Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon)
Brought to you by Sidebar—Accelerate your career by surrounding yourself with extraordinary peers | Sprig—Build a product people love | Arcade Software—Create effortlessly beautiful demos in minutes — Ethan Evans is a writer, career coach, course instructor, and retired VP at Amazon. During his 15 years at Amazon, he helped invent Prime Video, Amazon Video, the Amazon Appstore, Prime Gaming (formerly Twitch Prime), and Twitch Commerce. Prior to Amazon, Ethan spent 12 years in technical leadership roles at several East Coast startups. He writes a newsletter, Level Up, which publishes candid career advice and has a growing community of ambitious professionals to connect with. Ethan also offers a range of Leadership Development Courses via live online classes and on-demand courses. In this episode, we discuss:
Some takeaways:
Listen now on Apple, Spotify, Overcast, and YouTube. Find the transcript for this episode and all past episodes at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/episodes/. Today’s transcript will be live by 8 a.m. PT. Where to find Ethan Evans: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/ • Substack: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Ethan’s background (04:25) The Magic Loop (08:31) The goal of the Magic Loop (10:59) Clarifications on the framework (12:46) Success stories (17:22) The importance and effectiveness of the Magic Loop (19:01) A quick summary of the steps in the Magic Loop (21:46) What if you’re not pursuing a promotion? (23:09) How to break out of a career plateau (28:52) How to become systematically inventive (36:04) Interview advice and how to stand out (40:43) A story of failing Jeff Bezos (50:31) Lessons learned from that failure (57:30) What Ethan would have done differently (01:00:35) Amazon’s leadership principles (01:08:52) Contrarian corner: Returning to the office vs. staying remote (01:10:39) Contrarian corner: Doing business on a handshake (01:11:52) Lightning round Referenced: • The Magic Loop: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-magic-loop • SDE levels: https://www.masaischool.com/blog/understanding-sde-levels-sde-1-vs-sde-2-vs-sde-3-differences/ • What Got You Here Won’t Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful: https://www.amazon.com/What-Got-Here-Wont-There/dp/1401301304 • Thomas Edison’s quote: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thomas_a_edison_109928 • Jeff Bezos: Amazon and Blue Origin | Lex Fridman Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWqzZ3I2cY • Unpacking Amazon’s unique ways of working | Bill Carr (author of Working Backwards): https://www.lennyspodcast.com/unpacking-amazons-unique-ways-of-working-bill-carr-author-of-working-backwards/ • Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Backwards-Insights-Stories-Secrets/dp/1250267595 • Jeff Wilke on X: https://twitter.com/jeffawilke • Andy Jassy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-jassy-8b1615/ • Werner Vogels on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wernervogels/ • Amazon’s Silk browser explained: https://www.androidpolice.com/amazon-silk-browser-explainer/ • Chickens and pigs: https://www.scrum.org/resources/chickens-and-pigs • 58% of tech employees experience imposter syndrome. Here’s how to overcome it: https://medium.com/wearefutureworks/58-of-tech-employees-experience-imposter-syndrome-heres-how-to-overcome-it-78172d8a2258 • Jeff Bezos to exec after product totally flopped: ‘You can’t, for one minute, feel bad’: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/22/jeff-bezos-why-you-cant-feel-bad-about-failure.html • Amazon’s leadership principles: https://www.amazon.jobs/content/en/our-workplace/leadership-principles • Sam Altman on X: https://twitter.com/sama • Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work: https://www.amazon.com/Decisive-Make-Better-Choices-Life/dp/0307956393 • Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box: https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Self-Deception-Getting-Out-Box/dp/1523097809 • The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: A Guide to Wealth and Happiness: https://www.amazon.com/Almanack-Naval-Ravikant-Wealth-Happiness/dp/1544514212/ • Angel list: https://venture.angellist.com/naval/syndicate • Naval Ravikant on X: https://twitter.com/naval • 1923 on Paramount+: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/1923/ • Yellowstone on Paramount+: https://www.paramountnetwork.com/shows/yellowstone • Chuckit! dog toys: https://www.chuckit-toys.co.uk/ • Luke 12:48: https://law.utk.edu/2016/05/10/to-whom-much-is-given-much-will-be-required • The Challenger space shuttle disaster: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster • Ethan’s popular course on Maven: https://maven.com/ethan-evans/break-through-to-executive Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. You're currently a free subscriber to Lenny's Newsletter. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. |
Older messages
How to be more innovative | Sam Schillace (Microsoft deputy CTO, creator of Google Docs)
Friday, January 12, 2024
Listen now (88 mins) | Brought to you by Teal—Your personal career growth platform | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security | Ahrefs—Improve your website's SEO for free — Sam Schillace is
What to do if your product isn’t taking off
Tuesday, January 9, 2024
Seven steps you can take today to try to turn things around
The engineering mindset | Will Larson (Carta, Stripe, Uber, Calm, Digg)
Sunday, January 7, 2024
Listen now (77 mins) | Brought to you by DX—A platform for measuring and improving developer productivity | OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security. — Will
The UX Research reckoning is here | Judd Antin (Airbnb, Meta)
Thursday, January 4, 2024
Listen now (75 mins) | Brought to you by Teal—Your personal career growth platform | Vanta—Automate compliance. Simplify security | Ahrefs—Improve your website's SEO for free — Judd Antin has spent
Inspiration for the year ahead
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Powerful life mottos shared by my podcast guests
You Might Also Like
Broken engine?
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Hey friends, I'm back from my two-week trip to the US. I've been meaning to write you an update about my experiences in the podcast industry, hanging out with my co-founder in Chicago, and
Hunch
Saturday, September 7, 2024
A note app for product people to help with the discovery process BetaList BetaList Daily Hunch A note app for product people to help with the discovery process Too much email in your life? Switch to
💄 Building a million-dollar beauty brand
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Alicia Scott's inspiring story Hey Friend , Does it ever feel like your entrepreneurial dreams are just out of reach? Maybe you feel like the problem you're solving is too niche. Or the market
3+ Years of daily posting on X: Top Lessons
Saturday, September 7, 2024
+ DNA School Invite
What’s 🔥 in Enterprise IT/VC #410
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Speed mode + also, is the great unbundling of SaaS powered by agentic workflows? ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
🗞 What's New: Launch tips from Product Hunt's Head of Growth
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Also: Increasing your luck as a founder!
🚀 BlackSky To Reverse Split
Saturday, September 7, 2024
Plus Lynk Global delists from the Nasdaq, $ASTS mixed shelf offering, $PL and $SATX earnings, and more! The latest space investing news and updates. View this email in your browser The Space Scoop Week
my crazy idea…
Friday, September 6, 2024
Read time: 1 min. 18 sec. Today I want to tell you about something I've been working on. And to be honest… it might be the best thing I've ever built. Warning: Do not read this unless you'
Issue #125: Building $1K-$10K MRR Micro SaaS Products around Client Onboarding, AI Agent for online shopping, AI-b…
Friday, September 6, 2024
Build Profitable SaaS products!! ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏
How to write a blog post (according to the Buffer Content team)
Friday, September 6, 2024
Plus tips, news & Buffer updates for your social media journey ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