How The Top 1% Of Engineers Are Judged

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Hi! I’m Rahul, a software engineer and founder with a passion for teaching.
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[@RahulPandeyrkp]

If you want to get to very senior IC levels, I'm teaching a 2 week cohort-based course on Jan 22: maven.com/taro/senior-to-staff

[@CB-td4ck]

I love how genuinely invested Rahul is in these questions and how detailed the questions are.

[@dima6488]

I love the way he spoke, food for thought. I feel like this will give a lot of value to senior engineers looking to grow further past their technical skills vector.

[@narayanatantry6383]

Hey rahul, appreciate the quality content. please keep sharing , thank you.

[@faizanahmed9304]

Amazing video, thanks Rahul. Need more content like this.

[@user-kg1od9es5d]

Why are you taking away from the convo with the stock vids that add zero value? Keep it raw and real that's what people want when it comes to serious advice.

[@RahulPandeyrkp]

Thanks, that's good feedback. Stock footage doesn't add much value.

[@gingerderidder8665]

agreed

[@mwinsatt]

@@RahulPandeyrkp Thanks for making this content Rahul. Just wanted to add that yes I agree with this user’s comment but I also want to reaffirm that this video you made is absolutely super valuable still

[@bobo-cc1xw]

Would agree I would rather listen to him or highlight phrases

[@MarkBelain]

Said it quite brutally, but I’m glad it was said. I just *never* care for the stock footage. Could almost treat the video like a podcast as far as I’m concerned. I often play videos like this with the phone in my pocket.

[@therealawebb]

5:47 the saying is the opposite "Past performance is not indicative of future results". A lot of great information in this interview.

[@bigteet521]

Nice interview. Alot of experience to learn from between both of these guys.

[@sachinphogat8822]

Great video Rahul Love to see full podcasts

[@RahulPandeyrkp]

The full podcast would probably die in the KZbin algorithm, so I put it on Taro: www.jointaro.com/lesson/Kut0pv10VLPmgaorAaki/lessons-from-the-top-managing-and-growing-800-people-ethan-evans/

[@badbaboye]

This is some quality content that you are putting out. Thanks

[@PratikGuhaRay]

The role guideline for a PE at Amazon pretty much summarizes to “trusted partner in crime with tech director or VP” who keeps abreast of industry trends and guide the business stakeholders for multi year large scale initiative. Also, I have observed both modalities of PEs that Ethan mentioned here (A) breadth PE who guides an entire L8+ org as the key tech leader in that space and owns key tech decisions, (B) depth PE who drives innovation in a deep yet extremely coveted technology space and pretty much evangelizing a research area. I have seen both of these PE cohorts to be the driving force at Amazon and core to the success in the last 20 years.

[@skyhappy]

They sound like unicorns

[@aggieraz]

I just want to mention that a PE is a protected title granted by way of licensure (like a M.D.); so unless you guys are licensed engineers, please resort to using a different designation.

[@cbg4567]

@@aggierazlol

[@JagjitBrawler]

@@aggierazcan’t tell if you’re joking. PE is a role within Amazon. Acronyms can mean different things, that’s why there’s something called context. Like MD at an investment bank isn’t a medical doctor it’s a managing director lol

[@yuanhu6031]

This is really high quality content, thanks for sharing!

[@vipulkapoor3862]

This content is gold. There is almost nobody sharing this valuable insight otherwise.

[@truthalonetriumphs6572]

Technical excellence #1. I've seen this eroded in many places through great marketing and all the other important stuff. But, if you lose technical excellence, you have no basis.

[@zb2747]

Your company and your KZbin channel brings sooooo much value to fellow engineers. Like I mentioned before I recommend Taro to any engineer across all skill levels and positions I appreciate you and thank you! 🙏🏽

[@ragook3]

Great inquiry. It clearly reflects the mindset and expectations of executives. Please focus the interview more on executive-level topics.

[@tamasbalint1597]

Thank you for this great video, Rahul. It is great to see how people like Ethan Evans think and approach evaluating engineers.

[@RahulPandeyrkp]

thanks Tamas, one of my favorite parts of the job is having an excuse to talk to people like Ethan

[@DineshSahu-dz9dr]

​@@RahulPandeyrkp thats a nice privilege and also a privilege for us too because you help us alot for providing guidance

[@user-xe8ci8uq6y]

keep pushing Rahul .

[@SeamusMcMichael]

Good person to interview.

[@naruto5437]

love the interview

[@kumarborah2211]

I have been following Ethan for years on LinkedIn, his leadership insights are gold. However, I don't agree with his comment on growth trajectory of an employee over time is a strong predictor of future performance, which I personally feel is a highly biased comment.

[@ReasonableHuman1]

Thank you!

[@shangothrax]

One thing to keep in mind is right now, with all the layoffs, promotions aren't happening, so the slow path shouldn't be judged so harshly. We haven't had any major promotion rounds in 3 years!

[@afsarzan]

Which industry are you in?

