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Comment by tinyhouse | Hacker News Reader

| - Make it easier to switch teams

It's actually much easier to switch teams at Amazon than most of tech.

Is not, is easy to switch team if you know people in that team, and the manager already wants you, otherwise you have to go through interview loops, etc... At Google for example is way easier, as it should be.

This is a weird take. Of course it's easier when people know you. Why would the hiring manager hire someone they don't know without an interview? Asking to talk to 2-3 people is very reasonable. It's not a full loop, it's whatever the hiring manager decides to do.If you happen to have strong documentation to show about things you contributed, that helps too. When I said it's easy I meant that there are no requirements from Amazon you need to follow in order to switch teams (e.g., be on a team for at least X months, have a rating of at least Y, etc). You just need to find a hiring manager that is willing to hire you. Given that external hiring is hard at Amazon, many managers build their teams just with internal transfers.

Do you still have to go through a full interview loop?

You do, and if for any reason the next manager doesn't want you or change his/her/x mind, you are in a really awkward situation with your team.

This is not true, not in AWS nor in CDO.

The hiring manager might connect you with an engineer on their team to see if you’re a fit, but it’s not an actual interview loop. You’re certainly not coding.

Source: Been at Amazon for a many, many years across retail and AWS teams. This was never true, and if you saw this really happen, it’s a 1% minority.

That was not my experience, and certainly not the experience of my coworkers that have been at Amazon "many, many years". If you are cozy with the people of the team you hope to get into, then is easy, otherwise, you get your CRs reviewed, asked for design docs, and need to talk with several people on the team. If you worked on a small project for a year, or were hired to maintain something that was already there, you don't get to have design docs, nor impact opportunities (even if you asked your manager for it during 1on1s). Also the next manager can make you apply (your current manager gets notified) and then rejects you, just because, and you will be in a delicate situation.

I agree - you get code reviews reviewed by the other team, design documents, and other artifacts. What I was saying was that there’s no formal interview loop like the one when you join the company. You’re not going to grow through LP questions and white boarding code.

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