Lenny's Podcast: Product | Career | Growth

Taking control of your career | Ethan Evans (Amazon)

January 14, 2024

AI Summary

5 min read

Ethan Evans, a former Amazon VP who helped launch Prime Video and other major initiatives, outlines actionable strategies for career growth based on his 15 years at Amazon and executive coaching. He emphasizes taking control through partnerships with managers, systematic invention, and recovery from setbacks.

The Magic Loop

Evans describes a repeatable five-step process to advance careers, even under average managers: First, perform your current job solidly to avoid criticism. Second, ask your manager how you can help, which is rare and builds alliance. Third, do what they request, even unglamorous tasks. Fourth, propose work that aids their needs while advancing your goal, like skill-building or promotion—managers reciprocate help due to human psychology of mutual support. Fifth, repeat to foster trust. This works because it shifts oppositional dynamics to partnership, identifies promotion gaps explicitly, and stays in your control; examples include an entry-level worker gaining raises and promotions, and an engineer rising to lead 800 people over eight years. It suits most levels but evolves to proactive initiative at senior stages, assuming a non-exploitative boss.

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What you'll learn

1 *(00:01:14) **Intro to The Magic Loop for career growth***
2 *(00:06:01) **Magic Loop steps and mechanics***
3 *(00:11:52) **Magic Loop results, adaptations, and levels***
4 *(00:23:09) **Breaking through at senior manager to director/VP***
5 *(00:28:47) **Systematic invention as leadership skill***
6 *(00:36:06) **Interviewing and standing out**
7 *(00:41:00) **Recovering from major failure (Appstore launch with Bezos)**

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Show Notes

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:

• The Magic Loop framework: a five-step process to grow your career

• A handful of reasons why people get stuck in their career growth

• Advice on how to break out of a career plateau

• How to cultivate inventiveness in your work

• How to stand out in interviews

• A personal story of failing Jeff Bezos and lessons learned

• Contrarian opinions on the return-to-office movement and doing business on a handshake

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Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/taking-control-of-your-career-ethan

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Where to find Ethan Evans:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/

• Substack: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/

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Where to find Lenny:

• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com

• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/

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