Day in the Life of an Amazon Software Engineer | The Importance of Soft Skills

Hi everyone,
As I progress in my career, there are always new lessons that I am learning and discovering! Although my work day doesn't change much, I try to show a different aspect of software engineering that you may not always see online. That's always been the goal of my work vlogs. There are so many layers to this career - not just coding!
I want to share my learnings & growth with you all. These vlogs have always been a mechanism in which I can share career insight and tips I wish I had at different stages in my career. 🪴 🪴 🪴
Anyway, let's enjoy the last bits of summer! ☀️ Unless it's winter for you. If you're in the southern hemisphere, I hope summer comes soon!
-- jenn
♫ MUSIC ♫
❀ epidemic sound - share.epidemicsound.com/co8bc7
[timestamps]
00:00 - morning routine
01:23 - work day
04:20 - importance of soft skills
07:25 - focus time
07:55 - evening routine
[ftc]
This video is not sponsored. Thank you for supporting my channel ♥

[@imjenncho]

There are always new lessons and learnings as we progress in our career! What other soft skills do you think are important for career growth?

[@yougetaspear7799]

Don't I just wanna smell and eat her lil Asian fish hon

[@Sergiu000]

Improving our public speaking skills, being able to articulate a point of view to a group of people, so basically knowing how to communicate effectively.

[@sthembisobuthelezi2963]

You so beautiful sweetheart I really can't stop watching.

[@yougetaspear7799]

@@sthembisobuthelezi2963 🤦🏿‍♂️🤦🏿‍♂️

[@ImNotADeeJay]

Being pretty work charms... wait, is that a soft skill?

[@brandonwilcox3307]

As a SWE who began in a technical customer facing role, my experience communicating with customers/shareholders/cross functional teams is a HUGE selling point when applying to SWE roles. She's giving out great advice. Don't underestimate the importance of soft skills.

[@ShamrockShakee]

I have a bad habit of interrupting people before they finish their last sentence and your whole topic of soft skills and their importance resonated with me. Thank you.

[@jovannysanchez]

Great video! Loved the soft skills part. That definitely something I had to learn early on in my career in tech is as well. Great stuff!

[@brandontsang3811]

I am so happy I came across your channel. Being able to communicate with my anchor weight team members in an assertive tone has made things go by smoother.

[@Jay15523]

Jenn is back! Good way to start the week.

[@tagbon]

Some great insights about "meeting skills". Fried rice looked delicious! Thanks for taking the time to post another vlog 😊

[@Alleta]

i literally just finished binging on your earlier posts. I had to double check the notification

[@labcoatdiaries7657]

so inspiring ✨love the career advice!

[@0wlyssa]

Thank you so much for those “soft skills” tips! I can so relate to naturally having a softer voice/tone. 😂 all very great pointers! ❤

[@NaturallyTeeCee]

Good to see you back!

[@waveplay3978]

Trying to become more assertive in your communication has an interesting side effect. You're not an idiot, so you'll obviously feel the need to be absolutely confident of the things you say, especially when you're saying them assertively. As I've become more of a senior, I've had to not just learn to be more assertive when telling the juniors where they're going wrong or what they need to pay more attention to. It caused me to be more thorough in my own thought processes, making me rethink things more than I used to.

[@Suxanes]

I love these quick career advice.

[@imjenncho]

thank you 😊✨ I hope they are helpful!

[@edwardleecaliforniausa]

Good morning Jenna happy Monday morning and I loved your vlogs and you are amazing Supporter and I'm proud of you

[@corpuzone]

Your voice is soothing and you’re a beautiful soul inside and out. Friendly demeanor your team lucky to have one like you. Nice day of video 🙂

[@yoonkai]

omg this is so inspiring! Loved the video

[@imjenncho]

ty 💖

[@OHyarly]

Love these kinds of videos! Keep it up :)

[@AlwaysTrickster]

you're cute, soft spoken, and assertive. you have great qualities 💞

[@JoshHitti]

For RTO: Does your manager choose your 3 days in office? If so, can you share what those tend to be?

[@nisha8500]

Such a inspirational girl ❤❤❤

[@derickmoncado]

Unbelievably chill DITL video. Also that kimchi fried rice looked bomb, just saying.

