> Almost any manager of managers has been at Amazon a long time, in that same job for a long time. There is no upward mobility at the company, unless you have been in some org 5+ years.
That's not true, at least not in AWS. In fact, I'd argue that a big problem in AWS is that promotion is too fast too soon. Getting to L6 used to be a big deal, and many people were content with being on L5. But now everyone expects that L5 gets promoted to L6 in 2 years or even less. And L6 to L7 in 3 years or less. What many directors do is that they place their favorite L6 to lead a project that launches a new product. If the launch is successful, the L6 will most likely be promoted. We even joked that L8 is the new L7. And of course, this creates so much anxiety to the point that more than 50% of the 1-on-1s I'm aware of involved some discussion about "moving to the next level".
That's not true, at least not in AWS. In fact, I'd argue that a big problem in AWS is that promotion is too fast too soon. Getting to L6 used to be a big deal, and many people were content with being on L5. But now everyone expects that L5 gets promoted to L6 in 2 years or even less. And L6 to L7 in 3 years or less. What many directors do is that they place their favorite L6 to lead a project that launches a new product. If the launch is successful, the L6 will most likely be promoted. We even joked that L8 is the new L7. And of course, this creates so much anxiety to the point that more than 50% of the 1-on-1s I'm aware of involved some discussion about "moving to the next level".