Background:
I am currently 26 years old
I have an MSc in ML from top uni in Europe from a non-anglophone university
I currently work at AWS as an L4. I have 8 months tenure.
Greenfield project. Most knowledgeable person on the team on the topic. Leading the discussion, impl, design etc.
I am motivated to become a staff+ (L7 at amazon) or FAANG equivalent engineer by the time I am 30 / Q1 2027 so almost 4 years.
Prior to joining AWS I worked an a fintech startup for about 3 months. I wrote a simulation engine for stock trajectories on GPUs with Jax. 120x perf of existing system without additional GPU scaling. Impl RL algos.
Have a couple of internships and ML assistantships from undergrad.
I am motivated to interview outside and will accept a position only if it includes a promotion. I will only interview with FAANG or similar.
Currently reside in Europe; I have no problem leaving the country or moving somewhere I don't speak the language. I have done that twice.
I will not accept a downgrade or equivalent role if I interview.
Currently "exceeds expectations".
Criteria:
My role must be SDE3/Senior Eng, or equivalent at FAANG or other very selective companies like Jane St, ASML, etc.
Must be working at that level / role by end of Q1 of 2025.
I will not participate. I will answer questions.
1,000I was offered an L6 equivalent role (according to levels.FYI). Starting date first of April. Technically, this misses the mark by a day, so should resolve to no. Nonetheless I am happy with the outcome!
I don’t have access to the account anymore though.
Sorry, but it's heavily unrealistic because first you're not in the US, second interest rates are still high so promos and job hopping will be happening at a lower rate. Amazon is also going through a bit of a rumble right now, so while you might not be directly affected, your director or allies might unexpectedly be and that'll pull you to a more average promo rate.
@palcu That is fair, and indeed my org has been lightly impacted recently, and we had some reorg that changed general timelines. My mentor expects 2-3 years for SDE3, and wants me to push for L5 this year.
thank you for your comment.
@PartiallyTyped I have also heard the reverse, where senior leads decided to quit and more junior people jumped on the vacuum and managed to replace them. So, good luck.
@Odoacre It does seem unlikely, I expect to reach L5 at 1.25 years tenureship, but getting to L6 is a whole different story.
For L6 the total tenure would be like 3.25 years.