This as-told-to essay is predicated on a dialog with Steve Huynh, a 42-year-old from Seattle, Washington. It has been edited for size and readability.
A buddy used his connection to land me an interview for a contract function at Amazon after I expressed curiosity in transitioning from inventive writing to programming. I obtained the job in 2006 and made it my mission to create such an simple presence on the firm that my transition into full-time employment can be assured. And I did simply that.
After a number of swift promotions that led me to turn out to be 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 aim of turning 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 instructed me there isn’t any 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 buddy 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 laptop points. It felt software program engineer-adjacent, so I took him up on the chance and obtained the job at $35 per hour.
I shortly obtained into the rhythm of the day-to-day job and did not discover my obligations difficult. For half the day I discovered myself with no different work to finish, so I utilized my free time to study new programming expertise 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 reasonably clear place so I took benefit of its inside Wikipedia to obtain as a lot data as potential about its coding programs. I let my curiosity drive me down a rabbit gap and soaked up as a lot data from inside sources as I might.
I additionally made a concerted effort to insert myself into the software program improvement division and create an simple presence on the firm. For instance, if a buyer got here to me with a web site situation because 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 evaluation my modifications, however I cast a trusting relationship with them by successfully contributing to their jobs. I slowly networked my means 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 arrange 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 pals to present me mock interviews. I ended up getting job gives from all three departments I interviewed for.
I accepted a job in funds as a software program improvement 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 surface, however we had been taking part in with some fairly large numbers which stored it attention-grabbing. I stayed in that function for practically 5 years earlier than being promoted to senior improvement 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 crew creating Amazon Tickets, a Ticketmaster various, and I cherished it. The venture shifted me out of a promotion mindset. I used to be so enraptured with the venture.
However in March 2018, two years into improvement, Amazon Tickets was unexpectedly shuttered. At that time, I used to be so finished. I began feeling disengaged at work and severely thought of quitting. It was the bottom of lows for me.
I shortly obtained reorged to the Prime Video stay occasions crew and began reporting to a brand new supervisor. I had the chance to guide the stay companies engineering groups on broadcasts for occasions like Thursday Evening Soccer. I discovered it massively thrilling. Plus, I hit it off instantly with my new supervisor and we grew to become a powerhouse duo. He even helped me write and submit my promotion doc, although I obtained denied that first time round.
In 2019, I cracked the code to my Amazon promotion then I stop
Amazon has an extremely granular checklist of standards that have to be met earlier than you may be thought of for promotion, so I labored with my supervisor to determine the gaps in my efficiency, and I obtained suggestions that helped me get systematic about my method transferring ahead.
I created a venture 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 checklist of lacking standards had shrunk considerably. I created tasks for these last expertise and submitted one other promotion doc a couple of months later and was accredited to turn out to be 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 a variety 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 a variety of pictures tools, 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 practically as a lot as my base wage from YouTube the earlier yr and realized I might remorse not taking an opportunity on myself and going all in on my YouTube channel. In March of this yr, I formally stop Amazon.
I am proud of my determination, however I miss writing code
Creating content material is extremely satisfying, however I might be mendacity if I mentioned I did not miss engaged on tasks that affected a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of individuals. I miss writing code. I miss being a stone’s throw away from good individuals. Typically, I even miss the company jargon.
I spent 50% of my waking life at Amazon and really feel prefer it’ll at all times be part of me. Possibly sooner or later I am going to return, however for now, I am proud of the trail I’ve chosen.
September 23, 2024: This story was up to date to make clear Steve Huynh’s base wage and whole compensation at Amazon.
Should you work in Large Tech and wish to share your wage development and profession journey, please electronic mail Tess Martinelli at tmartinelli@Earnest Information.com.
