Level Up with Ethan Evans (retired Amazon VP) - podcast cover

Level Up with Ethan Evans (retired Amazon VP)

The EZ Coachwww.ethanevans.com
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/

Episodes

Real Resume Review, Before & After | Project Manager

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Apr 07, 202110 min

Real Resume Review | College Student

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Apr 05, 202111 min

New Year’s Resolutions | Live from Hawaii

We’ve all made New Year’s Resolutions and most likely they have been broken. It starts with good intentions but often times we get disappointed that our resolution was not completed. Instead of resolutions, why not start with just setting goals. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about New Year’s Resolutions live from Hawaii. Ethan will discuss the beginning of his Amazon career and how over the 15 years at Amazon he achieved his goals. Now, post Amazon, Ethan will ...

Apr 02, 202133 min

Real LinkedIn Review | Pharma Industry & More

What does the perfect LinkedIn profile look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip: LinkedIn is not the same as your resume. For your resume, you are focusing on high level job details, whereas LinkedIn has space for you to give a lot more information. Similar to a resume this information should be focused on your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and the result. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great LinkedIn profile. Learn...

Mar 31, 202110 min

Winning the Career Game | Work-Life Balance, Does It Exist?

Most of us need to work. We have all heard of work life balance but does that exist and if so, how do we achieve this? Seems like such a simple concept but when in the moment of work and deadlines we often find ourselves living to work. Just as in video games, you know when a gamer becomes completely focused on the game; the same thing can happen in life, the difference being the game (focus) is now your career. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans emphasize how video game...

Mar 29, 20211 hr 29 min

Real Resume Review | Software Engineer Intern

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Mar 26, 202113 min

Real LinkedIn Review | Project Manager & More

What does the perfect LinkedIn profile look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip: LinkedIn is not the same as your resume. For your resume, you are focusing on high level job details, whereas LinkedIn has space for you to give a lot more information. Similar to a resume this information should be focused on your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and the result. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great LinkedIn profile. Learn...

Mar 25, 20216 min

Real Resume Review | Pharmaceutical Industry

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Mar 19, 202110 min

Real Resume Review | Technical Product Manager (TPM)

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Mar 17, 202115 min

How To Pitch Your Business Idea | Enkidu

What makes the perfect business pitch? Is it the idea, the market size, the competition? These questions get asked time and time again without getting clear direction on how to answer them. If you want to learn what makes a great startup pitch and what investors are looking for then this video is for you. Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon and two special guests, give honest feedback to actual startup pitches. They will give helpful hints and techniques on how to present thei...

Mar 15, 202137 min

How To Pitch Your Business Idea | Robot Service

What makes the perfect business pitch? Is it the idea, the market size, the competition? These questions get asked time and time again without getting clear direction on how to answer them. If you want to learn what makes a great startup pitch and what investors are looking for then this video is for you. Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon and two special guests, give honest feedback to actual startup pitches. They will give helpful hints and techniques on how to present thei...

Mar 12, 202137 min

How To Pitch Your Business Idea | Water Taxi's

What makes the perfect business pitch? Is it the idea, the market size, the competition? These questions get asked time and time again without getting clear direction on how to answer them. If you want to learn what makes a great startup pitch and what investors are looking for then this video is for you. Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon and two special guests, give honest feedback to actual startup pitches. They will give helpful hints and techniques on how to present thei...

Mar 10, 202157 min

How To Pitch Your Business Idea | Kappa Anchor

What makes the perfect business pitch? Is it the idea, the market size, the competition? These questions get asked time and time again without getting clear direction on how to answer them. If you want to learn what makes a great startup pitch and what investors are looking for then this video is for you. Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon and two special guests, give honest feedback to actual startup pitches. They will give helpful hints and techniques on how to present thei...

Mar 08, 202147 min

How To Plan A Career Change with special guest Matt McCloskey

Most people will change careers at least once in their lives. Think about that for a moment; at least one time in your life, you will change careers to something new. Now the question is, where do you even start? Are you looking for a slight career pivot or maybe a major career transition into a new field or industry. Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon; talk with returning special guest Matt McCloskey, former VP of Commerce at Twitch, currently with Toys “R” Us Canada. Matt h...

