Prepping for on-site AWS interview for L5 SA. I know they'll be probing for depth on my technical knowledge. Struggling to figure out what "deep" knowledge of a subject is, can anyone share an example of what's acceptable for an SA position?
TC: $133K
YoE: 5
NYC. SWE.
#solutionarchitect #SA #AWS #amazon #loop
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If you get system design questions make sure you ask good thoughtful questions.
Deep is subjective unfortunately. Example for me, Containers.
1 - can write dockerfiles, explain layer caching and basic stuff
2 - talk about container platforms, and generally how to use/deploy
3 - best practices of those platforms and tradeoffs. Actual usage and operation issues + solutions
4 - trends in industry, edge cases, demonstrated knowledge on operationalization, helping teams adopt, and other higher level thinking things. Like, think outside just technology.
Some other person will disagree with my leveling so use that as you will.
Here's what I look for, which have nothing to do with AWS. It's just presentation stuff...
Presentation basics/structure
- Did you have an overview of what we'll be talking about
- Did you have a few lines of text for you to expand on via talking
- Do you have pictures (it's dumb, but also makes things less boring)
- Timing - use up the time allotted and assume people will ask questions
- Did you frame some of the business challenges earlier on and then come back later to be like we solved this and this and this in a summary/post-slide
- Minimize the ums and eh and yeahs.
- Try to engage the audience. People will ask you questions. You can ask questions back. (eg AWS: Why'd you choose Java? You: Because it fit the requirements ABCD and had an advantage over Python because of Y. Do you want me to talk a bit more about the tradedoffs and why we ended up with Java? This is a great way of making it interesting.
Content
- Are you telling a story or are you reading words to me
- Focus on the customer and/or business and the problems YOU helped them solve (eg. Customer had X pain, so I proposed Y, got it approved by Z, I implemented ABCD to solve X. Result is EFGH.
- Is the problem and subsequent technical solution complex? What parts of it were complex?
- Always focus on the customer or consumers. Note that internal teams can be customers too.
Somewhat related but also unrelated: Read up on Well architected - you don't need to read each individual whitepaper, but do read the overarching one. On your tech story, try to hit on these pillars.
Also note that I've given a whole lot of things you should do. You don't need to do everything. Nobody's perfect. Remember that we're not just interviewing you for a role. You're interviewing us to see if you even want an SA role and to know if you even want to work for AWS. There's a lot of shit on blind on how AWS sucks and stuff, so take that into consideration too. I personally think the SA org is an amazing place to be...if you have the right managers. Worst case they're just useless and not specifically detrimental...which is better than the rest of AMZN.
DM me if you have more Qs.
Surface level I can do easily. Just need to define what "deep" means.
Part of the reason I'm asking is because I don't have a ton of YoE -- I know some people with 10+ YoE in areas like Storage...to me, that's real depth.