[@JDMorris81]

What an inspiring video! I'm studying QA now so much of your routine is familiar with what I'm learning about Agile and Scrum such as the daily standup. I'm also learning Java on the side. My plan is to start as a Manual Tester then move into automation and eventually become a SWE. Are there any openings on the QA team there? I'm also in the Seattle area.

[@Lukas-zr6zc]

Love your work vlogs :))

[@imjenncho]

thank you!!

[@minsugamaxsalt]

Thank you for the tips

[@emilyau8023]

Yep, I agree about soft skills... I just got off a call with a power tripping old manager, and I had to use my soft skills to not tell her off. I'm a business systems analyst btw

[@nitinsingh2737]

Good to see u 😊😊

[@venczelpatrik44]

At the focus time section of the video, could you tell me what kind of headset is that? BTW Keep up the good work! :)

[@mallillindantejr4920]

I'm Computer Engineering student here in Philippines i know it is a important to me when applying for this jobs soon after my college graduation and i need to prepare myself about that and upskills my skills and knowledge I want to say every Filipino Software Engineer in Philippines is very passionate about technology and coding

[@xonix4178]

Really liked the career advice

[@MadawaskaObservatory]

Thanks Jenn :-)

[@Sherloklol]

Can we start normalizing that it is ok we talk to ourselves sometimes? Howl is precious!

[@NhiTran-gs9hz]

I missed those days. Since having kid and working full time, I barely have time for myself 😅

[@ImRaiz0]

I had to watch the video twice just because I was distracted of your eyes, they're too majestic XD.

[@arxangelxx]

And what company and what diagonal do you have 2 monitors?

[@patrickrad1735]

Great job

[@vitaomega386]

hey bestie! i really took away from the advice and thoughts. i am working on my compsci bachelors and i just feel so lost. i'm watching other cs girls to gain motivation and take inspiration from to gain my own confidence 😿

[@nene3554]

as a cs girl myself, we got this!!:) never give up on yourself

[@AbdelazizElHayyany]

i liked the video, one small note is try to look at camera while your speaking and good luck. and please a video for us as graduated student how to get a job especially in these days thank you

[@nickstrands]

10:06 More often than I want to admit it. But it helps me structure the mess of ideas/thoughts I have in my head into something a little less messy xD

[@PreludeSon]

Oh yeah, I got one of them hot sauce that you're using for dinner...so convenient and good to have.

[@allancardona7910]

Good morning Jenna happy Monday morning

[@etpass8595]

Can you briefly tell what about your meeting and what is it about so I'll get the idea on what to expect

[@Gegagrega]

Hi, I graduated one month ago and started my first job. Do you or anyone else have any tips on the transition from college to work life? Are there some things you wish you knew when you got into it? And what do you do with all this free time after work? Best regards

[@sydneyeng6349]

It’s ok to not know. Just take lots of notes and try your best :)

[@emilyau8023]

I wish I knew that there's lots of bro culture in tech. The time you spend after is all yours, so find a hobby or just enjoy life.

[@Gegagrega]

@@emilyau8023 what do you mean with bro culture?

[@webdevsshariful]

what is low level design? according to you?

[@vishalmane3139]

how much u are able to save monthly from ur base pay ?

[@yandhi4202]

what do you guys talk about in the stand ups?

[@sonnydemichele4903]

I need more jenn cho👌

[@harshadashirsat5592]

How do you leave alone? Dont you fet bored pr feel lonely when you are home for days?

[@tekk7989]

An acquaintance is an Amazon engineer based in LA and they're being told to relocate to Seattle :(

[@AzizaTech]

what headphones are those?

[@e00d20]

love the black walls... why black though?

[@Divyv520]

Hey Jenn , really nice video! I was wondering if I could help you edit your videos and also make a highly engaging Thumbnail which will help your video to reach to a wider audience .

[@SkhemFrancis]

共有していただきありがとうございます

[@TaiwoYemz]

Stand up!

[@AKG58Z]

Great 🙂

[@KulwantSingh-xr4si]

Cardio in a fasted state - you know what you're doing.

[@RobGoldy]

Howl is the cutest

[@spideyboy3587]

7:34 - 7:52 music here felt like a microsoft teams notification .

[@davidw8936]

Okay you got me at the cat. :3

[@bvbyballena472]

Its been 3 months since graduation and i am getting all rejections :( I am starting to learn Swift since I thought projects in machine learning would help. Im just trying to get my first job :,(

[@madarauchiha-mu2ue]

What languages u know?

