Test Automation engineer from Oracle to Software developer in top tech companies
I am working in Oracle as Test Automation engineer. Overall YOE: 8.5 years. But I'm very passionate about development and can solve hard DS and algorithms as well. Still I'm preparing for 1 more year to crack top companies like google/FB/Amzon/uber/Linkedin/Netflix etc .... I'm aiming for SDE3 at Amazon and equal level in any top 10 companies in bay area. Please let me know how difficult to get a interview call from these top companies for SDE3 equivalent roles with 8.5 years UI and back end Automation experience. Cracking the interview is not a problem for me. But will I get any call since I don't have real development exp like front end/back end /machine learning etc ... if so, do I need to apply for roles like software engineer, software developer etc... instead of front end/back end developer. I'm very much passionate about development. Wanted to shift my career from QA to development. Please help me with your inputs.
Bro.. i dont want to discourage you but even 1 year in a test team had pigeonholed me into there. I remember i graduated straight into a qualcomm test team and desperately wanted to move out and apple, vmware and ericsson all called me and said they want to interview me for test org only since my experience reflected that. I remeber i had asked vmware to get me in touch with a recruiter from a dev domain and he straight away said he cannot help . I declined to i terview with apple for the kernel test sw eng position as well. What i instead did was i started lookin internallu for dev teams luckily i had a full interview loop in a very good team at my current employer and i have beeen happy since. Best is to always switch within oracle if possible. I remember i used to randomly ping directors and ask if i could be reinterviwed for a dev position.
Sde 3 at Amazon is going to be hard for you to get. You're going to have to be a leader where you work now and be excellent at system design. 8 years of experience puts you around a typical L5 at Amazon so don't be surprised if that happens. I recommend you interview for L6 SDET and do a lateral move if you make it in the company since that's gonna be a lot easier.
Thanks for the advice. I think that loos like better option. Just wanted to know what could be tc/stocks/sign on bonus for L6 SDET?. And how difficult to crack this. Can you refer me any existing posts/blogs which can answer this question.
Your total comp would be the same as SDE so ~240k-350k. How that's split up between base, stock and sign on varies. Base salary is capped at 160k unless you in California or New York. No real blog posts I know of. L6 is a difficult level to crack but worst case if you do well but not quite L6 they can downlevel you to L5
If getting to SDE is your goal, you should be able get in Oracle itself right? IMHO, this is easy as your team knows you. Getting settled in new company as SDE is much harder than in you current team/company as everything is new. I highly recommend to talk to leadership about you aspirations and move to SDE in your current team.
OP - you need to try to do it internally before looking outside. This is your best chance, especially if you know the people on the teams looking to hire SWE’s.
Well, I'm kind of stuck in my proj. Can't move to another. Even If I move there is no hike in my pay.