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
Dec 9, 2020 • 1h 49min
Coaching: Ethan with Kristin in Ohio
As your career grows, you take on more responsibility which leads to leadership positions. As you think you have made it and you have achieved that manager role, new challenges emerge. While ideas are great, now you need a team to execute them. Hiring is not a simple process and getting it wrong can have significant consequences to team production and morale. Watch Ethan Evans, retired VP of Prime Gaming at Amazon; talk with returning guest Kristin about recruiting the best people for the job. In this one on one discussion, they will go over mentorship, recruiting, and how to be a great manager.
Dec 7, 2020 • 10min
Real Resume Review | Full Stack Software Developer
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.
Nov 30, 2020 • 11min
Real Resume Review | Finance Manager Entrepreneur
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.
Nov 19, 2020 • 7min
Real Resume Review: Military Background Software Security
Real resume review covering someone with military experience translating that to security work.
Nov 16, 2020 • 59min
How to get a job at Amazon Detailed Q&A
This video covers the top audience questions I was asked about how to get a job at Amazon or anywhere you choose. The video covers a full hour of detailed Q&A covering all aspects of successful application to one of the top tech companies. The advice here applies to any time you want to target a specific employer to get a job.
Nov 2, 2020 • 37min
How to get a job at Amazon (or any company)
Concrete, specific advice on how to successfully apply to Amazon or similar companies, to get noticed, and then to succeed at the Interview. Ethan Evans, former VP of Prime Gaming at Amazon, is asked how to get a job at Amazon more than any other question. In response, he has created this video to specifically answer that question.
Oct 26, 2020 • 6min
Real Resume Review | Community Outreach Specialist
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 conducted over 2,500 interviews and can tell you what recruiters are looking for and more importantly, what hiring managers want.
Oct 23, 2020 • 8min
Create a Bold Resume | Real Life Example
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.
Oct 21, 2020 • 1h 10min
Work Life Balance | Live From Vacation
A real informal discussion of how to balance work and life, recorded from the casual comfort of an oceanfront deck in Maui. Q&A about how to be a successful leader and still enjoy life. We all have basic questions of work, school, life and how all that tie together. There is this perception that big tech/big business just doesn’t have a work life balance. Watch Ethan Evans, VP of Twitch Prime at Amazon (recently retired, but an Amazon VP when this was filmed) discuss how to achieve a work life balance. There will always be work and you should focus on work at work. But make sure you take some time for yourself, enjoy your vacations, because you earned them.
Oct 14, 2020 • 9min
Real Resume Review | Graphic Designer
What does a good resume for an artist look like? We've done lots of reviews of hard skill resumes like engineers and finance. Now, look at a real student coming out into the world and wanting to avoid being a classic starving artist. 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 conducted over 2,500 interviews and can tell you what recruiters are looking for and more importantly, what hiring managers want.
