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

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 self

Timestamps:
(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) Outro

Where 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-BAdkBGjOIlccGLZ3jbLiA

Where 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/