Advice for Technology Executives eyeing out AWS L7 Snr Manager role

As I write this post, my phonetool (a cool internal service where employees can lookup people) says I've been working at Amazon for 3 years, 3 months and 13 days (it actually feels much longer than that!!). 

 

I thought it might be a good idea to provide some advice for people who are considering applying for L7 Senior Software Engineering Manager roles at Amazon, even though I am just a sample of one. Amazon is a huge, gigantic, complex entity - so by no means is my experience, advice is representative of the company...rather I'm sharing my very own personal experience, aimed mostly at South African professionals who might be considering interviewing for senior management roles -- and are curious to learn from others who walked the path before. We are so lucky to have a global high-tech giant like Amazon operating in South Africa, offering engineering opportunities. I was even contemplating relocating back to the UK in 2020, but decided to stick it out in this beautiful country, try Amazon and live & work from Cape Town...No other global hi-tech company, apart from Amazon, offers software engineering roles in South Africa as far as I'm aware.

 

If you're considering leaving a C-level or Executive Head position behind, coming from a South African corporate, and are now eyeing out senior engineering manager roles in Amazon/AWS locally or internationally, then this post might just be of use to you. 

DISCLAIMER: I'm sharing my own personal experiences and recommendations in the hope my story could help others make an informed decision. Yes, I'm currently employed at AWS as I write this, and so far enjoyed my journey of transition, pretty settled in now as an Amazonian, despite a bit of a rough start of complete change/disruption to both professional and life streams.

My experience going into AWS L7 Senior Manager Role

Before Amazon, from May 2017 to October 2020, I was the single threaded owner (STO aka CTO) for a video streaming platform serving 50+ countries in Africa. Reporting to me were a group comprising executive head of departments and senior managers responsible for: 

 

1\ Software Delivery & Testing (Backend + Apps running on Smart TVs, Set Top Boxes, Browser Web Apps (Chrome, IE, Firefox, Safari), iOS and Android mobile phones and tablets, Apple TVs, Android TVs. In this org, reporting to the senior manager were: 3x Software Dev Managers (Frontend + Backend - 10 dev teams), 1x Test/QA Manager.

2\ Platform, Networking & Video Infrastructure, DevOps: Data Centres in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Nigeria, London, Ghana. AWS & Azure cloud. CDN infrastructure. Networking backbone, internet transit infrastructure. Devops. Application Web hosting.

3\ Site Reliability Engineering and 24/7/36 Platform/Application Operations monitoring, 2nd and 3rd line technical support team.

4\ Platform Intelligence Health Dashboards, Alerting & Analytics, Content Discovery, Search and Recommendations. An AI/ML team responsible for building video and content discovery services.This team was also responsible for building Infra/Platform/App Health Analytics consoles.

5\ Enterprise & Solution Architecture. A group of architects cutting across software architecture, video streaming, encoding and media processing platform architects. Live streaming video headends, CDN architecture.

6\ Agile Program and Project Management Office. A group of cross-functional project management experts, including program managers, release managers, scrum masters and general program management.

7\ Cyber Security, Piracy and Governance - risk management, legal, compliance and regulatory ownership. Overall IT/Security and Compliance.

I owned all the above (I designed the org structure around cloud modernization), reporting directly to CEO and was part of a the Top Leadership team. I had direct P&L responsibilities in the order of billions of rands, having authority to manage commercial relationships with technology vendors, suppliers, etc. signing licensing agreements, SOPs, reviewing RFPs,etc. I serviced business, technology and customer operations (marketing, content, acquisition, HR tech, customer support). Under my leadership, the platform scaled  to 10X scale, paved the way for a cloud-first future and created NextGen AI streams for personalized content discovery. I had delivered significant cost-savings, created a cloud-first transformation strategy and clear roadmap and built a strong leadership succession plan before leaving. I had a team of 200+ people, which extended to partner contractors & professional services. I decided to leave and was attracted to Amazon because of my exposure to AWS as an enterprise customer, I wanted to learn about what happens in the engine room of AWS.

