5 ms·

Wasn't clear to me who wrote this or why, so: > I’m Colm MacCárthaigh, a VP and Distinguished Engineer at Amazon Web Services, and this website is my blog.

capableweb 5y ago
> 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?
- Thaxll 5y ago
  > And if neither of them really mean anything, then this guy is really "just" a developer right? Probably yeah, he went to a coding boodcamp and was hired after that.
  - BikiniPrince 5y ago
    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.
    - bbgm 5y ago
      Amazon has long had a VP-level engineer track (Peter Vosshall was the first IIRC). Colm is very rightly one.
      - BikiniPrince 5y ago
        Long in Amazon years. I departed five or six years ago and Senior Was the end of the road. Similar to how leveling a research scientist was voodoo.
        mcspiff 5y ago
        Positions past senior have existed much longer than 5 or 6 years at Amazon.
        bbgm 5y ago
        That's not correct. There were Principal and higher engineers 13 years ago when I joined. 5 years ago, just EC2 had a fairly large number.
- mcspiff 5y ago
  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.
- slownews45 5y ago
  Yes, a developer title basically. But very senior Comp is $950K++++ per year range.
  - BikiniPrince 5y ago
    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.
- argc 5y ago
  What does '"just" a developer' mean?
  - capableweb 5y ago
    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)!
- jedberg 5y ago
  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.
- pan69 5y ago
  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.
- OJFord 5y ago
  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).
pvg 5y ago
He's been on HN for ages https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=colmmacc https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=colmmacc
- tptacek 5y ago
  He's an extremely good Twitter follow, for what it's worth.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
ctvo 5y ago
Really? Looks like someone's blog on technical things that they're interested in and there's an 'About' link right where you'd expect that tell you who they are.

capableweb 5y ago

> 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?

Thaxll 5y ago
> And if neither of them really mean anything, then this guy is really "just" a developer right? Probably yeah, he went to a coding boodcamp and was hired after that.
- BikiniPrince 5y ago
  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.
  - bbgm 5y ago
    Amazon has long had a VP-level engineer track (Peter Vosshall was the first IIRC). Colm is very rightly one.
    - BikiniPrince 5y ago
      Long in Amazon years. I departed five or six years ago and Senior Was the end of the road. Similar to how leveling a research scientist was voodoo.
      - mcspiff 5y ago
        Positions past senior have existed much longer than 5 or 6 years at Amazon.
      - bbgm 5y ago
        That's not correct. There were Principal and higher engineers 13 years ago when I joined. 5 years ago, just EC2 had a fairly large number.
mcspiff 5y ago
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.
slownews45 5y ago
Yes, a developer title basically. But very senior Comp is $950K++++ per year range.
- BikiniPrince 5y ago
  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.
argc 5y ago
What does '"just" a developer' mean?
- capableweb 5y ago
  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)!
jedberg 5y ago
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.
pan69 5y ago
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.
OJFord 5y ago
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).

pvg 5y ago

He's been on HN for ages https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=colmmacc https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=colmmacc

tptacek 5y ago
He's an extremely good Twitter follow, for what it's worth.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

ctvo 5y ago

Really? Looks like someone's blog on technical things that they're interested in and there's an 'About' link right where you'd expect that tell you who they are.