[ttr2021]

I had a similar experience, but I joined AWS support, in a pretty challenging role (big data profile).

My first 3 months were training (almost none of it on any big data technologies) taking cases and working with other support engineers.

The role itself was very demanding, very little prep with the transition to the actual role, and I felt lost most of the time. Learning how AWS puts their services together was most of the challenge and to be honest the and my manager (normal IT guy) didn't really understand the basics or complexity of the cases we were dealing with at all from several conversations I had with him. He oversimplified just about everything.

At some point in time 6 months into the role, he decides to move to a different area. My new manager was like "oh I see you are on a performance improvement program". This was the first I had ever heard of it. After explaining myself to the new manager and doing a few kickass cases for very large customers, I was actually sent on training at Amazon HQ and from there I never looked back, and ended up becoming a global big data SME in professional services. So from there point of view I was worth the investment (especially at ~2-3500 a day billable to customers!).

But I'll never forget that my manager wanted me out after only 6 months, working with some of the most difficult customers and most difficult support cases I think AWS support has to deal with..