Level Up with Ethan Evans (retired Amazon VP)

Level Up is your source for career growth solutions by retired Amazon Vice President, Ethan Evans. In my 15+ years at Amazon, I led global teams of 800+ and invented businesses such as Prime Video, Amazon Appstore, Merch by Amazon, Prime Gaming, and Twitch Commerce. I hold 70+ patents. Have reviewed 10,000+ resumes, conducted 2,500+ interviews, and made 1,000+ hires. I was an Amazon Bar Raiser and Bar Raiser Core Leader. And I helped advocate for and draft the Amazon Leadership Principle (LP) “Ownership” — the words, “They never say ‘that’s not my job.’” are mine. I've promoted 8 reports from Senior Manager (Amazon L7) to Director (Amazon L8), contributed to 25+ Director promotions, hired 10+ Directors internally and externally, and drove the promotion of 3 engineers to Principal. Of my former reports, 2 are current Amazon VPs (L10) and 5 are C-Suite outside Amazon. I retired from Amazon as a VP in September 2020. Before Amazon, I spent 12 years at 3 startups. Now I am building Level Up: Your source for career growth solutions & community. Subscribe to my newsletter for ongoing career advice and consider becoming a paid member to unlock access to exclusive events, career talks, and our private leadership community for networking: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/

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Episodes

Starting a New Job Well

Congratulations! You've got a new job. In this short four minute video I cover how to start that new job well. How to prepare in advance, have an immediate impact, build good relationships with coworkers, and start making your own suggestions at the right time. Get started right!

Sep 15, 2020•4 min

Which Business To Start Because Of The Pandemic

Millions of people around the world are without a job right now. It’s a terrible, very real situation. However, out of this pandemic businesses are changing. Restaurants converted to take out and family portions. Distilleries started to make hand sanitizer. Clothing companies retooled to start making face masks. There is no question that new businesses will be created as a direct result of Coronavirus. The question is, what are those business ideas and which ones will succeed. Watch Ethan Evans,...

Sep 14, 2020•34 min

Live Career Coaching - How to Own Your Career

One of the most important things to learn about work is that nobody cares about your career as much as you. If you are waiting for someone to make that first move, to reach out offering a helping hand to promotion, you are going to be disappointed. Don’t be afraid to reach out to co-workers and leadership and ask for feedback and how to improve. You need to own your career. Ethan Evans talks with a continuing professional coaching mentee about taking the initiative. In this 1 on 1 discussion, th...

Aug 29, 2020•2 hr 38 min

How To Maximize Time By Focusing on Your Strengths

There’s a popular saying: focus on your strengths not your weaknesses. But the problem is that your strengths receive little attention since you are already good in that area. The area that receives attention is your weaknesses. Your weakness is the area that your manager points out that need’s improvement, the area that doesn’t come naturally to you. Watch Ethan Evans, VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon and returning guest, Devin Nash, CMO of N3RDFUSION talk with Olympic Medalist John Coyle about uti...

Aug 22, 2020•2 hr 57 min

How To Find A Job And Build Your Network During A Pandemic

Yes, the world is experiencing a pandemic. However, companies are *still* hiring. In fact, with remote work becoming the new normal, it could be even easier now to find a job. Now the trick is to get YOUR information in front of decision makers and standing out from a slew of other candidates. Watch Ethan Evans, VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon; talk with returning guest, Devin Nash, CMO of N3RDFUSION about how to use networking to your advantage. Whether you are looking for a corporate job, looking...

Aug 15, 2020•3 hr 14 min

COVID-19: The Ultimate Leadership Test

The coronavirus pandemic has become a perfect test of different leadership responses. From business leaders to government officials, everyone was given the same challenge, problem, and timing. As with business operations, different leaders took different approaches to solving their problems. Some leaders shut everything down, others partially shut down, and other leaders took a more relaxed approach and did nothing. Regardless of their choices, a choice was made and a direction was taken. Though...

Aug 10, 2020•1 hr 13 min

The Benefits of Grad School - How to Leverage Your University

These "How to get a job" strategies are geared toward college students but the lessons can apply to anyone. Students manage classes, schedules, life, but at a certain point, will need to start thinking about next steps: How to land that dream job. Here’s a little secret: your university wants to help you get that dream job. So how can you effectively use your university to help you? Watch Ethan Evans, VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon, talk with Susan Timko, Director of Career Services at Carnegie Me...

Aug 05, 2020•2 hr 47 min

The Magic Loop: 5 Steps To Get Promoted Faster

You have been at your company for a while, you’re working really hard, but for some reason, you’re just not getting promoted. What are you doing wrong? Why do some people get promoted faster? Surprisingly, the key to getting promoted is not work harder, it’s about getting the right work done. Watch Ethan Evans, VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon, talk about The Magic Loop. The Magic Loop is 5 simple steps Ethan has developed over the last 25 years of management that you can implement now, which will g...

Jul 30, 2020•1 hr 8 min

What Does the Future Hold for Work From Home? How Can We Make it Great

It’s been months and many people with the ability to work from home are still operating remotely. To a lot of company’s surprise, production has increased. That's great, but there were also unforeseen issues: video meeting fatigue, isolation, remotely onboarding new hires, etc. As these new issues arise, they're addressed... but there is no "one size fits all" approach. What works for one team might not make sense for another. Despite all the challenges, working from home/remote is going to be a...

Jul 29, 2020•1 hr 12 min

Career Freedom - Work From Anywhere

Without a doubt, COVID-19 has changed the world, especially the workplace. With case numbers growing constantly, remote work / work from home is here to stay, at least for the foreseeable future. Well if you are working from home, does your home need to be in an expensive area? Watch Ethan Evans, VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon talk about the new opportunity of career freedom and what work from anywhere might look like. _______________________________________________________________________________...

Jul 28, 2020•1 hr 4 min

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