Full circle moment. 🥹 A couple people might remember this post early this year
I wrote this when I was genuinely hurt after missing out on a role I really wanted. I remember how disappointing it felt, how much I questioned things, and how uncertain everything seemed at the time.
Now, I’m signing an offer letter for a role I’ve always wanted.
Funny how life works. The version of me who wrote this had no idea how things would eventually turn out.
If you’re going through something similar, keep going. One disappointment doesn’t mean your story is over.
Shii eventually worked out. ❤️

[SDE]

Could really use some advice on how to navigate a corporate politics dynamic with a few colleagues.

Here’s the cycle that is being repeated: In the project, I identify a complex issue or an area for improvement, take the initiative to Dive Deep, and do all the initial heavy lifting to gather the data and build the foundation.

Right as the project starts gaining traction or moving toward execution, certain colleagues will "jump in" to help.

They’ll take my initial work, carry it forward or present the findings in review meetings. Ultimately, they end up positioning the project as their own initiative, and leadership (L7s) gives them all the praise for "Deliver Results" and "Ownership."

I want to be a team player and Earn Trust, but it’s getting to the point where I feel like I'm just doing the grunt work while they get the visibility and the promo-worthy bullet points.

If I speak up in the middle of a meeting, I risk looking petty or defensive. If I say nothing, I remain invisible.

For those who have navigated this kind of aggressive "swoop and claim" culture, how do you handle it?

I am a new hire in USA AWS. I just wanted to know who decides layoffs, who gets impacted, how they decide it? Types of layoffs (performance, team layoff, layer layoff). I am sure there has to be some ranking/performance review and not completely random. I also got to know that it is determined by someone above L7. Can someone in that position share something? Please be kind I am a new hire (SWE) and AUTA recruit.

For context, I've been an L4 SDE for a bit over a year now. I joined as a new grad, received "exceeds" ratings so far and my manager is working to try to get me promoted this quarter. I interned before agents could code, and joined as a FT few months before we adopted agentic coding fully.

Increasingly, it feels like SDEs in my team are responsible for being PMs and to an extent managing themselves too. 6 months ago my manager got promoted to skip level, and only now he was finally able to hire a new manager for our team. For the past 6 months I literally did not speak to my manager outside of our bi-weekly 1:1s and a few slack messages a week. I didn't need him for anything and he was never at his desk anyways. That was fine because I was working on multiple long running projects.

For my current task, I was given a project that's supposed to be a stretch and help me grow. My (former) manager just relayed to me a vague idea of a problem. I was pretty confused about what I was supposed to do with that, so I asked him and he just pointed me to managers on customer teams. But it seemed like the expectation was that I'd just figure out that that's what I was supposed to do and reach out to these people.

From there, I scheduled a meeting with those customers directly (we only serve internal customers) and clarify the requirements myself. I got alignment on the requirements and then researched and designed the feature. But today I received feedback that I need to talk to even more stakeholders I've never heard of, and also get alignment from sister teams as well. My manager told me while he could do those things for me, it's preferred that the engineer determines who needs to be put in the loop and does so proactively. Which makes me wonder, what even is my managers responsibility aside from politicking with the leadership?

I was also told it's going to be tough to get promoted to L5 with my portfolio, not because my results aren't there, but because they're going to be looking for breadth of feedback from customer stakeholders and sister teams.

BTW none of these stakeholders even seem to care that much about what we're building outside of a few critical projects. It's a struggle to even get their attention on slack or find a timeslot to meet. But rest assured they will complain later if something is slightly different from what they imagined.

I don't know how much of this is just my specific org, Amazon itself, or due to AI. Either way, I don't want to spend all my time writing docs and meeting with people who aren't interested in the project just to get their sign off. I miss having time to myself to just build something. Now I'm constantly blocked on someone responding to my question about what they want out of the feature and waiting for meetings to get alignment. And if I get to actually implement, I end up "coding" (prompting) for an hour and then get blocked on code reviews.

I thought this job was about being given a problem statement + requirements, then designing and implementing a solution. I would be so much more motivated and productive if that was the case, because the whole reason I enjoyed engineering work is to solve problems. Now the extent of my problem solving is reviewing AI output and then correcting it. I don't even feel like working that hard because I know I'm inevitably going to get blocked again by something that's out of my control.

Is it time for me to move companies, or is this the future of the industry with AI? In which case I'm seriously considering switching careers.

