Day In The Life Of An AWS Front End Developer

Title/Professional Service team: Front End Developer at AWS Professional Service.

Tell us about yourself: I live in Connecticut, US working remotely for AWS for more than six months now. I had spent my early life living in and around New Delhi, India. I graduated as a Software Engineer in 2010 and immediately accepted my first IT job offer. I now have over 12 years of experience working in this industry. For most of my experience, I worked with a few large IT consultancy firms in India before moving to the United States in 2021. I am grateful to have had a fantastic learning and growing experience throughout my career. And with this growth mindset, I fulfilled one of my career goals when I got the job offer from Amazon this year to work as a Front-end developer for AWS.?

Tell us about your role: My role is that of a staff consultant who works towards helping our customers in their cloud transformation journey. When working for a customer engagement, I take care of the front-end app development requirements in the project with a focus on providing the best user experience and integration with other AWS services. I use technical skills such as React, JavaScript/TypeScript, NodeJS, AWS Amplify, AppSync, API Gateway, DynamoDB, S3, Cognito, Lambda, and other AWS services on a day-to-day basis. In addition, I work with Cloud Application Architects and other specialists as required for customer engagements.?

What is your typical day- Morning/noon/afternoon (Special activities, responsibilities, fun facts)??

Working remotely, I typically start my day by checking my office's internal emails and planning for customer meetings. Then, I prepare breakfast/lunch for my family and get my kid ready for school. I spend my early mornings checking off internal items such as responding to emails/slack, writing for any self-reflection tasks, taking mandatory training, and planning activities before jumping to project work. From noon until the evening, I am occupied with customer/team meetings and project work. The customer looks forward to us as a consultant to provide solutions and put their trust in us. Being an AWS ProServe consultant gives me a great sense of responsibility, so I dwell deep into my topics and have enough brainstorming with my peers when committing to deliver a solution.?

Apart from customer engagement, I have taken up several internal initiatives, such as working on builder projects, contributing to employee well-being initiatives, technical writing etc. I also recently attended and helped organize my team's off site visit, for which the whole group flew in from different states to gather in one of our offices. We networked and learned new things from each other and had fun team-building games and dinner together.?

Fun facts about me - I enjoy nature/landscape photography and often post my travelogs on my blog online. I also enjoy watching sci-fi thriller movies and tv series whenever I get any spare time.?

What do you like most about working for AWS? Did you have any inspiring moments??

Learning never stops here. There are plenty of growth opportunities to build one's experience on a plethora of topics. It feels incredible to be part of an organization that is customer-centric and innovates to solve customer problems.?

Another aspect I greatly appreciate working here is the importance they give to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. The culture embraced by AWS is thriving and open to all. "Bring your authentic self to work" is encouraged here. There is also a focus on well-being with several initiatives in place. It gives me an immense sense of ownership and makes me feel valued at work.?

The "Day 1" culture also inspires me at AWS, which never makes you feel stale and keeps the excitement of joining this AWSome organization. It is also amazing to see how various AWS services are changing the industry by solving business problems across domains ranging from Finance, Governance, and Automobiles to Healthcare.

Which leadership principle is your favorite and why?

Amazon's leadership principles are not just written in theory but are actual concepts practiced in day-to-day life at AWS. After joining this organization only, I understood why these were of utmost importance at the time of the hiring interview. One of my favorite leadership principles is "Learn and be Curious" because only with a learning mindset can one achieve something greater beyond what we have already accomplished. And I am not talking about technical learning but behavioral, cultural and other domain learning too. Learning new things and gaining new experiences is something I strive for in my life.?

Work hard. Have Fun. Make History!