Reflecting on my 2nd Year at Amazon

I've just completed 2 years at Amazon! To be honest, amidst the layoffs this feels like an achievement.

Journey So Far!

My second year was busy productively busy. I started working as an IC and got apps assigned to me. Finally launched "Vega OS"! My whole second year's focus was the project Vega.

This year as I worked more with TV apps, I learned about hardware, DRM, CSAT, and navigating hard conversations. I debugged technical issues even when I didn't have access to the code, solved hard problems, and managed priorities and impact. A few things I learned in the last 2 years that will stay with me forever in my career/life:

Not everything is urgent. Only pick the top high-impact tasks and the rest can wait. I think my whole career I always worked in a fake fire—"Everything is urgent"—and as a result I felt burnt out. At Amazon, I liked prioritizing the high-impact tasks over every other task.

This year I understood Amazon's scale and impact much better. I have worked at Tesco and Oracle at large scale before, but Amazon's scale is at another level. I would like to shout out to everyone who was working on Vega OS—everyone was supportive and amazing.

1 . Got a shout-out for my contributions at work.

2 . Got shout-outs from technical partners/clients/customers I worked for.

3 . Leadership and co-workers were helpful and guiding.

4 . Did a few things at work beside my daily R&R.

5 . Wrote a new version of the TV accessibility book.

6 . Wrote a WebView accessibility guide and a few more contributions: enabling virtual keyboard, Avoid Overdraw in Your App, React Native Localize, React Native Device Info

7 . Took a break from public conferences to focus at work.

8 . Gave a talk on Accessibility for TV Apps in an internal conference at Amazon, Seattle.

9 . Gave an MCP server session. Built an Accessibility MCP Server for work.

Overall, an amazing year of learning and growing.

Learnings

1 . Amazon is a huge company with a lot of teams—coordination & communication is the key.

2 . Tech depth is crucial, but also be aware of how deep you need to go.

3 . Know very well where your energy and time should be invested.

4 . Be more vocal.

5 . Not everything is urgent. Pick high-impact tasks over others.

Layoffs

Everyone is very well aware of the layoffs happening around the world due to AI or some other reason. It is 100% scary, but this is becoming the reality of the tech industry. A truth now no one can avoid. There was a time I used to feel scared, but now I'm getting used to it. Why? And how? Well—these layoffs are not performance-based. I'm doing my best and the rest is luck. There's nothing I can control, so stressing about layoffs won't save me from anything.

Happy Learning!