I’m an L5 engineer based in the US and my 4 year anniversary is soon. Based on the latest compensation plan after the 4 years I’ll have my RSU’s cut making me have a lower salary than I’ve had like 17% less. How do folks typically handle this? Do I talk to my manager about getting an RSU refresher to make my salary ‘whole’ again?

I’m on good terms with my manager and skip. Not necessarily looking for a promotion or raise unless that path is better to do first vs asking for RSU refresher. Thanks!

Former intern who intern at Amazon as area manager, and just accepted my offer which is $71,400, $11,800 with year 1 sign on bonus, and $5100 year 2 with estimate $16,889 in rsu. Wondering what offer everyone else received?

I am going through the loop interviews. Before the third interview, the recruiter called me to inform that if I clear this set of three interviews (1st to 3rd interview) then only I will be going through to the next interview. Now after the third interview, the recruiter reached out asking slots for the next interview.

Does this mean, feedback for the previous three rounds was fairly positive? Or should nothing be made of this?
Did this happen with anyone else? That the recruiter mentioned mid-loop that clearing one set of interviews will take on through to the next interview?

Is there still a possibility of getting a role in Amazon after being recycled. And how common does this happen?

I did a loop and recruiter told me that the team were not inclined for the position but recommended to find a role that fits my skillset and they thought my leadership principles were strong.

Do i have to do another loop? I’m disappointed and heartbroken as the process for the interviews and doing the loop is very intense. Idk if i should still apply on the portal or let my recruiter know or give up on Amazon entirely

I’m considering an internal move to Global Ops PXT org as an MLE. Does anyone have recent firsthand information about layoffs or headcount changes in PXT EXR Tech? Has the team or its broader org seen cuts or significant headcount reductions recently? Any insight from the past year would be helpful.

Also, if anyone can comment about the ML scope in this org.

Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for good YouTube playlists or video courses to learn LLD and HLD for FAANG SDE 1 interviews.

Could you recommend resources that teach concepts from scratch and follow a structured learning path?

Also, how much System Design is generally expected in SDE 1 interviews in India? Should I prioritize LLD over HLD?

Thanks in advance!

I’ve been with the company for just under 3 years, hired in as an L5. After re-org about 2 years ago, I was moved to this current team. Things have been going moderately well up with manager/skip until recently where I received an email that made me pause. After doing some research, I’m 99% sure I’m in focus (won’t say 100% just because I haven’t bothered asking my manager directly). The task list seems reasonable, but at this point the manager/skip aren’t really engaging with me anymore. Kinda seems like they want me out of sight, out of mind at this point. Not really a timeline in the Focus email either apart from what’s expected in our next check in.

I’ve been in Focus for 2 weeks now I’d wager at least based on when I received the email, haven’t had our first 1:1 yet since the email… the first one is scheduled for tomorrow Wednesday where I guess I will show my progress? Or will that be the meeting I get the Pivot/PIP docs instead?

Someone shared this account of a little over two years of career and marriage decisions. Their opening line was, "It's okay, you can laugh."

They were at Meta and liked the job, but their marriage was under strain. Money stress was part of it, so they jumped to Amazon for a big raise, hoping it would help save the marriage.

In hindsight, they think their wife had probably already made up her mind. They got divorced anyway. And just when the universe apparently decided the story needed another twist, they got laid off.

Their scoreboard: left a company they liked for money they thought would fix things. It didn't. In their telling, the new job added to the strain. Now the job and the bigger paycheck are gone too. Zero for everything.

For anyone who's been hit by a divorce and a layoff close together, what helped you start rebuilding?

I’m so mad about the details that keep coming out from this ICE shooting in Marble Hill at 4 PM!! Like so many children were around 😡 Oscar Belgal still has a bullet lodged in his neck, and I just found out this has happened before - a man in Texas appeared in court in a wheelchair because he wasn’t released to have surgery on a bullet in his neck after TEN DAYS. 

I’m posting this here because I’m sick of knowing that Amazon is getting hundreds of millions of dollars to support ICE. I had already signed this petition earlier to get Amazon to break ties with ICE, and I encourage others to sign: https://www.amazonclimatejustice.org/ice-petition

I know some people will say ‘Amazon is just doing business’ or ‘if they didn’t do it, someone else will’, but I can’t stop thinking about the 5 year old in the car who saw Oscar get shot.

Thanks for listening.

Throwaway account for obvious reasons. I’m based in Canada and looking for Canada-specific answers. Most of the Pivot/exit package posts I’ve found are about the US or Europe.

Context: ~6 years at Amazon. My manager confirmed I was put into Coaching (the rebranded FOCUS) around mid-August, and my follow-up 1:1 is this week, roughly 60 days in. I’m not trying to fight it or “pass.” I plan to take the exit option, take some time off, and then prep for my next role, and I’ve already told my manager that.

If you went through Coaching/Pivot in Canada, I’d really appreciate it if you could confirm or correct any of these:

1. Timing: After the 1:1 where it’s confirmed I didn’t meet my coaching goals, how many days did it take before the HR meeting where you were formally put into Pivot and offered the exit option?
2. Decision window: Once HR lays out the options, do you usually get about 5 business days to decide and sign? Or is it different in Canada?
3. Legal review: I assume the agreement is airtight, but it can’t hurt to have an employment lawyer look at it. Can anyone recommend a Canadian employment lawyer, ideally one who does virtual or online reviews? Did a lawyer actually get anyone a better offer?
4. Payout amount: I’ve seen people mention anywhere from 2 to 6 months for the Pivot exit payout (not layoff severance). For Canadian employees, is there a known formula, e.g. weeks of base pay per year of service, a flat number of months, or something tied to provincial ESA minimums or common-law notice? If you’re willing to share, roughly what tenure did you have and what did you get, expressed in weeks or months of base salary rather than dollars? Did anyone’s package include RSU/vesting, benefits continuation, or sign-on clawback considerations?
5. Gross or net: Is the number they offer gross (before tax withholding) or net? Did anyone have part of it paid into an RRSP to reduce withholding?
6. EI eligibility: Since this is performance-related and not misconduct, I’m assuming I’d still qualify for EI. Can anyone confirm? Also:
   • Did Service Canada treat choosing the exit package as a “voluntary quit,” or as employer-initiated?
   • Did the lump sum delay your EI start date? My understanding is that separation money gets allocated against your weeks of benefits.
7. New job/clawback: I’ve read that some layoff severance agreements require you to tell Amazon if you start a new job within X time and repay part of the money. Does the Pivot exit agreement in Canada have anything like that? Or is it a clean lump sum regardless of when you start your next job?

Thanks in advance. Any first-hand Canadian experience is really appreciated. Here is a 🍁 in retribution.

I’m being ship to Indian universities on January 12 any advice and what to expect..

Anyone recently hired for the AWS OpenSearch Service Team as SDE2 in Austin Location?

I just joined AWS as an L4, and I'm deliberately doing more of the coding myself while I learn the codebase.

I got lucky with my team and really enjoy the work. AI could help me move faster, but I'm worried that leaning on generated code too early would leave gaps in my understanding. Right now I mostly use it to retrieve internal docs through RAG and ask questions about style.

My bet is that understanding the code and making changes myself now will pay off later. The risk is spending longer on work that teammates can finish with AI, without learning enough to justify the extra time.

Amazon Interview Questions can provide coding and debugging prompts for practicing how to reason through a problem. Learning this team's actual codebase still means working through the changes in front of me.

If you joined a team recently, how did you decide when to use AI and when to work through something yourself? What would tell you that this approach is helping, or starting to hurt?

Hi so I was hired on as a seasonal employee with an end date of 9/27/2027 but if I wanted to stay on after my contract was up how would that work ?

So i received a mail from amazon saying

We reviewed the resume you sent for our Application Security Engineer, AWS Security (ID: 10550878) position in Seattle , and are excited to speak with you!

We would like to schedule a phone interview to discuss this opportunity at Amazon.

Please, fill out your interview availability and we will schedule a call with you.

What should i expect from this call its a L5 position, while schedulling it said to book for 60 minutes so bit confused is it more off a techincal or just logistics and about opportunities.

Every week my manager pulls and reviews our team commits and crs . He compares the bottom with the top and keeps reminding everyone that it’s our peers we are compared against during reviews. My previous manager was not like this at all.

I’m so confused like I don’t feel like an engineer anymore.

Basically my role has become setting up AI workflows that work with minimal review.

I feel it’s not a collaborative environment at all.

in the end of the day I’m human!

I really don’t understand like Amazon is making money it’s making profit . What is everybodies problem?

Guys I need some suggestions. I know there is peak coming up but I need something closer I saw them about to open a new location in November. But also I was thinking of going in flow and stay where I am at.