Amazon transfer experience sharing

Another article rewritten three times? . The first two times were written about group selection suggestions. I've seen it myself several times, and I don't think it's appropriate. After all, the work experience is not rich enough. So for the third time, I decided to describe and write down my experience. If I can give you a lost inspiration, I will be very happy. )

In some technology companies, such as Amazon, employees can change work groups independently. The interview and process of changing groups are much simpler than job-hopping. Therefore, if programmers are not very satisfied with the current working group, but for some reason they can't jump ship immediately, many people will choose to change groups first. During my work at Amazon, I changed three groups. Let's share my transfer experience.

2065438+March 2007: employed.

2065438+February 2008: the first group reform.

20 18 12: L4 ->L5

2065438+February 2009: The second group reform.

June 65438+February 2020: L5->; L6

My first group is AWS, a very mature group. The main work is the maintenance of the system and some small functions. Observe the whole org, l4->; L5 generally takes 2.5-3 years. l5->； L6 is basically hopeless. Many experienced L5 are struggling. The general environment is slow promotion, but the working hours are not short and the pressure is not small. If work is regarded as an investment in one's own time, the rate of return of this group is very low. A mature group, pattern and benefit distribution have been completed. For programmers who join later, especially novices, not only the promotion speed is slow, but also what they can learn is limited. Therefore, at the end of 20 17, I began to prepare for a group reform.

To make a choice, I usually set my own goals and standards first. My situation at that time was that I stayed in the first group for one year, and I hoped to be promoted to L5 within six months to one year after changing groups. At the same time, I am going to buy a house for renovation at the beginning of 20 18 (I really want to talk about my renovation history when I have the opportunity), and I don't want to go to a busy group.

After the goal was clear, I began to collect some recruitment groups, and then "heart-to-heart" with the managers and individual members in the group. When talking to the hiring manager, I asked him if it was possible for me to get a promotion in two or three quarters. If he hesitates, I will pass. Later, I chose Alexa, an internal service team. The overall design of the project has been completed, led by a senior L5, and the system is divided into five parts. The manager wants to call five programmers, one for each. It is expected to be launched around August. After listening, I decided to go. My idea is that this is an internal group, with a small scope and no performance, so we should be able to fish in troubled waters to get the house done. Anyway, the range has little effect on L5 promotion. At the same time, the high-level design has been clearly arranged. If the project starts in August, plus several projects I have completed in the previous group, L4->; L5 material, in line with my timeline.

The project of the second group promoted the senior L5 in the group to L6 and brought me to L5. I know that after I was promoted by L5, I began to prepare for the second transfer. My second group project, I don't think it is possible to expand, so it is difficult for me to be promoted to L6 in this group. So when you get to L5, leave quickly, or you will fall into the predicament of boiling frogs in warm water.

At the end of 20 18, the house was renovated and my boyfriend came to work. In the next year or two, I want to devote more time to my work. I'm from l5->; L6, this is harder. Platforms and opportunities are more important than efforts. So I was much more cautious in the second group selection. My goal is to find a wide range of new groups. I thought Amazon had two waves of dividends, the life cycle of a group. One is the initial stage of the group, and the other is the period of business expansion. If you catch up, programmers will have more opportunities and get promoted faster. Ideally, there are no seniors in the group, and there is no high L5. Although I learned a lot from the predecessors of the previous group, I also limited my opportunities and development space.

I talked to more than a dozen groups and found myself too naive. A large-scale and promising project has already been occupied. How can I trust a child who just left L5? And the scope is large, generally need to recruit a lot of people. I'm just a small screw when I go in. If I want to advance to L6, I can only compete with all kinds of people by endurance. Even if you work hard, you may not be promoted to L6 after three years.

With a heart that I can't find anymore, I am ready to jump ship and finally find a group. I started talking to skip manager (not a technician). He said that this organization didn't have a programmer originally, but only found a five-level SDM (software development manager). There is too much human work in Org, and they want to automate it and make it tech org. But there are only two L5 SDE employees this year. I fell in love with this bouncing manager the first time I talked to him. And his superior is directly the VP of L 10. I decided to go. Although the risk is a little bigger, I am an old hand if I do well, and I will quit if I do badly.

Now I'm glad I chose. Before, the VP of L 10 was sitting next to our group. Vp is very good to our group and gives us many opportunities.

It's a little sad when there are only two programmers. But our group is getting bigger and bigger, and there are more and more people. The stage with few people is very tired, but it also gives me a lot of opportunities to exercise. I have worked for data engineers, product managers and data scientists.