Our WV Coding Club guest speaker at a recent meeting was Seth Theeke, Software Development Manager at Amazon.
Seth is a native of Morgantown, WV. Growing up he got involved in playing soccer and coding was not something he was involved in until college. He was good at math, but didn’t touch coding until he settled on a course of study in college. Seth attended West Virginia University (WVU) and earned a Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering with a Minor in Computer Science
He started his coding career working with SQL queries for reporting needs at WVU. Then Seth earned an internship at Dominion Energy, doing Database administration. After, he had an opportunity for an internship at Leidos in Morgantown.
Seth then got a career start at Leidos as a Junior Software Engineer, then became a Lead Software Engineer. He shared he was able to travel to Australia to present some of their work.
He then moved on to Amazon as Software Engineer and now is Software Development Manager for part of Amazon Freight. He has a team of 6-10 software engineers from all over.
Seth currently lives in Nashville, TN where Amazon hopes to hire up to 5,000 Amazon employees.
He continues to stay involved in Soccer and enjoys the area. With Covid currently still impacting operations, Seth can work from home, but goes into the office for his work. Seth works with Product Managers and determines what is feasible within a given timeframe, planning out work into the future. Part of his responsibility is to make sure that projects are moving forward smoothly and provided with support as needed. Seth shared that their division operates in the US and Europe, but Amazon is a worldwide company.
Seth shared that there is still a gender gap in his type of work, and in general throughout the tech industry, but they are working to fill that gap. Amazon's recruiting team does recruiting around the country and world, but he is happy to pass along connections in West Virginia for potential employees.
Seth's advice, "Dive in! Read, get experience outside of traditional education."
Seth recommended some books and will share his list with the WV Coding Club:
Cracking the Coding Interview
The Clean Coder
Any books by Robert “Bob” Martin
Seth also shared that once you’re employed at Amazon, there are many opportunities within Amazon. Staying at Amazon is a win/win for the company and employee. Seth actually did shift from his start at Amazon Fulfillment Technology. His Manager transferred to Amazon Freight and he joined his manager there.
Dan McElroy, President of the WV Coding Club said, "Seth is another West Virginian who has a great career thanks to his coding education that he gained here in West Virginia."
Thank you Seth for taking time to share your story, experiences and advice to our WV Coding Club students.