"You're doing this all wrong" - Amazon SVP
How to get promotion advocacy
Welcome to this week’s free article of Level Up: Your source for career growth solutions & community by retired Amazon Vice President, Ethan Evans. If you’d like to become a paid member, see the benefits here, and feel free to use this expense template to ask your manager.
I was defending a Director promotion to a room of 20+ AWS Vice Presidents who did not know my direct report, and it was not going well…
In that tough environment, they were nitpicking the document to pieces.
Then, an Amazon SVP said:
“You’re doing this all wrong…”
“Can I do it?”
This SVP is a tough customer.
He felt I should spotlight the candidate’s operational rigor, whereas I focused more on leading growth. For example, the SVP fixated on an anecdote about the leader’s exceptional frugality as proof that the candidate was the kind of operator Amazon needed.
Despite the verbal slap, I was thrilled to have him speak up for 3 reasons:
He was the second most senior person in the room, below only Andy Jassy, then the AWS CEO. His credibility and pull were near the top.
He publicly committed to my candidate being ready for promotion. This meant that any further nitpicking by others was now an affront to him and thus much less likely.
He did not know the candidate. In any promotion, the manager is suspected of having bias. However, the SVP was considered an independent judge.
An independent voice in the room is invaluable, so I swallowed a big mouthful of crow.
With his advocacy, the promotion was approved.
The point is the value of having an "independent" advocate in the room for key decisions.
Whenever you make a pitch, there is a natural suspicion of your objectivity.
You are not neutral, you are advocating for something.
What might you be leaving out to get what you want?
By comparison, if someone with nothing obvious to gain speaks in favor, it carries more weight. They are assumed to be "more objective."
This apparent objectivity makes their words more influential.
Action: You can arrange to have this "independent" voice in the room.
Earlier in my career, when my VP was working to arrange my promotion from Amazon Director to Vice President, he asked another SVP to mentor me.
I met with that mentor several times over the next year and learned a lot.
The SVP also came to know me and believed I was operating at the expected level for a Vice President.
When it came time for my promotion, that SVP was in the room and could say he knew me and my work.
With advanced planning, you can arrange to have an "independent" witness in key rooms to speak up on your behalf.
Some people will ask why this is necessary. Maybe it should not be. But I prefer not to leave my career to chance.
I got lucky when the first SVP jumped in to speak for my guy.
Now I have learned my lesson — plan ahead.
How to maximize Executive 1:1 meetings
Do not waste this precious time for “status” updates.
Instead, focus on strategy questions and getting larger context.
“For example, I ran a group of 800. Andy Jassy ran a group of 50,000. He had 60x my context in terms of view of the world, complexity, and market viewpoint.”
Watch this highlight clip of Ethan sharing how to run an Executive 1:1 from a Level Up paid member-only event.
I hope this advice helps you plan ahead for your career. If you’re looking for help growing in your organization and leveling up your career, consider my course, Stuck at Senior Manager - How to Break Through to Executive.
If you’re already in executive roles (e.g. Director, Sr. Director, VP) and want to optimize performance or move up further, consider my course, Cracking the C-suite 'How to Get and Master Key Executive Roles' which I co-teach with Sue Bethanis (Executive Coach & CEO/Founder of Mariposa Leadership) who has coached 400+ tech executives.
Career from Engineer to CEO & EVP with Ameesh Paleja (EVP at Capital One, ex-Google VP, ex-OfferUp CTO, Atom Tickets CoFounder & CEO, ex-Amazon Director)
I joined Amazon in 2005. Ameesh joined my new team as the most senior engineer.
The team was 6 people. Ameesh was the only SDE II, with 4 total years of experience.
Ameesh is a natural leader and took the role of lead engineer on the first version of Prime Video.
While working with me, Ameesh was promoted to SDE III and then switched to Manager. He was then promoted to Senior Manager (Amazon L7) while working on Prime Video.
Ameesh and I switched to video games and then to build the Amazon Appstore (read how I personally failed Jeff Bezos for the Appstore launch).
Ameesh moved to Orange County to be closer to his family. He built a new office for the Amazon Appstore, ultimately with 300 people, and was promoted to Director (Amazon L8).
Ameesh left Amazon to found his own startup, Atom Tickets.
Ameesh is now an EVP at Capital One, a Board Member at Everchron, and an Advisor to The Professional Collegiate League. He also served as VP of Engineering at Google and CTO at OfferUp.
On May 23 (Thursday), Ameesh and I will have a live discussion about his career and career advice, specifically:
Deciding to move from Microsoft to Amazon.
Deciding to change from engineer to manager.
Going from a big company (Amazon) to founding a startup (Atom Tickets) and how Ameesh decided to take the plunge.
Deciding when to give up the CEO role (leave a startup) and go back to corporate.
Career setbacks and how to overcome them.
Now that Ameesh is in huge roles (1000s of people), what are the new challenges?
What does Ameesh look for in his direct reports?
What does Ameesh wish he had known as an SDE II?
Live attendance is exclusive to Level Up paid members, it is one of the various membership benefits, and if you’d like to learn more, read here.
For current members, I hope to see you live. You may RSVP below.
Level Up Career Community: What’s Happening
(1) A paid member (and course alumni) shared that she got a new role as Director in a Fortune 100, managing 10X more people than in her previous Senior Manager role. She got the job offer in exactly 4 weeks of applying and said Ethan’s “Stuck at Senior Manager - How to Break Through to Executive” live course AND “Leadership Resumes That Get Results” on-demand course helped, specifically:
“Reading his resume was super helpful to understand how an exec words their bullet points and what’s important to communicate.
Understanding the importance of a summary that I didn’t have before - and how to craft it based on my experience + what the hiring manager is looking for. I also used the resume experience summary as the blurb for the hiring manager to get their attention immediately.”
(2) Another paid member (and course alumni) shared that she also got hired for a Director role:
“I give so much credit to the Level Up: Breaking through to the Executive course and getting a front seat to Ethan's coaching and wisdom.
Thank you for working to build this community that has given me to confidence to reach even in the current market environment!”
(3) In Slack, conversations and how community members are helping one another:
Hiring / job postings (e.g. Google L5 software engineering team lead, Point Head of InfoSec, Red Hat senior director, Ernst & Young manager, etc).
Resume reviews.
Interview prep.
Resources to improve negotiation skills.
Resources to improve business finance knowledge.
ChatGPT 4o demos.
How to build trust and demonstrate respect.
Planning in-person and virtual meetups.
Book recommendations and reviews.
Networking DOs and DONTs.
Connect With Ethan & Jason
Level Up is your source for career growth solutions & community by retired Amazon Vice President, Ethan Evans.