Amazon VP On Promotions, Getting Fired Twice, Working With Bezos | Ethan Evans

01/08/2025 53 min

Listen "Amazon VP On Promotions, Getting Fired Twice, Working With Bezos | Ethan Evans"

Episode Synopsis

Ethan Evans went from being fired twice because of poor soft skills to getting promoted to Vice President at Amazon with a team of over 800 engineers. I asked him about everything he learned along the way.We discussed:• Being fired for poor soft skills• What VP promotions look like• Working with Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy (current Amazon CEO)• VP performance reviews• Stack ranking, PIPs and how managers can fire anyone• Advice for his younger selfTimestamps:(00:00) Intro(01:01) Experience before Amazon(05:03) Getting fired twice & learnings(14:02) Joining Amazon(16:02) What VP promotions look like(26:03) Promotion failure story(29:14) Integrating Twitch into Amazon(33:48) Jeff Bezos vs Andy Jassy stories(36:53) VP performance reviews (41:10) Stack ranking & PIPs(46:11) A manager can fire anyone they want(50:45) Advice for his younger self(53:03) OutroWhere to find Ethan:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/• X/Twitter: https://x.com/EthanEvansVP• Newsletter: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BAdkBGjOIlccGLZ3jbLiAWhere to find Ryan:• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

More episodes of the podcast The Peterman Pod