Level Up with Ethan Evans (retired Amazon VP)
The EZ Coach
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/
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
Mentioned books
Mar 12, 2021 • 37min
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 their ideas in the most meaningful way so that their target audience will be more receptive. With this video, you can refine your pitch to draw the attention of investors and VCs and get your idea funded!
Mar 10, 2021 • 57min
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 their ideas in the most meaningful way so that their target audience will be more receptive. With this video, you can refine your pitch to draw the attention of investors and VCs and get your idea funded!
Mar 8, 2021 • 47min
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 their ideas in the most meaningful way so that their target audience will be more receptive. With this video, you can
Mar 4, 2021 • 2h 4min
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 has worked in over five different disciplines in three different industries. Ethan and Matt will discuss simple career planning to help guide you through your career and what steps to take in order to implement a change.
Feb 26, 2021 • 2h 8min
How Amazon Builds High Performing Teams
Learn how Amazon structures their teams, the growth of different teams within the company, and the importance of team structure and having the right people. Discover the significance of ownership and boundaries in building high-performing teams, the challenge of improving page load time on Amazon's website, and the importance of self-service in scaling a team. Explore the value of leaders who actively teach and share knowledge, balancing speed and quality in software development, and the importance of enjoying your work. Dive into personal experiences, rock climbing, a total eclipse, and living in Pittsburgh.
Feb 24, 2021 • 21min
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 interviews and job offers. Over the years Ethan has reviewed over 2,500 resumes and can tell you what recruiters are looking for and more importantly, what hiring managers want.
Feb 22, 2021 • 24min
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 touch down on politics – a topic rarely discussed on his streams.
Feb 18, 2021 • 13min
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 interviews and job offers. Over the years Ethan has reviewed over 2,500 resumes and can tell you what recruiters are looking for and more importantly, what hiring managers want.
Feb 17, 2021 • 22min
Extreme Ownership Fails | How Leaders Should Act
Ownership and responsibility in leadership, analyzing company failures, issues with online store blamed on e-commerce vendor, detrimental effects of shifting blame, importance of taking ownership, handling criticism, effective communication, and resolving conflicts.
Feb 12, 2021 • 9min
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 interviews and job offers. Over the years Ethan has reviewed over 2,500 resumes and can tell you what recruiters are looking for and more importantly, what hiring managers want.
