Ethan Evans, a former Vice President at Amazon, is a prominent voice in career development and leadership, sharing a wealth of knowledge from his extensive experience.

On Career Ownership and Growth

  1. "You need to own your own career. If I owned your career, it would be called my career, and I already have one." [1]
  2. "Hope is not a strategy. If I had it to do over again I would seek out a diverse set of career mentors much earlier." [1]
  3. "I think many people are like me - they simply take a job and work hard, hoping for good results." [1]
  4. "I worked extremely hard and missed out on some other things in life because I felt I had to get top marks at every turn to keep moving forward. I think I could have taken more time to enjoy life along the way and still basically had the same success." [1]
  5. "The most fundamental thing that sets a top performer apart is relentless self-improvement." [2]
  6. "Reading (or listening on Audible) is your best secret tool for growing your career." [2]
  7. "While no one book will instantly transform your career, the weight of continual investment in yourself will make all the difference over the arc of a career." [2]
  8. "I would seek mentorship and coaching much earlier... I believe I could have gone much further, much faster, with better guidance." [1]
  9. "A manager's job is to give employees opportunity and guidance." [1]
  10. "I realized I had to ask my managers for what I wanted." [1]

The "Magic Loop" for Career Advancement

Ethan Evans champions a five-step framework called the "Magic Loop" to accelerate career growth:

  1. Step 1: Do your job well. "It's not possible to really grow your career if you're not considered at least performing at a solid level." [3][4]
  2. Step 2: Ask your boss how you can help. "Very few people go and ask their manager what can I do to help you what do you need and so just asking sets you apart." [3][4]
  3. Step 3: Whatever they say, do it. This builds trust and demonstrates your commitment. [3][4]
  4. Step 4: Suggest ways to help that align with your goals. "This is where you start to try to bring your two sets of aims together." [3]
  5. Step 5: Repeat the loop. This process builds a collaborative and mutually beneficial relationship with your manager. [5][6]

On Leadership and Management

  1. "Management can be a lonely job because you feel like you're responsible for everything... so having an ally is just a huge weight off people's shoulders." [3]
  2. "Going from IC [Individual Contributor] to Manager is a new career—10x in influence." [6]
  3. "I want all the directors I can have because the better my team is the easier my job is. So I want high performers." [7]
  4. On promoting team members: "You help your manager, your manager helps you, and they want you to grow." [7]
  5. When dealing with difficult feedback: "If you go into one of these discussions full of emotion... all the other person is going to react to is your emotion." [8]
  6. On giving feedback: "Humans are incredible emotion detectors. And as soon as you bring your emotion into the room, they're going to sense that emotion and everything they say and do is going to be about how they're responding to your emotion." [8]
  7. "What people are interested in from Amazon is how to scale." [9]
  8. "A lot of what I bring is the mental model. How do you always think about scale? How do you always start with the customer?" [9]
  9. "They never say 'that's not my job.'" (Ethan's contribution to Amazon's "Ownership" Leadership Principle). [10]
  10. On why bad managers can be good for you: They can teach you what not to do and force you to take ownership of your career. [6]

On Failure and Resilience

  1. "Recovering from failure is easier than you think. Own the mistake, learn from it, and work relentlessly to regain trust." [5]
  2. After a significant failure, Evans learned a new phrase: "Fear The New York Times headline." [11]
  3. On handling a public failure: "Ethan immediately took responsibility for the failure which highlights the importance of owning the mistakes." [11]
  4. "Deflecting the issue would only confuse and delay the resolution. Acknowledging the issue and committing to finding a solution is crucial in crisis management." [11]
  5. "Despite facing harsh criticism from Jeff Bezos and other executives, Ethan remained resilient and used the experience as an opportunity for growth." [11]
  6. On being laid off: "You want to talk about what you learned and how that's educated you on what you're looking for." [12]
  7. "Bouncing back from failure is simpler than you imagine. Acknowledge the error, gain knowledge from it, and put in continuous effort to rebuild trust." [6]

On Interviews and Hiring

  1. "Nail your interviews with a polished appearance and genuine enthusiasm." [5]
  2. "Emphasize the impact and results of your work instead of just listing tasks to stand out positively." [5]
  3. When asked about a conflict: "How you manage conflict is a legitimate interview question and so the first thing is you can anticipate this question and know your story." [12]
  4. On the "biggest weakness" question: "Avoid fake weaknesses (e.g., 'I work too hard')—be genuine and show self-awareness." [12]
  5. "If you get hit with one of these hard questions or you struggle in one part of one interview, it's very difficult but try not to let that throw off the rest of your day." [12]
  6. Regarding resume gaps: "You want to be able to say what you've been doing with that time." [12]

On Innovation and Ideas

  1. "Invention is the easy part. The expression and execution of an idea is much more difficult." [5]
  2. "What matters is bringing an idea to life and iterating it over and over again, so that its value to users increases over time." [5]
  3. "How to Get Your Ideas Heard: ...how to build a track record of delivery, how to validate your idea, the importance of having a plan to implement the idea..." [13]

General Wisdom and Mindset

  1. "Being right is good, but being quick is necessary." [5]
  2. "True leaders should actively work to challenge their assumptions." [5]
  3. "Keeping an open mind and demonstrating the ability to change your beliefs broadens your perspective, leading to faster and better decision-making." [5]
  4. "I feel like that's a tragedy to spend a huge part of your life unhappy with a major part of your life." [9]
  5. "I was very critical of other leaders when I believed they were wrong... In these cases, I was only seeing one aspect of a peer leader's performance." [1]
  6. On being outspoken: "This trait has been an asset in my career when I have been right, but not when I have been wrong." [1]
  7. "It is true that a good manager would do all those things... but not all managers are good and some of them need some help." [3]
  8. On taking initiative: "The point of this Loop is it's in your control." [3]
  9. "You can be sort of upset that your manager isn't perfect but move on from that and take control of your own situation." [3]

Sources:

Learn more:

  1. Interview with Ethan Evans, former Amazon VP and an executive coach - Mirror into executive life, path to VP, career advice, and more - Rougher drafts by Archie
  2. Book List - Ethan Evans
  3. Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) - YouTube
  4. 5 Steps to Get Unstuck in Your Career | Ethan Evans (Retired VP Amazon)
  5. Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon) - Lenny's Newsletter
  6. Amazon: How I quickly rose to VP (Ethan Evans) - AI First Designer
  7. Amazon VP On Promotions, Getting Fired Twice, Working With Bezos | Ethan Evans
  8. How to Say You Stink…Nicely - YouTube
  9. Lessons from Amazon for Growing as a Leader (Ethan Evans in conversation with Sohrab Salimi) - YouTube
  10. Ep 98: Leadership Lessons From Amazon: An Interview with Former Amazon VP Ethan Evans - Kadima Careers
  11. Navigating Setbacks: Ethan Evans' Lessons in Crisis Management | by Shweta Shrestha
  12. Interview FAQs- How to Answer the Hardest Interview Questions - YouTube
  13. Career Talks Catalog Page
  14. Ethan Evans | Retired Amazon VP, Coach, Teacher and Author