[@bvbyballena472]

c++, c, java, python, javascript, and typescript @@madarauchiha-mu2ue

[@juanok2775]

is backlog grooming really necessary? after many years of working on large companies and small companies let me tell you I still don't find it useful.

[@el-jay_]

❤

[@be236]

I assume Amazon only has free drinks, and not free meals like Google, etc?

[@abdulmumeenibroheem4204]

Wow that's awesome Anyways nice headsets

[@silentplaygames]

Something always break - so true xD

[@kalpanagupta3956]

Big fan,love from india

[@1978mm]

Was that a dinosaur egg??!! I’ve never had eggs that big 😂

[@thadtorres884]

you would make such good scrum master.

[@011BLEACH]

I watch your video while trying to solve my code haha

[@RR-et6zp]

yeah girls care about how you say it & how they feel when they say it. For us it's more about the information first / more direct

[@emilyau8023]

No, all the men I've had to deal with talk without getting to the point.

[@thequacktheory2468]

Just here smoking a fat one and wondering about these organized species of people do. Nice video. I laughed when I saw you eating with the same big spoon you cocked with. I do the same thing lol.

[@VolodymyrInTech]

👍

[@julissadc6303]

I wsh we could live close by to be friends and talk about tech with someone that understands haha

[@KulwantSingh-xr4si]

Have you started watching 'My Mister'?

[@imjenncho]

not yet, i've heard it's good!

[@KulwantSingh-xr4si]

@@imjenncho I don't want to hype it up too much but for me it's the best series I've ever seen. Hope you get around to it!

[@SweatySockGaming]

2:07 a person is on the floor at the left sidewalk

[@colbyberger1881]

Sooo ill tell you the real life of an Amazon SWE. Work 60+ a week. On call every other weekend. Using grep to filter through hundereds of thousand lines of java code for one bug fix. Banging your head because someone thought it was a good idea to just add another layer on inheritance instead of using OOP build patterns.

[@kwohyuno3877]

Wow are you korean? 김치볶음밥! I am planning to study cs masters in Seattle next year and enter Amazon as SDE. Hope to see you there😊

[@imjenncho]

Yes, I am Korean-American 🙂 Best of Luck!

[@user-eo6oo2lm6b]

Hey, i wanna ask you something

[@bryanoliveira7185]

9:31. What an incredible Big egg, is an Ostrich Egg? 😱

[@heroicbaby]

That kimchi portion looks small for dinner 😂looks tasty anyway!

[@Nam.china.hong.kong666]

Qual o nome do gato?🐱

[@Mnguyen92]

Nah man I just fell in love

[@emilyau8023]

That's not love. You're just creepy

[@tylerliu2760]

"I don't mind it, it's an okay location" Are you sure you don't mind 😂

[@MitchPontjo]

i talk to myself too

[@kamertonaudiophileplayer847]

Soft spoken people are usually the smartest ones. So it's easy to interview you: soft spoken? Hire her.

[@kosorkosm9071]

there is someone laying and probably dead at 2:05 in the right 😂

[@zachedo3538]

you look so pretty :)

[@omercakmak3099]

she's pretty

[@gourabsarker9552]

Mam do you earn 250k dollars a year as a software engineer at Amazon? Plz reply. Thanks a lot.

[@tylerliu2760]

Almost definitely, since she is SDE2

[@danny.golcman6846]

I know the commenter is an indian guy 😂

[@elakkiyas7142]

please use different spoon

[@pahrurozi]

while { working, working, working, working, sleep }

[@Mixedemotionsd]

Ok but do you ever feel like you’re just aging? No much interactions with people you mainly are working alone for so many hours. Do you ever miss being more client facing?

[@ob34915]

Those videos still trendy in 2023?

[@iscog7260]

Hey, what was your first programming Language learned?

[@imjenncho]

it was java!

[@lilaslegree4031]

☀️ Promo*SM

[@HeitorGiacomini]

soft skill is what bothers me on big techs

[@nurlanalizada4189]

She is so cute 🙂

[@moisesj.bonillacaraballo8112]

I was enjoying the video until 7:30 reminder my pending code reviews :-/ xD

[@pwhv]

liked your vid, howl is gorgeous

[@rmbl349]

How can any software engineer develop software on a laptop wiitout a additional keyboard or a mouse. SO time wasting using the touchpad und the shitty keyboard.

[@caiopiclesnow]

I love the good vibes