Google T4 to T5 promotion
Hi, I received Google offer for T4. There is not much hope of getting promotion to sde3 in Amazon due to recent reorgs happening in my team. Also, learning is limited as there are no good projects in my team, everyone is doing rest and vest. I am considering Google offer. How easy/difficult is it to get promoted to L5 for external hires. What does timeline look like, and what are the traits needed to move upwards. Any comparison with Amazon promotions would be useful. I will be joining Google Cloud team in Fremont. Any career advice is most welcome. 6yoe, sde2, Seattle Current TC: $300k (stock-$1700) Google TC: $300k (plus $30k signon)
What is the T4 breakdown? Will your TC at Amazon go down by a lot if you don’t get promoted?
Yes, in 2020
Don’t count signon as TC.
Wow, that’s a lot for L4 with 6 yoe in Seattle. Congrats!
All depends on team & manager. I had been through 2 re-orgs in 2 years after getting to T4. After seeing no chance of getting up in near the future I just interviewed other places and left. :)
Were you able to get higher level outside?
Thats pretty nice offer for L4. I got promoted to L5 in 1.5 years. Had 3 yrs of experience in AWS. My teammate (MIT phd) got promoted twice in 1.5 years. Because of central promo committee, there is less politics and it all depends on your projects. You need to show 1-2 L5 level projects.
How big are L5 and L6 projects?
Check out http://levels.fyi
OP, did you join Google? If so, what do you think the promotion probability is? I am in the same ship as you but about 8-9 months late.
Why do you care about level if you will be paid SDE3 money?
Levels are important in corporate. You are naive to not realize this, especially in Amazon.
Sure, it's better to be higher level, but you should be happy you're getting 330k offer while being overpaid at Amazon at 60k less. First world problems