On March 8 (Friday), Jason Yoong will have a fireside chat and Q&A with Irina Stanescu (Engineer Leader & Coach; LinkedIn Top Voice; ex-Google; ex-Uber) on “How to Influence Without Authority”. We will discuss building social capital, how to disagree with a senior leader, identifying cross-functional team incentive structures, navigating difficult stakeholders, and more.
The live event and video recording are exclusive to community members.
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Layoffs, Career Progression, Working with Jeff Bezos: Podcast with Rajdeep Saha
Jeff Bezos had three questions he used to evaluate potential new projects. I discuss them as well as avoiding layoffs, career growth, networking, and high productivity with Rajdeep Saha on his Cloud With Raj YouTube channel.
The three questions Jeff Bezos asked are:
Is it real?
Is it worth it?
Can we win?
Is it real means, yes, cool proposal, but how much of it is currently science fiction Can what you describe really be made practical for use today?
Is it worth it means, great, how many people will buy this and what will they pay? Is this a big market?
Can we win means, is Amazon the right company for this? Are there entrenched competitors who are already well-established in the market?
As an example, Jeff was always being asked to enter the Financial sector. Amazon banks, brokerages, credit programs, and more. But he felt that this sector is both highly regulated, making it complex, and served by dozens of good banks and brokerages. He didn't feel that Amazon could reasonably disrupt all these companies.
If you like the option to watch me on YouTube and podcasts, drop a like or a comment. I get a lot of requests to appear on podcasts and I can do more if you like them as another way to get "long-form" advice.
Here is the breakdown of where each topic appears in my discussion with Raj:
00:00 Who is Ethan Evans?
02:57 Skills ICs should have
06:42 Meaningfully Grow Your Network
11:55 Reducing Chances of getting Laid Off
16:13 Working with Jeff Bezos
23:14 Interacting with Elon Musk
28:24 How to Strategize Career Progression
38:21 Manage Your Energy, Not Time
41:51 Connecting with Ethan and Re:Invent Swag
I want to thank Raj for his kind invitation to be on his show. It was a lot of fun to connect with another Amazonian out speaking to the world about careers and technology. He is a great host and he did an excellent job editing this down to a quick watch packed with information.
Raj also has a great line on “walking away” (head nod to The Lord of the Rings):
“Mordor is inside us, you have to face it and chuck the ring.”
Additional ideas worth considering from my LinkedIn audience:
The same three Jeff Bezos questions apply to many things such as taking up a new assignment or applying for a job.
Dani McKenzie asked: “So, if banks were a no go because they are highly regulated, why do you think there’s the big bet with pharma and medical care?”
Ethan’s response: I know Jeff avoided Healthcare for a long time exactly because of the regulation. But ultimately (unlike Finance) he decided that the level of mess in that space had to be addressed. Also, I know Jeff is not thought of as a philanthropist. His model, such as it is, is to build a business in an area not to give money. Given this, I often think of Amazon's work there as a bit like the Climate Pledge stuff - Jeff trying to do good but through business, not straight donation.
Another reader asked what are ways to improve writing skills. The answer? Practice. Writing daily on LinkedIn for three years has made me a much better writer. 1000 posts trying to succinctly convey good information.
