Dan Ford

Principal Software Developer
Former Principal SDE @ AWS with 15+ years experience as a software engineer, interviewer, and mentor
United States of America 5.0 (32 reviews) Active today Usually responds in a day or two
Save
Send message

Services

$290 / month

The most popular way to get mentored, let's work towards your goals!

2 calls per month (55min/call)

Unlimited Q&A via chat

Expect responses in 2 days

Hands-on support

Book an intro call
1 active application!
Only 1 spot left!
Book now
View all sessions

Free intro call

No credit card required

About

Hi there! 👋

My name is Dan, and I'm a freelance software engineer, technology consultant, and coach/mentor based in Seattle, Washington, USA.

I spent 15 years working as a professional software engineer (most of it for Amazon and AWS, up to the Principal / Staff level), then in 2022 I decided to strike out on my own with a one-man consulting firm. In addition to my mentoring/coaching, I work part-time on other software projects that interest me, and the rest of the time is spent with my family (super cool wife and two awesome kids!) and hobbies.

During my time at Amazon/AWS, I participated in over 1,000 hiring panels as a "Bar Raiser". This special role meant that not only was I interviewing each candidate, but I did all the pre-interview planning (topics for each interviewer to cover), led the hiring panel discussion, guided the group to a hire/no-hire decision, and ultimately I could "veto" a candidate if I felt they were not right for Amazon in the long-term.

As a Bar Raiser, I also conducted "behavioral interviews" in addition to technical interviews within my own expertise (software engineering), meaning I was talking to each candidate, diving into their past experience, and evaluating how well they fit Amazon's "leadership principles" in a broad way. This meant I interviewed a broad range of candidates in addition to SDEs, such as SDE-Ts, QA Engineers, Technical Program Managers, Engineering Managers, Product Managers, and many others, from entry-level up to Principal / Staff (L4-L7).

I now leverage this unique experience to do a lot of "interview coaching" on the other side of the hiring desk, helping candidates to prepare for technical and behavioral interviews.

I offer both monthly mentorships as well as one-off sessions, and I'm happy to do whichever one fits your needs best.

Feel free to send me an inquiry if you have any questions!


What mentees say

Raymond

Raymond

5 out of 5 stars

I've had mentoring sessions with Dan on several occasions. His advice is always very insightful and he is generous with time. It's nice to be able to get an educated second opinion from an outside perspective.

Renee

Renee

5 out of 5 stars

Standard Plan · 
5 months

Dan is really thoughtful, friendly and professional. Highly recommend!

Ladan

Ladan

5 out of 5 stars

Pro Plan · 
1 month

Dan helped me a lot to be prepared for my coding interviews. He provided very good sample questions and helped me with their solutions. He also spent times to prepare me clean and correct algorithms when I encountered difficulty in finding a simple and right solutions. He is a very nice person and he is very patient which I found it helpful in helping me to proceed with my goals.

Ladan wrote 1 more review for the same mentorship
Ladan

Ladan

5 out of 5 stars

Dan helped me a lot to prepare for coding interviews. He provided lots of sample coding questions which helped me get prepared for my coding interviews as soon as possible. He spent lots of times to provide correct and clean coding solutions when I had difficulty to find a simple and clean solutions for some of the algorithm problems.

Load more reviews


This is how real progress happens

Mentees who work with a mentor for 3+ months reach their goals 2x faster than those going it alone. Long-term mentorship means fewer false starts, more focused sessions, and support that builds week after week.

  • In the top 1% of all mentors on MentorCruise
  • Over 46 mentees helped
  • 32 verified reviews, rated 5.0 out of 5
Start your mentorship

Similar mentors