Why I Bid Farewell to My $275,000 AWS Job

The catalysts behind my departure from a lucrative role in tech giant AWS and navigating the path to new horizons

Usman Aslam
5 min readJan 18, 2024
Image Credit: Gang Liu

Reflecting on my 16-year journey in the tech industry, a distinct chapter emerges — one intricately woven with my experiences at Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Conducting over 80 interviews at AWS added depth to my expertise and insights. Amid achieving the remarkable feat of earning all 12 AWS certifications within a year, I found myself entangled in a prevailing trend: professionals departing Amazon before their second anniversary.

This phenomenon triggered a cascade of reflections, culminating in a pivotal career-defining choice — bidding farewell to my $275,000 job at AWS as a Senior Solutions Architect.

In the upcoming pages, I unravel eight compelling reasons that propelled me to leave Amazon. I hope my story imparts valuable lessons, offering insights that resonate with your own professional journey.

Feel free to explore and save the curated lists included at the end of this story. Follow me for future stories and subscribe for email updates.

Reason 1. Navigating the Onboarding Maze

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Usman Aslam
Usman Aslam

Written by Usman Aslam

Ex-Amazonian, Sr. Solutions Architect at AWS, 12x AWS Certified. ❤️ Tech, Cloud, Programming, Data Science, AI/ML, Software Development, and DevOps. Join me 🤝

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