Between 2013 and May 2017, before becoming a CTO, I was a freelance senior management consultant, taking on program director contracts where I worked with C-level stakeholders as my primary customer, running very large enterprise programs that cut-across multiple lines of business. Effectively having a virtual seat at the C-suite table, but without skin-in-the-game, helping executives deliver their top business, technology and product transformational goals. For these programs, I directed and executed large-scale program deliveries across the African continent, with project team sizes from 350-1000 people, most of my programs were tagged "billion rand programs" costing "a million rand a day". I enjoyed working 4-day weeks, took my time off according to my schedule, and worked just over 10 months a year, during that time period. 

What made me leave executive roles behind and take a risk with a mid-senior management position? In this post, I shared a deep reflection that motivated for a change. I had set my target on a new domain, i.e. cloud services, an opportunity presented itself with AWS, I applied - and the rest is history. I had made a one-way door decision, there was no looking back - but I did have a bumpy start, which in retrospect, if I had access to these pointers beforehand, who knows...

My 2024 Clifton Strengths Assessment

I took the CliftonStrengths assessment on Gallup this morning (20th Feb-24, 6am). I'm having my leadership team complete the assessment as part of my team building. As usual, I have no qualms sharing my psychometrics online as I feel it will help save people time in getting to know me (my teammates) as well as potential headhunters searching for executive candidates. I was as awake as I could be for this assessment, it was a little tricky having to make a judgement call in less than 20 seconds to choose my responses to statements as part of the assessment. 

Reflecting on these results - I think these assessments reflect a period or stage one is going through. For the last four years, I decided to disrupt myself professionally and also personally - and I'm still transitioning from this big change: Relocating to a new city with no friends or family, taking a new job in a new area I knew nothing about and having to start from scratch building a network, earning trust and social credibility (during covid remote working), wrestling with the ramifications of my decision to walk-away from a domain I was expert in, to being a newbie in a very large global company with its own unique norms and culture, etc. So these results took me a little by surprise. In another post I will share what ChatGPT analysed and recommendations offered from the history of all my psychometrics to map how my strengths/motivations profile changed over the years.

Looking at the providers terms and conditions, there isn't anything preventing me from sharing this content as long as I link to the original documents with the copyright notice: 

Any reference whatsoever to this document, in whole or in part, on any webpage must provide a link back to the original document in its entirety.

So here's my results:

Here are my reports:

Completion Report

All 34 Strengths Report

Top 5 Report

Theme Sequence Report

Signature Theme Report

The rest of this post includes content from ChatGPT

The CliftonStrengths model, formerly known as StrengthsFinder, is a psychological tool developed by Donald O. Clifton, Ph.D., along with Gallup researchers. It's designed to help individuals identify, understand, and maximize their unique strengths. In essence, the model is built on the premise that every person possesses a distinct combination of talents, knowledge, and skills (referred to as "strengths") that can be leveraged to achieve success and fulfillment in both personal and professional life.

Purpose of the CliftonStrengths Model

The primary purpose of the CliftonStrengths model is to facilitate personal and professional development by shifting the focus from remediation of weaknesses to the enhancement of natural talents. The model posits that individuals can achieve more, be more engaged, and feel more fulfilled when they understand and apply their strengths. It encourages a strengths-based approach to development, where individuals and teams invest time and energy in what they naturally do best, rather than trying to improve areas of weakness.

Usefulness of the CliftonStrengths Model

1. Personal Development: By identifying their unique strengths, individuals can tailor their personal growth efforts towards areas where they have natural potential, leading to more efficient and effective development.

2. Career Advancement: Understanding one's strengths allows for better alignment with roles or tasks that match an individual's natural talents, leading to increased job satisfaction, performance, and career progression.

3. Team Dynamics and Performance: Teams that understand and leverage the diverse strengths of their members can improve collaboration, innovation, and productivity. The model helps in assigning roles and responsibilities that align with each member's strengths, enhancing overall team effectiveness.

4. Leadership Development: For leaders, the CliftonStrengths model provides insights into how to motivate and develop their team members by recognizing and cultivating each individual's strengths, rather than focusing solely on addressing weaknesses.

