come to Amazon. 1. Not because you are too smart, just because you think everyone here is not. With that attitude all I foresee is pain for you and your teammates. Better to stick with the "smarter" folks at G. 2. Amazon could be painful especially if you come in on your high horse and do not get along with teams to actually deliver in a higher scope. 3. Objectively, at L7 Amazon will have politics and personally that's a big no for someone like me. But if you want to try your hand at that aspect of work, it could be a good opportunity.
5.9 lmao, I guess I’m an L3.257? Or was it 3.267? I’m no good with my decimals
Cool bro, you almost make as much as a new grad SWE at HRT. People out here flexing 500k TCs like it ain’t 2022 where money is worthless.
Haha, I love how you’re attacking a recent grad L3 for laughing at your own made up leveling. I’m sure the hiring bar was really high when you joined and fell right after. Edit: And now you deleted your comment. I’m sure it would have made a great promo artifact to exhibit your Googleyness and really show you were L6 material.