Navigating Performance Evaluations at Amazon

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What is it like to work at Amazon as a software engineer? Dave Anderson spent over 12 years at Amazon working closely with engineers on his teams: starting as an Engineering Manager (or, SDM in Amazon lingo) and eventually becoming a Director of Engineering. In this episode, he shares a candid look into Amazon’s engineering culture—from how promotions work to why teams often run like startups.

We get into the hiring process, the role of bar raisers, the pros and cons of extreme frugality, and what it takes to succeed inside one of the world’s most operationally intense companies. 

We also look at how engineering actually works day to day at Amazon—from the tools teams choose to the way they organize and deliver work. 

We also discuss:

• The levels at Amazon, from SDE L4 to Distinguished Engineer and VP

• Why engineering managers at Amazon need to write well

• The “Bar Raiser” role in Amazon interview loops 

• Why Amazon doesn’t care about what programming language you use in interviews

• Amazon’s oncall process

• The pros and cons of Amazon’s extreme frugality 

• What to do if you're getting negative performance feedback

• The importance of having a strong relationship with your manager

• The surprising freedom Amazon teams have to choose their own stack, tools, and ways of working – and how a team chose to use Lisp (!)

• Why startups love hiring former Amazon engineers

• Dave’s approach to financial independence and early retirement

• And more!

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Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:08) An overview of Amazon’s levels for devs and engineering managers

(07:04) How promotions work for developers at Amazon, and the scope of work at each level

(12:29) Why managers feel pressure to grow their teams

(13:36) A step-by-step, behind-the-scenes glimpse of the hiring process 

(23:40) The wide variety of tools used at Amazon

(26:27) How oncall works at Amazon

(32:06) The general approach to handling outages (severity 1-5)

(34:40) A story from Uber illustrating the Amazon outage mindset

(37:30) How VPs assist with outages

(41:38) The culture of frugality at Amazon  

(47:27) Amazon’s URA target—and why it’s mostly not a big deal 

(53:37) How managers handle the ‘least effective’ employees

(58:58) Why other companies are also cutting lower performers

(59:55) Dave’s advice for engineers struggling with performance feedback 

(1:04:20) Why good managers are expected to bring talent with them to a new org

(1:06:21) Why startups love former Amazon engineers

(1:16:09) How Dave planned for an early retirement 

(1:18:10) How a LinkedIn post turned into Scarlet Ink 

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The Pragmatic Engineer deepdives relevant for this episode:

• Inside Amazon’s engineering culture

• A day in the life of a senior manager at Amazon

• Amazon’s Operational Plan process with OP1 and OP2

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See the transcript and other references from the episode at ⁠⁠https://newsletter.pragmaticengineer.com/podcast⁠⁠

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