5. Organizational Culture: Adopting a strengths-based approach can foster a positive organizational culture that values diversity, encourages continuous learning, and promotes well-being by allowing employees to do what they do best every day.

Implementation

Implementing the CliftonStrengths model involves individuals taking an assessment that measures their natural patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving, resulting in the identification of their top strengths from a list of 34 themes. These themes are categorized into four domains: Executing, Influencing, Relationship Building, and Strategic Thinking. Understanding these themes and domains helps individuals and teams to strategize and execute tasks more effectively, capitalizing on the natural talents present within the group.

I asked ChatGPT to analyse my CliftonStrength reports for criteria like next level roles I believe I'm ready for: Group CTO, CIO, VP or Director of Technology.

Your CliftonStrengths report highlights a unique combination of talents that are highly beneficial for leadership roles in technology and innovation, especially as you aspire to Group CTO, CIO, VP, or Director positions. Here's an analysis based on the strengths identified:

1. Learner: Your innate desire to continuously improve and embrace the process of learning is crucial for staying ahead in the fast-evolving tech sector. This trait enables you to quickly adapt to new technologies and methodologies, ensuring your organization remains competitive.

2. Arranger: The ability to organize and optimize resources for maximum productivity is essential for executing complex projects and managing cross-functional teams. Your flexibility complements your organizational skills, allowing you to effectively adapt to changing priorities and challenges.

3. Restorative: Your knack for problem-solving is invaluable in technology leadership. The ability to identify and resolve issues swiftly can enhance system reliability and innovation, contributing to the overall success of your organization.

4. Strategic: The capacity to spot relevant patterns and issues and to think several steps ahead is critical for strategic planning and decision-making. This strength supports the development of forward-thinking strategies that can steer your organization towards long-term success.

5. Individualization: Recognizing and leveraging the unique qualities of each team member can foster a more productive and collaborative work environment. This strength is key to building diverse teams that can innovate and operate efficiently.

Recommendations for Job Roles:

Given your strengths, roles that require continuous learning, strategic thinking, and the ability to manage and optimize resources effectively would be ideal. Positions such as Group CTO, CIO, VP of Engineering, or Director of Technology Innovation would suit your profile. These roles demand a leader who can not only envision the future of technology within the organization but also inspire and orchestrate teams to achieve these visions through innovative solutions and strategic planning.

Your profile suggests that you possess the qualities needed for these high-level roles, with a strong foundation in both problem-solving and team management. Focusing on positions that leverage your ability to learn, adapt, and strategize will not only align with your strengths but also position you to make significant impacts within your organization.

Beyond Bars: Transforming Adversity into Career Triumphs

I was thinking about the prisoner's life during my morning walk today. How do they get by each day. Every single day is the same, there is some routine - but confined to a small cell, sometimes alone, sometimes sharing a cell - not in control, subject to the mechanisms driven by the prison. Day in, Day out. The same thing. How do they last so long. What do they do? How do they handle the reality. What is it that keeps them grounded and motivated? What do they look forward to? Some serve prison sentences that are short, some really long, 5, 10, 15, 20 years in prison, and they still get out -- they wait, they endure, the have hope, they stay the course. Not all of them are Nelson Mandela! Not all are working toward a grand cause, an aspiration to free their people. No, they're got other motivations. That's not to say their motivations aren't any less than Mandela's. Must be very personal, right? What gets them through their daily grind? What can we learn from folks who served time and got out in the end?  Yeah, I know critics might say that prison isn't a useful reference, because in the real world, you're free to choose, you're free to act, you have agency - so if you find things getting too tough and unpleasant for you, you have options, demonstrate agency and take control of life/career through intentional action. Indulge me anyway...

So, ask yourself - especially if you find yourself tempted to quit, to leave, to run to the exit -- or say you find yourself entrapped, imprisoned by the corporate you work for, or you feel like life/work in general is just a grand prison -- ask yourself, how can you stay the course -- how can you wait, how do you adopt a prisoner's mindset / behaviours / attitudes to unlock resilience, serve the time and leave with the joy of knowing you've transitioned to a better version of yourself..

