Retired Amazon VP: How Corporate Politics Work And How To Win | Ethan Evans

Ethan Evans is a former VP at Amazon has seen pretty much every possible type of corporate politics. Now that he's retired, he could share everything he'd seen including stories about empire building, hidden politics, reorgs, senior promos and dealing with bad managers.

🔸 The keyboard I'm building: kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose…

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:
• YouTube: youtu.be/6WaeGfLnRvc
• Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod…
• Transcript: developing.dev/p/amazon-vp-reveals-everything-…

𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀:
00:00 - Intro
2:33 - Empire Building
31:54 - Stealing scope
44:03 - Managing out via reorgs
51:01 - Bad managers and mutiny
01:01:43 - Political messaging
01:11:48 - Handling politically skilled operators
01:20:01 - Orgs trying to steal scope
01:30:26 - Handling difficult people from other orgs
01:36:19 - Handling weak managers
01:46:30 - Backchanneling
01:52:04 - Influence without authority
01:58:04 - Sexual harassment
02:00:49 - Skip overruling firing
02:05:39 - How to fire managers
02:11:31 - Leverage when people are getting fired
02:24:01 - How to grow past senior eng
02:43:01 - How to avoid politics
02:48:15 - Advice for younger self
02:49:51 - Outro

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗘𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻:

• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp
• X/Twitter: x.com/EthanEvansVP
• Newsletter: levelupwithethanevans.substack.com
• YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UC-BAdkBGjOIlccGLZ3jbLiA

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: developing.dev
• X/Twitter: x.com/ryanlpeterman
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman
• Threads: threads.com/@ryanlpeterman
• Instagram: instagram.com/ryanlpeterman
• TikTok: tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman