Latest / The Tech Career Podcast with Fexingo: Engineering Jobs, Interviews, and FAANG Career Strategy / How FAANG Engineers Turn Failures into Career Opportunities
Transcript
- Lucas: Luna, I want to talk about something most engineers don't think about until it's too late — how to turn a production outage or a failed project into a career opportunity. Luna: Oh, this is good. Because the instinct is to hide from mistakes, not leverage them. Lucas: Exactly. And I think the strongest example comes from Amazon's postmortem culture. At Amazon, after any significant incident, engineers write a detailed document called a Corrective Action Plan, or CAP. It's not just about what went wrong — it's about what systemic changes prevent it from happening again. Luna: And those CAPs become part of your permanent record, right? In a good way? Lucas: That's the key insight. At Amazon, these documents are shared broadly and referenced during promotion cycles. I know a senior engineer who, during a Prime Day event, caused a major outage that took down the checkout flow for about 45 minutes. It was a huge deal. Luna: Yikes. That's the kind of thing that gets you fired at some companies. Lucas: At some, yeah. But at Amazon, he owned it immediately. He wrote a five-page CAP that traced the root cause to a race condition in a newly deployed caching layer. He didn't just fix the bug — he proposed a new deployment pipeline that would catch similar race conditions in staging before they hit production. That document got reviewed by multiple senior leaders. Luna: So he turned the worst moment of his career into a leadership signal. Lucas: That's exactly what happened. Within 18 months, he was promoted to principal engineer. The CAP was cited in his promotion packet as evidence of 'systemic thinking' and 'ownership at scale.' Luna: I've seen a similar pattern at Uber. A data engineer there once accidentally pushed a config change that caused surge pricing to malfunction for an entire weekend. Instead of getting defensive, he wrote a postmortem that not only explained the root cause but also designed a new config validation framework. That framework later became a company-wide standard. Lucas: That's the pattern. The mistake gives you a unique vantage point. You understand the system's weak points better than anyone else. And if you can articulate that understanding in writing, you become the go-to expert. It's almost counterintuitive — the bigger the failure, the bigger the potential opportunity. Luna: But only if you handle it right. Most people would just fix the bug and move on. Lucas: Right. The difference is intentionality. You have to step back and think: What is the one thing I learned from this that no one else has? Then document it in a way that shows leadership. That's what promotion committees look for — not perfection, but learning and impact. Luna: And it helps if you frame it in terms of systems, not blame. The best postmortems are blameless. Lucas: Absolutely. The postmortem should never point fingers at individuals. It should ask: What in our process allowed this to happen? And what process change reduces the risk going forward? That's the mindset that turns a failure into an asset. Luna: I want to break down the actual structure of one of these documents. What are the key sections? Lucas: Sure. First, a summary of the incident — what happened, when, impact. Then a root cause analysis — be specific, include timelines and code paths. Then the immediate fix, and after that, the corrective actions. Those are the most important. You want five to ten concrete, actionable items that prevent recurrence. And finally, a reflection on what you as an engineer learned. Luna: That last part is the one people skip. But it's actually the most valuable for a promotion packet. Lucas: Exactly. Because it shows self-awareness and growth. And if you can tie it to a business outcome — like 'this change improved uptime by two percent' — that's gold. Luna: What about engineers who don't work at a company with a formal postmortem culture? How do they apply this? Lucas: You create your own artifact. Write a one-page retrospective, share it with your manager and skip-level. Even if there's no formal process, you can still produce the document. It shows initiative. I've seen engineers at smaller startups use this exact approach to get promoted or get a better role. Luna: Let me push back a little. What if the mistake is truly your fault — like you wrote bad code that caused a data loss? Is it still recoverable? Lucas: It is, as long as you own it immediately and the company has a blameless culture. If the culture is punitive, it's harder. But even then, the document can be a tool for your next job. You can frame it as a learning experience in interviews. 'I made a mistake that cost the company X, and here's what I did to fix it and prevent it from happening again.' That's a powerful story. Luna: I've heard that Google's SRE team has a similar practice — they write postmortems for every incident, no matter how small. And those are shared across the company. Lucas: Yeah, Google is famous for that. The idea is that every incident is a learning opportunity for the entire organization. And the engineer who writes the postmortem gets visibility across teams. That's exactly how you build a reputation as someone who solves hard problems. Luna: One thing I'd add: timing matters. Don't write the postmortem in the heat of the moment. Wait until the system is stable again. Then take a day to reflect and write it carefully. Lucas: Great point. The best postmortems are written 48 to 72 hours after the incident, when emotions have cooled and you have a clearer picture. Rushing it leads to shallow analysis. Luna: If today's tech conversation gave you something usable, that's exactly what we hope for. And it's worth mentioning that a handful of listeners chip in monthly through buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, and that's literally what funds making this many of these episodes. Lucas: Yeah, we keep the show ad-free and focused on practical strategies, and that's possible because of that support. So thanks to anyone who's part of that. Luna: Alright, back to the topic. So we've established that a good postmortem can be a career rocket. But what about failures that aren't outages — like a project that gets cancelled? Lucas: That's a great question. A cancelled project can be even more powerful because it involves product decisions, not just technical ones. You can write a retrospective that analyzes why the project failed — was it a misalignment with user needs? Technical debt? Poor prioritization? That shows strategic thinking. Luna: And you can propose a better framework for future projects. That's the kind of thinking that gets you promoted to staff engineer. Lucas: Exactly. I remember an engineer at Microsoft who worked on a feature that got scrapped after six months. He wrote a detailed postmortem about the lack of customer validation early on. That document influenced how the entire org approached new features. He became known as the person who 'saves us from building the wrong thing.' Luna: That's a great reframe. Instead of 'I wasted six months,' it's 'I discovered a gap in our process.' Lucas: Precisely. And that narrative is something you can carry with you. Even if you leave the company, that story makes you a more compelling candidate. Hiring managers love candidates who can talk about failure with honesty and insight. Luna: Let's talk about the actual writing. How long should a postmortem be? Lucas: At Amazon, CAPs are typically two to five pages. But the key is clarity over length. Use bullet points, include timelines, and avoid jargon. The document should be readable by a non-technical manager. If they can understand it, it's good. Luna: And structure it like a story. Incident, discovery, root cause, fix, prevention, learning. That arc is compelling. Lucas: Yes. And the learning section is where you tie it back to your own growth. You might say, 'This incident taught me the importance of defensive coding practices, and I've since implemented a checklist for all new deployments.' That shows you've changed your behavior. Luna: One more thing — should you include metrics? Like 'this outage cost $50,000 in lost revenue'? Lucas: If you know the number, include it. But be careful not to overstate. If you're unsure, say 'estimated impact of approximately X.' Numbers make the document concrete, but they have to be defensible. Luna: Alright, so let's say an engineer has a recent incident. What's the first step they should take today? Lucas: Step one: write the postmortem. Don't wait for your manager to ask. Step two: share it with your team and ask for feedback. Step three: use it in your next performance review. And step four: if you're job hunting, refine it into a story you can tell in an interview. Luna: That's a concrete action plan. I think a lot of engineers will find this useful. Lucas: I hope so. Because the worst thing you can do with a failure is waste it. Every mistake is data — you just have to know how to read it.