Mar 04, 20212 hr 4 min

How Amazon Builds High Performing Teams

Amazon is one of the largest and most complex companies to work for. But Amazon didn’t start out that way. Learn how Amazon structures their teams, why they do it that way and most importantly, how can you benefit. Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon; chat with returning guest Stefan Haney, former Director of Product Management at Amazon and current Managing Principal at Vantage International. Ethan and Stefan will dissect team structure and use their real-world experiences at...

Feb 26, 20212 hr 8 min

Real Resume Review | Data Analyst

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Feb 24, 202121 min

New Business Idea Pitch Example | How to Fix Fake News

Politics and Fake News, two things that somehow became linked together. What is the root cause on having such a divide that people feel it is ok to riot? Why do people believe one viewpoint and then completely ignore anything that doesn’t reinforce that view? What happened to critical thinking? Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon; discuss Fake News, politics, and give a business pitch on how to solve these issues. Listen to Ethan explore some of the hottest news topics and tou...

Feb 22, 202124 min

Real Resume Review | Computer Science

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Feb 18, 202113 min

Extreme Ownership Fails | How Leaders Should Act

Ownership comes in many forms. If you have a job, then you own your job. Leaders are owners. What do you do when you make a mistake or have failed? You take ownership and don’t pass the blame on others such as your colleagues, vendors or even worse the customer. Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon; discuss Extreme Ownership Fails. Ethan shows real world examples of how companies failed and how they dug themselves into a deeper hole. Failure happens and it’s how you handle that...

Feb 17, 202122 min

Real Resume Review | Biomedical Engineer

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Feb 12, 20219 min

Real Resume Review | Software Engineer

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Feb 10, 20217 min

Venture Capital | Funding Your Startup

Ever wonder what goes into launching a startup? How much funding, paperwork, and heartache goes into these startups that make them so successful? When should you start looking at funding for your start up? Do you use angel investors, friends, family? If you have dreamed about working for or starting your own startup, you won’t want to miss these lessons. Watch Ethan Evans, former VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon; talk with Phil Compton, CFO at Locomotion and serial entrepreneur. Phil has raised doze...

Feb 08, 20212 hr 26 min

Hard Questions About Leadership Careers

In this video one of Ethan's protégés asks him three hard questions she is facing as a growing leader: (1) How do I build a strong team in a remote-work world, (2) How to know when you are ready to take on more, (3) How to deal with the increasing stress of her responsibilities. Ethan and Kristin discuss real world options to handle these tough problems. See what a coaching relationship looks like from the inside and learn how to handle these challenges.

Feb 05, 20212 hr 47 min

Real Resume Review | Engineering Project Manager

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Feb 03, 202110 min

Real Resume Review | ASU Chemical Engineering student

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Feb 01, 20219 min

Real Resume Review | New College Graduate, Finance Degree

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Jan 29, 20218 min

Real Resume Review | Entry Level, Software Development Engineer

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Jan 27, 20218 min

The Truth About Teaching Yourself

The modern world requires that you learn all through your life to keep up. Most of us grew up being "taught" in schools and universities. Once you are in the work world, this structured support vanishes. In this show Ethan Evans, retired VP from Amazon, discusses life long learning. How to understand the ways you learn best so that you can fit in necessary learning alongside work, family, and fun. Different people learn in different ways. By learning your way, it will go faster and be a pleasure...

Jan 25, 20211 hr 3 min

Real Resume Review/Pharmacist

What does the perfect resume look like? What works and what doesn’t? Here’s a tip, there is no one size fits all approach. Resumes are supposed to tell your accomplishments: what you did, how you did it and what was the result. But everyone has different skills, different job history, and different problems they solved. As a former VP of Amazon (Newly Retired), watch Ethan Evans talk about what makes a great resume. Learn simple changes that you can implement now that could get you more intervie...

Jan 22, 202114 min

Path to Product Management with Stefan Haney

What makes a great Product Manager and how to become one, with special guest Stefan Haney. Stefan spent over a decade leading product for some of Amazon's most iconic and valuable properties, including the "detail page," the main page where you complete a purchase. Ethan and Stefan talk about the traits of a good product manager, the books they rely on to train product managers, and the skills and education for the position.

Jan 21, 20212 hr 35 min