FAANG Achieved
Will be joining Amazon soon as SDE II in AWS. Please share any tips, tricks, or things you wish someone had told you when you were just starting out. This will be my first time working in a FAANG company. My goal is to speed run to SDE III. Old TC: 130k New TC: 285k #engineering #software #swe #amazon #amazonaws
Preparing for the interviews rn. What was the most challenging interview part for you?
I failed several loops with Amazon and other FAANGs in the years before this. Have done over 1k LC total and 200 hards. Leading up to this loop I live practiced over live video calls with friends the Coding, Leadership principles and System Design segments. This was crucial. The time constraints of the loop means that every second is precious, and having live practice and familiarity with the format going into this loop made the difference I think. The time pressure was most challenging, plus thinking quickly under pressure. I also scheduled interviews over multiple days which helped.
Damn that’s some serious grinding
Why speed run to SDE3? Do you care that much about ladder climbing? Personally, that hasn’t been really fulfilling for me. Like I grew from L4 to L5 here and other than the pay increase I didn’t really find it fulfilling at all. After 1 or 2 years here, you may come to a similar conclusion but all the best to ya.
Well I figure it easier to reduce expectations later if things do not align than increase expectations later if that makes sense. I want to start out by understanding expectations at my level and at my level +1 so that I can be sure to know where I stand.
Worked there for a while 1. Find the role matrix. This is how you should evaluate yourself. Always try to operate in the moving to next level segment even if you're not looking for promo 2. Work late if needed the first day or two to ensure you not only have a fully set up dev env (laptop or cloud desktop) but that you're comfortable operating it. Onboarding can be a shit show or faced paced, you want to get ahead of the curve to lessen the amount of time you spend drowning 3. SIM is ungodly slow and are in KTLO mode I'm so sorry 4. Isengard and the bones cli are God tier tooling imo and really wish something similar existed outside. Isengard is basically a better okta-aws-setup and bones is a tailored yeoman/create react app. 5. If you wanna get to sde3 you'll be writing a shit ton of docs and running meetings. Get good. Appendix is your friend for all ancillary supporting data. 6. OLR (org level review) happens at a different time for each org but usually is in the first calendar quarter of the year. This is where stack ranking (calibrated to level) occurs. 7. If you ever start hearing the term coaching in your 1on1s, start practicing leetcode again and update your resume because you're on track or already in secret pip-lite and won't be able to transfer teams without a VP approval you'll never get 8. Cultivate a list of people who can speak to the different supporting endorsements for next level promo. They should ideally be at the level you're getting promoted to. You'll need at least 1/2 customer stories in addition to someone commenting on your tech chops, complexity of project, etc. I heard promos have gotten way easier post pandemic but when I was there you had to be operating at the next level for some time (6mo minimum 1yr preferred minimum) to be considered and then you'll be put into the bottom of the band. I've known more than one person who got the promo and went from TT to LE without any real changes in engagement.
Sounds like a good sde 1 candidate; cheap and ready to chase the carrots. Seriously though, Do good work, do more, don’t be an ass. Use ears and mouth proportionally. Apply what you learn. Set realistic expectations; promotions have just gotten harder for all leveled because the organization is far too top heavy.
You should add the business vertical to your post (AWS, retail, digital, etc)
It’s AWS. Will update.
Get ready for layoff soon. It’s FIFO
Absolutely this. Layoffs both silent and overt for Amazon have not ended
enjoy the free banana and the 996 life!!!!
Congratulations 🥂. Amazon has been life changer for me. Don't listen to generic rant about Amazon's review and wlb. It's all individual self dependent time management. If you can survive Amazon which you will! You can easily live longer in rest of the industry.
Your wlb will suffer You will become a worse human in general Let your family know in advance
this. esp if op is speed running
Worse human by what metric?