< ! The rest of this content was generated by ChatGPT as my copilot >

Imagine, for a moment, the life of someone like Michael Liebowitz, whose story I came across in the "Prison: The Hidden Sentence" podcast. Incarcerated for 25 years, Michael's journey wasn't just about survival; it was about transformation. He realized early on that the only way to truly free himself from the confines of his cell was through self-improvement and preparing for a future beyond the prison walls. Just like Michael, we can look ahead and plan for a future where we're not just surviving, but thriving, even in our most challenging professional periods​​.

Or take Tommy DeLuna's story from "The Prison Post." Sentenced to life without parole, Tommy's narrative is one of accountability and remorse. It wasn't just about serving time; it was about owning his actions and learning from them. In our professional lives, how often do we take a step back to own up to our mistakes, learn from them, and move forward with a renewed sense of responsibility? Tommy's journey teaches us the power of accountability in transforming our own lives​​.

And then there's Jarad Nava, also featured in "The Prison Post," who turned a sentence of 162 years to life into a story of hope and redemption. His transformation came through faith, education, and the support of his community. Jarad's resilience reminds us that no matter the depth of our struggles, be it in our personal or professional lives, there's always a path to betterment and growth​​.

So, what do these stories tell us about handling our own 'prison-like' situations in life and work? They remind us that our circumstances don't define us; our actions and mindset do. They show us that growth, change, and liberation are possible, even in the most restrictive environments.

You see, it's not just about enduring the hardships or waiting out the tough times. It's about actively shaping your journey, learning from every experience, and finding meaning in even the most mundane tasks. It's about realizing that the keys to your 'prison cell' are, in fact, in your hands.

Let these stories be a source of inspiration for you. Whether you're feeling stuck in a rut at work, facing personal challenges, or just trying to make sense of the daily grind, remember the lessons from these individuals who turned their prison sentences into life lessons.

Your 'prison' might not have bars, but the lessons on resilience, transformation, and hope are just as relevant. And it's not just about knowing these stories; it's about applying their essence to our own lives. Here's how we can do that:

• Purpose is Your North Star: Just like those prisoners who found strength in personal goals or aspirations, we need to pinpoint our own driving force. What gets you out of bed in the morning? Is it the desire to innovate, to lead, or perhaps to create a positive impact in your workplace? Hold onto that purpose. It's your beacon through the foggy days.

• Rhythm in Routine: There's comfort in routine, much like the structured days in a prison. Setting a daily rhythm for yourself, be it in your work or personal life, isn't about monotony; it's about creating a framework within which you can thrive. This could mean setting aside time for your professional development, for exercise, or even for those small moments of reflection.

• The Classroom of Life: Every challenge is an open book, a chance to learn something new. Those walls around you? They're not just barriers; they're teaching you resilience, patience, and perhaps even creativity. Embrace every hurdle as a learning opportunity.

• The Strength of Connections: Relationships can be your lifeline, just like they are for many prisoners. Nurture your network of colleagues, mentors, and friends. They're not just contacts; they're your support system, your sounding board, and sometimes, the push you need to keep moving forward.

• Reflection and Mindfulness: Just as prisoners often turn inward, introspection can be a powerful tool for us too. Reflect on your day, your decisions, and your interactions. How did they align with your goals and values? Mindfulness isn't just a buzzword; it's a practice that helps in keeping your thoughts focused and your emotions in check.

• Keep Moving: Physical activity and mental exercises are vital, even more so in confined spaces. They keep your body healthy and your mind sharp. Find activities that challenge you, that keep the gears in your brain turning, and your heart pumping. It's as much about physical health as it is about mental agility.

• Visualize Your Success: Imagine yourself overcoming your current challenges, reaching your goals. This isn't daydreaming; it's a powerful exercise in motivation and planning. What does success look like to you? Keep that image in your mind's eye, especially on the tough days.