[@RahulPandeyrkp]

Ethan talks about this in the context of managers. Growth is harder to come by if your company is not growing, but you can still prepare to benefit from re-orgs or other changes: www.jointaro.com/lesson/nSOTTnEbBufPvqXyEHoh/the-4-paths-to-manager-growth-choose-one/

[@sur83848]

L7 / PE is more akin to E7 or L7 at Meta/Google; not E6 like you showed screenshot of. Though the E6 at Meta pays outsized amount

[@freindimania11]

I am that slow trajectory person and I felt that.

[@mansourazimi6650]

This video is really have high level than another content creators.

[@AnshTiwari-fx2yq]

So many languages and bro chose to spit facts.

[@dannyyang9181]

As a mid level software engineer, I love this content, keep it up!

[@abusager1]

Many directors at big tech companies are not good technically, but they have great management and communication skills, but most importantly they are the best in the politics game. LAW OF POWER #1 => Never outshine the master!

[@spik330]

I don't like the whole "time spend in role" aspect of the evaluating someone. Sure good people are going to move up faster, but companies also don't like to promote people just because their skills. Lots of companies will try to not promote because they get higher/more skilled effort with a reduced cost. Moreover, I don't see companies promoting people, to something like senior manager (etc) when the company doesn't currently need another senior manager. Its the notion that they should trust other companies actions with employees, when we know for a fact that companies should not be trusted and try everything they can to make more money for the shareholders.

[@ArturGrigio]

“The technology in itself is not what we’re here for” 😂 The most “Amazon” statement ever!

[@rodi4850]

past performance is not the best predictor for future performance, it is for some timeline in the growth process, but not for the overall timeline

[@EzBz982]

For stock price; for a company? Maybe not. For a person, I’d wager it’s a very strong indicator.

[@rodi4850]

@@EzBz982 I'm curious about the line of thinking why about people it is different?

[@JamesJohnson-et7cc]

> How does compensation factor into the assessment of the top 1% of engineers? can a engineer at a startup be a top 1% engineer? > How does the experience of being in the top 1% of engineers differ between large companies like Amazon and startups? e.g At large companies normal engineers have vertical expertise, not horizontal expertise. Smaller company engineers is normally reversed. Large Companies: In large companies, engineers often have more specialized roles, which can allow them to develop a deep, vertical expertise in a specific area. They also have access to more resources and support, including advanced tools and technologies, large datasets, and experienced colleagues. However, they might be far removed from the product and less likely to affect the bottom line. Small Companies: In contrast, engineers at small companies often wear multiple hats and work on a wider range of tasks. This can allow them to develop a broad, horizontal knowledge across multiple areas. They often have more influence over the product and more opportunities to lead projects. However, they might have fewer resources and support.

[@DK-ox7ze]

This might sound harsh, but just curious as to why growing others around you is an important metric for evaluation for a PE/Staff Engineer?

[@gamereactz]

Because otherwise you would just be a senior level engineer. Leadership roll need to lead.

[@jameskingsbery3644]

I'm a PE at Amazon. There are only so many hours in a day, and sometimes the best way for me to get something done is to figure out who on the team I look after has potential to do the task, and teach them how to do it. The other reason is that great engineers like learning and growing. If you as a PE help more junior engineers grow, then you make that team a place people want to work. It's a lot easier to meet goals when engineers aren't leaving the team constantly.

[@DK-ox7ze]

@@jameskingsbery3644 I understand that, but when it comes to metrics, it seems "growth" equates to a promotion. Which doesn't seem very practical because promotions take time and also don't happen to everyone around you.

[@jameskingsbery3644]

@@DK-ox7ze Promotion is an easy thing to measure, but there are other ways of showing growth in others.

[@DK-ox7ze]

@@jameskingsbery3644 Other things like?

[@rishiraj2548]

🙂👍

[@joristube]

Best content on our channel so far!

[@justsidu]

Rahul didn't even get the essence of Ethans point.

[@wishitwas]

The typing sound is terrible! Takes away from the conversation

[@AnshTiwari-fx2yq]

Bro I will download the video and then you delete it. This info should stay between us 2z

[@mavericksingz7313]

basically you want to give all your responsibilities as a principal engineer to the sr engineer so that you dont have to do anything which is what you implied at the start of the video. Remember that in startups we dont value people like you and we don't entertain your nonsense of judging others when we fully now that a google, amazon prinicipal engineer is useless and that's why larger companies are laying off people like him and buying startups since none of you actually code

[@aslkdjfzxcv9779]

xD

[@AnshTiwari-fx2yq]

He looks AI generated

[@FirstNameLastName-fv4eu]

he is going to sell his course next month I am sure. Whole world is running on Ponzi Scheme

[@samuelwilliams7331]

LOL

[@JonathanIvy221]

What’s with the random clips that you keep showing throughout the video? These are stock videos. It’s not helpful. You are doing a 1on1 so we rather see your faces than look at some dumb stock videos.

[@gamereactz]

I think it's fine.

[@JoseLopez-xv4fc]

"table sticks" wtf.. the arrogance. the other "high impact" things are often overvalued, bs activities that are easy to fake and hard to measure.

[@willweng305]

If u don’t know how to evaluation high impact activities or how to fake them, then you always stay at the bottom.

[@JoseLopez-xv4fc]

@@willweng305 and what happens to companies that promote fakers?

[@feignit]

To get the big bucks It's all about business impact and revenue, not how well you can write rust.