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Name: Alan McConnell
Title: Software Development Engineer
Company: Amazon.com
Location: Seattle
Monster: What led you to choose a career in your field?
Alan McConnell: I've always wanted to be an engineer. My grandfather was an engineer in the aeronautical industry; his intelligence and ability to solve problems was a great inspiration. As a child I was naturally attracted to electronics and video games. At 12, when a friend and I discovered that we could create our own games in QBasic, I became addicted to all things computer-related and realized I wanted it to be my career.
M: What led you to your current position?
AM: Amazon recruited me directly out of college. As a junior searching for a summer internship, Amazon stood out, because the employees had a passion and energy for their work that I hadn't found elsewhere. My internship confirmed that passion for solving problems was a way of life at Amazon. After completing my BS in computer science at MIT, I returned to Amazon as a full-time employee and have been here ever since.
M: What do you do in your position?
AM: As a software development engineer in Search Data Platform, I am responsible for designing, implementing and maintaining systems that aggregate and process the data that drives the product search for the Amazon.com site.
I am also a cofounder and executive board member of the Black Employee Network, an Amazon affinity group chartered with providing a support structure for the company's African American employees. As chair of community involvement, I coordinate the organization's community-service and outreach initiatives as well as help to oversee the overall direction of the organization.
M: Bring us through your typical day.
AM: My days vary quite a bit. Today I worked with our recruiting department to coordinate Amazon's participation in a number of upcoming diversity conferences. I then spent a few hours coding on a large project that's nearing completion. My manager popped in to my office, and we spent a good chunk of time brainstorming ways to improve the efficiency of some of our data-storage systems. I finished the day by interviewing a software development engineer candidate.
M: What have been the biggest rewards in your career?
AM: As an engineer, the experience of working with some of the smartest engineers in the industry on new, difficult problems has been invaluable. In my experience, passionate people gravitate toward challenges and situations that help improve their craft. Amazon is full of such people, and to be part of this environment has made me a better engineer.
M: What are some of the challenges you enjoy in your job?
AM: Not knowing what new problems I'll be faced with when I come into the office. Working next to engineers much better at the craft than I am and challenging myself to become as good. Being a leader in the Black Employee Network has been interesting, because organizing a large number of individuals to act collectively is a challenge that I don't necessarily get in my engineering work.
M: What do you like most about working for Amazon?
AM: Empowerment and ownership. At Amazon, I've always been granted ownership of the projects I work on, and that's kept me excited and passionate. We believe that time spent in bureaucracy is time spent away from solving problems and, in the end, time spent away from delivering the best possible product to customers. We hire great engineers we can trust to own making critical decisions and to deliver great products.
M: What's the best advice you could give to someone looking to get into your field?
AM: Learn to be an engineer, not a programmer. A lot of people in this industry can crank out code. Much rarer are the true problem-solvers who can come up with innovative solutions to new problems. Great coding skills are part of any good engineer's tool kit, but having strong conceptual skills is more important.
M: What do you look for when you interview people for Amazon?
AM: The first two questions I ask myself about a candidate are: "Is this person really smart?" and "Does this person raise the bar for people already at the company?" Our goal is to hire exceptional engineers, and that means hiring really smart problem solvers. Syntax and language specifics can be learned quickly by smart engineers.
M: What's the most inspiring book you've ever read?
AM: The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran. The beauty of Gibran's prose is enough to warrant a read, but more importantly than that, this is one of those books that speak to an essential truth that we all need to be reminded of on occasion. I find myself returning to this book pretty frequently and always take something new away from it.
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