• Joy in the Little Things: In prison, a small joy can mean the world. In our everyday 'prisons,' it's no different. Find happiness in the little achievements, the small steps forward. Celebrate them. These moments of joy add up, creating a collage of a fulfilling journey.

• Remember, our 'prisons' - be they our jobs, our personal struggles, or just the routine of daily life - can become places of immense growth and learning. It's about changing our perspective, finding our purpose, and making the most of every moment, every interaction, every challenge.

These stories of resilience and transformation behind bars are not just tales of survival; they're blueprints for thriving in any environment, no matter how restrictive it may seem. Your 'prison' has lessons to teach; are you ready to learn?

My experiment with ChatGPT as a recommendations engine using Netflix data

As some readers might have learnt about me by now, is that I enjoy data analytics, and more recently been curious about the capabilities of ChatGPT. So I decided to take my Netflix data and give it to ChatGPT code interpreter to see what it comes up with.

If you didn't know, as a Netflix user, you can get access to all your data by requesting it from under account management on the web site:

After a couple of days, you will receive an email from Netflix with a zipped file "netflix-report". Here's what my archive looks like:

The section that's important is CONTENT_INTERACTION. Recommendation engines are all about understanding a user's viewing behaviour: their content preferences, search history, viewing history, events that happen during playback, viewing activity - all inputs into what is called "viewer engagement". 

For 20 years I worked as a software professional building video technology systems. In 2004, I joined a research team building video recommendation engines. At the time, we focused on rules-based engines and used Amazon as the general poster-child, north-star - even then, Amazon's retail recommeder system was making headwaves. In 2004, it was still the early days of the internet. Set Top Boxes, the devices that enabled you access to satellite TV, were not always online. So the scope of our work was constrained to the embedded world of this device: limited compute, memory and storage power. We knew there needed to be a multi-pronged approach to video recommendations back then, with the bulk processing intelligence being done in the "back end" - headend - and recommendations eventually broadcast to the set top box over the air. Anyway, building software that learns viewing behaviours of users was an art back then - and even almost two decades later - remains still an art - although with the proliferation of many software-as-a-services providers, we now have so many options available "Recommendation engines-as-a-service". In my previous role as CTO for Africa's largest video entertainment company, over the years built our own stack, leverage open source recommendation engines. With new capabilities like Amazon Sagemaker and other services, I got our team to start thinking differently and transform to out-of-the-box recommender systems. Don't reinvent the wheel. Build flywheels instead. I left that team in 2020, 4 years later, I'm told the team's completed their transformation and using almost all their recommendation components off-the-shelf instead of building their own.

So what happens to content recommenders now that we have tools like ChatGPT, code interpreters and powerful data analysis? Could video recommendation engines be further disrupted - i.e. democratizing content recommendations to the new world of personal intelligent agents?

Experiment: ChatGPT as a content recommendation expert - Epic Fail

First, I asked ChatGPT to analyse the Netflix data set, then provide an analysis as a video recommendations expert. I've shared my Netflix data. Act as an expert video recommendations engine, recommender system, using all the state-of-the-art concepts for understanding viewer behaviour. Analyse the datasets and produce a detailed analysis and insights report into my viewing habits. What are my preferences? If you were a video content expert, how would you categorise me? What content will you recommend to me? Etc.

Feedback - Results, much better luck with DeepNote

A bit disappointing - ChatGPT struggles to analyse consistently, without errors. Too many errors, load failures and errors analyzing. It starts strong and then bombs out. I find it to be rather inconsistent. Had to wait a while and create a few sessions to get going. A bit of a time waster. It's a shame that ChatGPT has to restart its chain of analysis everytime there's a failure. "Regenerate" kicks off the process all over again. 3 sessions later, then I get bombed out as I've exhausted my time window - come back later. I pay for ChatGPT and still have to accept limited time-based usage. Crazy times. Switched over to Claude to see if it gave better results. Nope, Claude has severe limitations in file size uploads. Waste of time. Google Bard, equally useless. 

