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

Former Amazon VP Ethan Evans shares insights on navigating corporate politics, empire building, reorgs, and dealing with bad managers.

Ethan Evans is a former VP at Amazon has seen 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-simple-ergono… 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀: • Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/6GKb7759T5hehGQ8ppVYMR • Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835 • Transcript: developing.dev/p/amazon-vp-reveals-everything-hes 𝗧𝗶𝗺𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗺𝗽𝘀: 00:00 - Intro 02:33 - 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