Amazon Principal Engineer On Layoffs, Interviewing & Career Growth | Steve Huynh

Steve Huynh became a software engineer at Amazon with a Liberal Arts degree. He started as a Support Engineer and eventually became a Principal Engineer (top ~1% at Amazon) before starting his own career growth YouTube channel, A Life Engineered. We discuss: • Why most interview prep advice is garbage • Why most people don’t become Principal Engineers • Amazon’s performance-based layoff culture • How to avoid being laid off • Regrets & advice for his younger self Timestamps: (00:00) Intro (00:37) Transitioning from liberal arts to tech (06:31) Becoming a software development engineer (17:37) Breaking into the tech industry today (22:56) Future of software engineering with AI (26:06) SDE1 → SDE3 promos (33:11) Perf-based Layoffs at Amazon (46:22) His Principal promotion project (59:53) Best parts of Amazon's culture (1:05:22) His best and worst managers among 20+ (1:09:09) Career reflections Where to find Steve: • Newsletter: https://alifeengineered.substack.com/ • YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ALifeEngineered • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/a-life-engineered/ • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alifeengineered/ Where to find Ryan: • Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/ • X: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/ • Threads: https://www.threads.net/@ryanlpeterman • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman