The thing about promotion

Promotion can be a mysterious process in Amazon. In the seven years I have been here, I have promoted many; I have converted a few Sr. engineers into SDM; I have been promoted myself a few times. In this essay I will talk about my experience and understanding of the Amazon promotion philosophy. First, we compensate for result but we promote for behavior. Result is what you have delivered, while behavior is how you have delivered it. Result is the quantity and behavior is the quality. You maybe a mediocre soccer player but if you are at the right place at the right time, you might score the most important goal of the game. You will get rewarded for sure, but you may not be named the team captain. Afterall, can you repeat the success or it was just dumb luck? Behavior on the other hand, make sure you can repeat your success, at least in most cases with a high probability. Behavior and result usually go hand in hand. You can say the process of delivering result is a stage, and behavior (we call them leadership principles in Amazon) is your performance on the stage. Sometimes a top notch performance might not guarantee the commercial success of the show, that is life. As managers we try our best to recognize that behavior. Sometimes you don’t get to choose the stage. Maybe you don’t get to perform in a Super Bowl concert, that is fine. If you are asked to perform live in a bar, you can still do an excellent job and get promoted. I am sure the way Langlang plays “twinkle twinkle little star” is quite different from a beginner pianist. Second, if you want to be promoted to a level, start being it. You don’t need to wait until you get a Sr. engineer’s title to do that tech talk, do the tech talk now. Start behaving like a Sr. engineer, mentoring team members and solving hard problems. If you see chaos in a large service event, lead the event, put order into the chaos. If you feel you truly lack opportunities to perform at the next level, talk to your manager, or leave: there are tons of orgs that need top hands. In Amazon, you have to be it to be promoted to it. Promotion is not just a result, but a journey. You grow through this journey, you move yourself out of comfort zone. You feel your growth psychologically, mentally or even physically. Then when you get the promotion you have earned, you can say: “Well that was hard but fun. Let’s do it again.”