> a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services
Any further translation on what VP and "Distinguished Engineer" means here? It sounds like both of them are honorary and doesn't really mean much, but then "Distinguished" makes it seem they received some sort of Nobal price of computing as well.
And if neither of them really mean anything, then this guy is really "just" a developer right?
In the org I work in "Distinguished" is simply a level of seniority (and pay grade). For engineers we have; grad -> engineer -> senior -> specialist -> principal -> chief -> distinguished.
The further/higher you get you usually do less "programming" and more design/architectural, plus line management.
Distinguished Engineer is the top “level” for engineers at Amazon. It’s equivalent to a VP position for managers. So it’s a job title, similar to Sr Engineer.
Colm is an extremely smart engineer who has designed some really big systems. Distinguished is the title they give you when they want to pay you VP bucks so you stay at Amazon.
In my non-Amazon experience, VP (Vice President [of something]) was a position in corporate hierarchy; Distinguished Engineering a technical-track recognition of long-term achievement, more an accolade like you say (but probably with some compensation-based recognition I imagine).
Colm is a fairly badass engineer. He was a senior principle when I left. Sounds like they made another level since then and he jumped into VP. Somewhat makes sense as he leads the business in both a technical and business sense. Amazon’s traditional issue is they only know how to level managers. Turns out when the company starts accruing some really senior people you have to accommodate them.
This is a fairly fluffy piece of writing. His internal writings were much deeper.
I specifically put quotes around it to avoid comments like you. "Just" in terms of superfluous titles, not that becoming a developer is easy or anything. Seems I've managed to get my answers though, so thank you everyone (except argc)!
I’m sure he has exceeded this by now. If you can afford to keep genius around then you should.
It’s hard to get familiar with engineers at Amazon. They have spokes persons who release things written by others and their external contribution process is difficult at best.
It isn’t a surprise people think he is a nobody. I still remember him after five years.
Any further translation on what VP and "Distinguished Engineer" means here? It sounds like both of them are honorary and doesn't really mean much, but then "Distinguished" makes it seem they received some sort of Nobal price of computing as well.
And if neither of them really mean anything, then this guy is really "just" a developer right?