I then switched to Deepnote (an alternative to Noteable which is now dead), my experience was much better there. It turns out the Netflix data is sparse enough, missing vital data attributes like content genre classifications (like action, comedy, drama, romance, history, etc.) which makes it difficult to draw conclusions on viewing behaviour. This means we need to find a content database like TMDB to map my Netflix data to (i.e. complete the dataset by appending vital content attributes like genre, actor, director, studio, etc.), then we can build up a complete profile view of my usage, the content my household is inclined to and the for the last phase of the experiment, get the AI to recommend content from another catalog to surface recommendations for me. To get a glimpse of the potential power of an AI-coPilot used in DeepNote, I've shared my project as public here.

I'm not investing more time going down this rabbit hole today! However, it is certainly food for thought on potential new GPT-agents one can build now that OpenAI have released its GPT store. I suspect it's only a matter of time that someone builds a content recommender-gpt on ChatGPT's store, that can provide more diverse recommendations outside the closed walls of a streaming provider. I suspect we will have a resurgence in Content-Aggregator Wars in 2024!

Personametry 2023 - Wheel of life streams, hours logged

It's that time of the year when I sit down and review my time tracking data for the year. This time round, playing around with ChatGPT (whilst still maintaining my AWS Quicksight dashboards). I was quite looking forward to continuing to use Noteable's AI/Data tools, sadly the service shut down :-(

I've shared my dataset openly and also you can look at the ChatGPT transcript of the conversation and prompts here.

ChatGPT's overall summary:

• Rest and Sleep (Individual): A substantial 2,856.11 hours, akin to the restorative power of a long, rejuvenating sleep every night.

• Professional Work: Impressively, 2,051.20 hours were dedicated to your professional life, showing a solid commitment to career growth and achievements.

• Family Time (Family-Man): A heartwarming 1,398.79 hours spent with family, which is like embarking on a year-long road trip with your loved ones, filled with bonding and cherished memories.

• Spirituality (Individual): A profound 1,106.44 hours in spiritual pursuits, reflecting a journey akin to a spiritual retreat, deepening your inner peace and understanding.

• Personal Time (Individual): 467.55 hours of 'Me Time', ensuring a healthy balance of personal space and activities, like taking a short, refreshing break each day.

• Marital/Wife (Husband): 451.91 hours dedicated to marital life, resonating with the quality time spent in building a strong, supportive partnership.

• Knowledge and Learning (Individual): 202.88 hours of enriching your mind, like attending a series of insightful lectures throughout the year.

• Health and Fitness (Individual): 145.07 hours, a commitment to staying active and healthy, similar to a consistent routine of short, daily workouts.

• Social (Friend): 117.06 hours, akin to enjoying meaningful social gatherings, reinforcing bonds and making memories.

Looking back, my time tracking is reaching steady state. Not sure I'm going to keep reporting these stats going forward, but I'll probably keep fine-tuning. For 2023 Scorecard, I'm glad to have focused and met largely my spiritual goals, work/professional goals was maintained year-on-year, despite the spike in work hours in the last quarter (I got "promoted", with extra responsibilities which means more work hours). Health and Fitness hours took a dive compared to 2022, but it seems that my Strava/Garmin activity tracking shows better performance in 2023 compared to 2022 (so more time logged doesn't necessarily equate to being for fit, or achieving more). Social time decreased because we lost some friends to emigration, and generally our year was focused on the kids as my son approached his final high school matric exams, we prioritised staying at home.

If you've read all my previous posts on Personametry, you would've learnt that as part of this experiment, even way back when I started in 2016, I wanted a personal-assistant AI to help me with my RAGE / Personametry framework. I wanted to engage in meaningful conversations with an AI-assistant, coach me, act as my council, gatekeeper, motivator, etc. I believe there is still a need for this and the current state-of-the-art still has some catching up to do. Nevertheless, I am quite enjoying my interactions with ChatGPT. It was able to understand my personametry data, derive some insights, create the views I would generally take a couple hours doing myself. It's just a matter of time until we get truly personalized agents, like a personametry-gpt agent. Here's what ChatGPT offered I should look into for 2024:

Here's my Personametry slides as usual: