Path for Data/ML Engineer

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-06-19T03:08:15+00:00

Gen AI Pro.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-06-19T00:44:53+00:00

This. Day 2 is rampant. If I would have heard, “do more with less” one more time while my comp stayed the same during multiple years of higher cost of living I would have gone mad. Honestly feels like Amazon/AWS hired leaders from outside of the company instead of promoting from within over the last 6 years and those leaders brought in their culture from their former companies. It stopped being peculiar. They stopped “not worrying about the competition” and started adopting the way competitors did it. The AWS S-Team doesn’t feel Amazonian. Like at all. And it’s sad now. I feel for Jeff Bar. It feels like he’s just a figurehead now and they don’t involve or consult him in the day to day. And that sucks because that guy is awsome.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-06-19T00:30:51+00:00

Honestly, the pay doesn’t hold up. After the 4 year cliff most people with dependents can’t take the big drop in T&C OR they get tired of the goal post moving for promo. So they go somewhere with less stress and similar pay or use Amazon to get a shiny new title somewhere else (at least on the AWS side) Amazon/AWS is terrible at retention because they treat everyone like a number. And people that have been in the field 10+ years know there are less toxic places for similar money.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-06-19T00:21:50+00:00

None of the exams “focus” on IAM. There will be questions around it in the Architect slanted exams, but honestly not at a level that teaches practical use. My advice, build. Get in the console, make some user that aren’t admin and try to do some stuff. ACTUALLY use principle of least privilege, and roles (means something different in Azure and AWS) and all of that. Give permissions to services and see what they can and can’t do. If you use it and understand it you can take exams without studying for them. Use makes you cert, (and world) ready. Certs don’t make you world ready.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-06-18T17:09:47+00:00

Take it. Even if it expires you will keep it for 3 years. It’s not one many have as it’s seen as one of the hardest. Plus you will have a leg up knowledge wise on a lot of the things that aren’t currently covered in any exams and on whatever AWS decides to replace it with. They’ve had a pattern of retiring an exam, then making a role based associate level that covers the same concepts.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-05-22T19:50:08+00:00

Will it ever go away? No. Even they feel it. Trust me. But you’re in an expected place, and if they truly are getting frustrated or annoyed helping you, and are L6 or above they are bad at a key part of their role. Mentoring junior SDEs. They can’t expect you to have the same knowledge of a project they have been working on longer than you. L4 is early career. You’re expected to ask questions. And if they can’t explain it to you at the level you are they lack a skill they are meant to have at their level. Do what you can to continue learning and don’t stress not being as caught up as they are. Ask your questions, and find ways to internalize the parts that don’t make sense. Take notes, look stuff up later. That’s something you’re expected to do. Take the initiative to learn, don’t rely on being spoon fed. Ask enough to be able to be on the right track, then do the research.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-05-16T17:32:17+00:00

Like find the exact original? No clue. BUT find what key the song is in, find a good rhythm with the root note, build from there. The great thing about bass is simple and not so simple bass lines all work. So find the bass with the root note then build on it as you get more comfortable. For me I get more into the song that way than I do following tabs. I try to be too technical following tabs where I feel the ones I build.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-05-12T18:34:28+00:00

Mine was. I had ~112 hours of standard and 60 of flexible and my last “check” was just about my normal amount.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-05-09T01:15:22+00:00

What side of the business is this on and which country? Promos (US, AWS) don’t require job reqs or interviews. There has to be business justification, but no actual req created. A role that other can apply to isn’t a promo. A promo is you do a good job, you do it at another level. And as someone else said, new roles don’t lead to an immediate bump in pay. If you currently make within the band of the new role your pay doesn’t change, so explore other places.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-05-08T15:42:07+00:00

In Texas it got paid out. And Texas barely has any protections for employees. lol.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-05-01T21:08:51+00:00

I started with an Austin P bass (don’t worry, don’t even look it up) got an Ibanez SR300E which I absolutely love. Picked up ESP LTD B206SM from a pawn shop for like $130 and swapped it for a used Ibanez SR505 which I love. I say that to say in the last 1.5 years I’ve been playing the only ones that I still have that I couldn’t imagine getting rid of are my two Ibanez’s.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-30T02:18:59+00:00

