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How early should I let my manager know I want to get to SDE 3?

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Mid-Level Software Engineer [SDE 2] at Amazon2 years ago

I'm a pretty new SDE 2, and I know that the SDE 2 -> SDE 3 promotion is really difficult at Amazon. Given that, I would like to start working on this promotion as soon as possible. However, I'm new, so I don't want to make things weird for my manager and I. When does it make sense for me to bring up this topic of promotion and start working on a growth plan with my manager?

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    Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
    2 years ago

    Very relevant question by a mid-level Google engineer! How soon should I start thinking about promotion?

    • For the first 3 months, I’d make sure you earn the trust of your team and you successfully ramp up.
    • An effective strategy is to have a "date for a date". The way to phrase it to your manager: "My priority now is to ensure I onboard and build the relationships within and outside the team. However, career growth is important to me, so could we plan a discussion around the timeline + requirements for promotion to SDE3 on [DATE 1.5 months out]?"
    • If you want to get promoted quickly, you should say that. You can be both ambitious and humble.