I Quit Amazon After I Cracked the Code for Promotions, Took 14 Years

After a number of swift promotions that led me to develop into a senior software program engineer by 2012, I discovered myself in a profession rut. It took me eight painful years to lastly get promoted. Alongside the best way, I struggled and even thought of quitting.

In 2020, my fiercely systematic method to getting a promotion labored and I achieved my objective of changing into a principal engineer. In my 18 years at Amazon, I efficiently went from making $35 an hour as a contractor to creating a $270,000 base wage as a principal engineer plus further earnings from RSUs for a complete compensation of over $528,000.

I graduated with a level in inventive writing and transitioned into tech

In my final semester as a inventive writing undergrad on the College of Washington, I requested my writing workshop professor what the job panorama for writers regarded like. He advised me there is no job referred to as author, there’s solely a job referred to as waiter. I took his remark to coronary heart and pivoted my job search to programming.

Each of my dad and mom are engineers and I might been programming since I used to be little, plus I double minored in math and utilized math, so I felt like I used to be three-quarters of the best way to being a software program engineer. I ended up falling in love with it.

A pal helped me land a contract function at Amazon

Shortly after I graduated, I used to be grabbing drinks with a buddy from highschool who was working at Amazon. He knew of a job opening at Amazon for a assist engineer function and assured me he might snag me an interview. The job was a contract function, and my duty can be to determine and resolve pc points. It felt software program engineer-adjacent, so I took him up on the chance and bought the job at $35 per hour.

I shortly bought into the rhythm of the day-to-day job and did not discover my duties difficult. For half the day I discovered myself with no different work to finish, so I utilized my free time to study new programming abilities and create a presence on the firm.

I went above and past at Amazon to get promoted from contract to full-time

Amazon is a fairly clear place so I took benefit of its inner Wikipedia to obtain as a lot info as doable about its coding programs. I let my curiosity drive me down a rabbit gap and soaked up as a lot info from inner sources as I might.

I additionally made a concerted effort to insert myself into the software program growth division and create an plain presence on the firm. For instance, if a buyer got here to me with a web site situation as a consequence of a software program bug, my job as a assist particular person can be to file a bug report. As an alternative, I might file the bug report and instantly find the impacted piece of code and file a repair for it. Software program engineers needed to evaluate my adjustments, however I solid a trusting relationship with them by successfully contributing to their jobs. I slowly networked my approach into month-to-month software program engineer conferences and steadily expanded my frontier of publicity throughout the group.

After 5 years my wage grew by over $25,000

In late 2007, I felt prepared for a brand new function and determined to interview for a lateral transfer throughout the firm. I used to be solely supposed to achieve out to 1 division for job alternatives at a time, however I contacted and secured interviews with three departments.

To organize for the interviews, I pooled colleagues for questions they remembered being requested throughout their interviews and created a complete database. Then I requested my new software program engineer associates to offer me mock interviews. I ended up getting job presents from all three departments I interviewed for.

I accepted a job in funds as a software program growth engineer for a base wage of $75,000 the place my function was to carry out high-scale backend transaction processing. The job was boring from the skin, however we had been taking part in with some fairly massive numbers which saved it fascinating. I stayed in that function for almost 5 years earlier than being promoted to senior growth engineer in 2012 with a base wage of $107,000.

I sacrificed my possibilities of promotion to work on a product I cherished

4 years after I grew to become a senior engineer, I felt able to be promoted to principal, however I used to be denied. Fortunately, I’d simply gotten moved to a staff creating Amazon Tickets, a Ticketmaster different, and I cherished it. The mission shifted me out of a promotion mindset. I used to be so enraptured with the mission.

However in March 2018, two years into growth, Amazon Tickets was unexpectedly shuttered. At that time, I used to be so finished. I began feeling disengaged at work and significantly thought of quitting. It was the bottom of lows for me.

I shortly bought reorged to the Prime Video dwell occasions staff and began reporting to a brand new supervisor. I had the chance to steer the dwell providers engineering groups on broadcasts for occasions like Thursday Night time Soccer. I discovered it massively thrilling. Plus, I hit it off immediately with my new supervisor and we grew to become a powerhouse duo. He even helped me write and submit my promotion doc, although I bought denied that first time round.

In 2019, I cracked the code to my Amazon promotion then I give up

Amazon has an extremely granular listing of standards that must be met earlier than you will be thought of for promotion, so I labored with my supervisor to determine the gaps in my efficiency, and I bought suggestions that helped me get systematic about my method transferring ahead.

I created a mission for every hole that, if accomplished, might function proof of my skill. I labored backward to create a strict timeline to complete my tasks between July 2019 and November 2019, when the promotion doc was due.

I used to be denied once more, however my listing of lacking standards had shrunk considerably. I created tasks for these remaining abilities and submitted one other promotion doc a number of months later and was permitted to develop into a principal engineer at a base wage of $160,000. However, simply as I used to be promoted, the pandemic shut down all our sports activities leagues, and for the primary time shortly, I had time.

I began watching loads of YouTube movies and determined to make use of my further time to throw my hat within the ring and begin my very own tech channel.

I already owned loads of images gear, so it wasn’t an excessive amount of of a stretch for me. By 2024, my base wage at Amazon had grown to $270,000 plus RSUs for a complete compensation of $528,000. I had made almost as a lot as my base wage from YouTube the earlier 12 months and realized I might remorse not taking an opportunity on myself and going all in on my YouTube channel. In March of this 12 months, I formally give up Amazon.

I am pleased with my resolution, however I miss writing code

Creating content material is extremely satisfying, however I might be mendacity if I stated I did not miss engaged on tasks that affected a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of individuals. I miss writing code. I miss being a stone’s throw away from good individuals. Generally, I even miss the company jargon.

I spent 50% of my waking life at Amazon and really feel prefer it’ll all the time be part of me. Perhaps at some point I am going to return, however for now, I am pleased with the trail I’ve chosen.

September 23, 2024: This story was up to date to make clear Steve Huynh’s base wage and complete compensation at Amazon.

In case you work in Large Tech and wish to share your wage development and profession journey, please electronic mail Tess Martinelli at tmartinelli@businessinsider.com.