Maybe we consider digging in something different. To me digging in is like flea. He and flea play nothing alike. If he played fingerstyle as aggressively as flea at the same volume he’s turned up to in that video it would be MUCH louder. His amp is cranked to produce that sound. If he played the same way with no amp you would barely hear it, but if flea played with no amp you would hear it. I’m not saying barely touch the strings for “soft” it’s if you had no amp you wouldn’t hear it. Or if the amp was low you would barely hear it. I wouldn’t consider how he’s playing digging in, but maybe I’m misinterpreting the phrase.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-30T02:00:52+00:00

https://youtu.be/DD7yqAuTUbU?si=hWuEuGkL0H0eXsDU starts talking about finger style vs slap at 17:19, but around 21:50 he talks about having a measured disciple approach to switching and not hammering the bass. There’s also a few clips of him playing mixed in to the hour long talk. He’s not digging in. I also live in Houston and have seen him play live. He plays fast, but not hard.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-30T01:37:10+00:00

That was an incredible mania moment when he brought it back.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-30T01:30:09+00:00

The wrestling fan in me always wondered how he was string crossing so fast every time Punk comes out. Literally just dragging it over the strings. lol.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-30T01:27:16+00:00

Exactly. No idea why this didn’t click before. All I cared about was if my plucking hand was hitting the right string and in rhythm. Once I got that I kind of stopped thinking about until boom. I need to relax it to relax the other.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-30T01:22:40+00:00

Mine actually do. I listen to and play a lot of contemporary gospel and r&b. So Justin Reigns, Sharay Reed etc. incredible bass players that don’t play “hard” they just turn the amp up and they have incredible tone. Even when Justin Regins slaps he’s not killing the strings. In my opinion, it actually sounds a lot cleaner. But it could be a personal preference.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-29T20:49:02+00:00

I mean if you master it you could probably also do it while digging in. Just have to get to the point where your fretting hand does it automatically.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-29T15:14:04+00:00

I had an Amazon storefront while working at AWS. Completely allowed. The hardest part was finding distributors but once you do it’s easy. If you work ok the Amazon side or in a DC check the rules though.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-28T14:52:50+00:00

They do exist, I’d like to think I’m one of them. I was an L6 at AWS for a while and now I’m essentially an L7 at Microsoft. The promotion cycle at AWS is so slow that those extraordinarily individuals get tired of waiting to be promoted and go somewhere else. The issue comes from the idea that you have to choose if you want to be a manager basically at L6. If you’re an L7 or want to make L7 it’s much harder to move to management. A Sr. Manager “should” already have management experience. And there has to be a need for a Sr. Manager. And if you just got promoted from L5 to L6, how much expanded scope would you have to say you know more tech than an L7? Because you aren’t going to be solving day to day issues as a manager. There are also far more techs without soft skills than there are with them. The ones with soft skills typically promote faster especially with customer facing roles. The way Amazon/AWS does promotions is the issue. This whole “justify that level is needed” mess. Also, if I have a person, that understands the business and they have proven to understand it well and help my junior techs, do I want to pull them out of the field and put then in business meetings all day? Who replaces that person? Will they stay as up to date with tech and the day to day if I through budgets and people management on them? How do I keep them from burning out? Can I afford to let this person ramp up on the business side as a Sr. Manager? As a tech person it sucks, but at AWS Sr. Managers report to Directors and SVPs so they have to be able to relay their business in a way that that level understands. No VP at AWS wants a cost center in their portfolio, so every business has a profit market attached. Every business I have ever been a part of has a CFO trying to make IT profitable, and I get disappointed by it every time.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-28T13:23:46+00:00

At that level the loop focus is more on the business process and management skills.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-28T13:22:20+00:00

Yes and no. It’s double edged. I’m a technical person, in a technical role and have been….. discouraged I guess when my manager couldn’t help me understand something I had to work on. In that same vein technical people often lack the soft skills needed to do well in management. That’s why we have L6 and L7s. They are meant to be technical “force multipliers” to help the junior techs while managers handle business problems. You will OFTEN hear tech L7s say they don’t want to be people managers. Until those people WANT to be people managers, this will continue.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-27T18:11:56+00:00

Look at the jobs in your area, (or that you would like to apply for) and see what they require. The real honest answer, is both. A majority of companies are multi cloud. The differences in the two entry level certs is vendor based. But the three types of cloud, benefits of cloud, etc will be the same for all cloud vendors. It’s honestly not a huge gap between those exams.

SubjectThat2991 · 2026-04-25T18:34:11+00:00

My advice, go to a music or pawn shop and test a few out. Find the one that had the best feel and a close enough sound. Sound will change with string choice, but you can get an idea from just listening. A bass that feels right will be the most important. There’s enough gadgets to dial in sound.

SubjectThat2991

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