Leaving Amazon Web Services

It was Wednesday the 28th of January at 02:48. I was checking my phone for the last time, right after getting into bed after a long day and late night from being over-caffeinated.

And there it was. A notification. The one you don’t want to see.

Important Information About Your Role at Amazon

My heart sank. I knew exactly what that email meant, and it was 100% a surprise to see.

“What had I done to justify this?” I thought, just as I opened the email to read more.

The email explained that my role was one of many being eliminated across Amazon, and that my employment would end after a notification period.

My heart raced. Immediate panic set in. “What should I do next?” I thought.

As it turns out, not much.

I was no longer expected to work, and would keep my full pay and benefits for the next 90 days. Formal paperwork would follow later that day, and I’d keep limited access to email during the transition.

And with that, my work laptop was inaccessible. Locked out of the environment I’ve been accustomed to for over the last 11 years.

Hired November 2014 as an AWS Premium Support Engineer.

To be laid off April 2026 as an AWS Systems Development Engineer II.

So what’s next? I’m treating this as a chance to choose my next step on purpose: a role where I can keep building reliable systems and helping engineers do their best work.