Polling former Amazon SDMs

Amazon / Mgmt
Here4abit

Go to company page Amazon Mgmt

Here4abit
Feb 28, 2018 36 Comments

I’m a L7 SDM in AWS. I’ve been at Amazon 10 years and honestly love huge parts of the culture: the data driven attitude, moving fast, anyone-does-any-job mentality.

However, I’m just not having fun anymore. My org is stacked with Microsofties and we’re moving so slow. Spending more time in meetings discussing a feature then it would take to actually deliver the feature. I look around and it’s increasingly difficult to find pockets of the Amazon that feel like “home.”

I’m looking at moving on but honestly not sure where to go. I want the good parts of the old Amazon culture. I want to ship software, emphasize ownership, and not get stuck in red tape.

Everyone complains about Google’s culture being too slow and not actually interested in delivering. Facebook looks like everything about the Bay Area that keeps me from moving there. I can’t really get behind Snap. Any former Amazonians move on and find greener pastures? (I’m staying in Seattle.)

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TOP 36 Comments
  • OP do you actually code? You keep parroting the Amazon culture but if you only manage folks, sorry, you're nothing but a glorified slave driver
    Feb 28, 2018 6
    • Amazon / Mgmt
      Here4abit

      Go to company page Amazon Mgmt

      Here4abit
      OP
      When Amazon is running well, a SDM is spending their day running a mini business. That means roughly 1/3 product management 1/3 technical management and 1/3 people management. When it works, it’s awesome. You wear many hats. You’re a single-threaded leader but with the support of super smart people.

      On the technical side you dive into designs to understand and probe. You need to know how it works in depth, your engineers made the right decision, and you pull in the right advisors. You get to white board and problem solve. You’re the operations leader and person who picks up the phone when your service is down. You guide your team through the outage. You own communication to upper management and sometimes customers.

      As a product owner, you own the “working backwards” process and how that translates to tech. You talk to customers (with a PM) and get to come up with product ideas. (Of course, anyone on the team can!)

      And, most importantly, you need to protect that your team can deliver. You need to shield them from interference all around and ensure any dependencies align. In good orgs managers/teams understand we’re all in this together for the customer and there’s a sense of cooperation. Sometimes that trust evaporates when people do not feel safe/aligned/etc. And then this part of the job gets long and tiring.

      (With all of that there’s no time to code. But that’s why we have smart SDEs too.)
      Mar 1, 2018
    • Thanks! Great insight and I've seen the exact same thing amongst great managers at Microsoft as well. The worst ones are those that look for a scape goat within their team to deflect blame when a service meltdown happens.
      Mar 1, 2018
  • Isn’t L7 high enough to shift the culture yourself? Aren’t most the people in the meetings / not shipping code on your team?
    Feb 28, 2018 3
  • VMware / Ops
    sec00nda

    Go to company page VMware Ops

    sec00nda
    Sounds like an early stage startup to me.
    Feb 28, 2018 3
    • VMware / Ops
      sec00nda

      Go to company page VMware Ops

      sec00nda
      Well, you said "I want to ship software, emphasize ownership, and not get stuck in red tape.", not "I want to manage 50 peons and be paid shitloads of money".
      Feb 28, 2018
    • Amazon / Mgmt
      Here4abit

      Go to company page Amazon Mgmt

      Here4abit
      OP
      Did you Amazon? Do you know a company with that culture? Many startups are founder cults and have their own set of problems.

      Amazon is a great training ground for people to create their own startup, but I haven’t really been bitten by that bug. And I’m not exactly ready to pour nights and weekends into someone random’s dream for no pay and little equity payoff.

      I don’t need 50 people or the same pay. But I need some translation of mental challenge. And I’d like to get compensated for my skills in one way or another.
      Feb 28, 2018
  • Amazon
    Bambizzle

    Go to company page Amazon

    Bambizzle
    Any chance you could switch to PE?
    It’s a really fun role.
    Feb 28, 2018 5
  • Amazon / Product
    kLYS80

    Go to company page Amazon Product

    PRE
    Amazon
    kLYS80
    I'm pretty sure there are a lot of teams in AWS that move fast... you should consider switching teams
    Feb 28, 2018 1
    • Amazon / Mgmt
      Here4abit

      Go to company page Amazon Mgmt

      Here4abit
      OP
      I’m not afraid to switch teams. I just can’t find ones with leadership I trust. I’m all ears if you love your VP. :)
      Feb 28, 2018