How to get promoted: Lessons from an ex-Amazon VP

Ethan Evans, ex-Amazon VP, shares how promotion decisions are made and how to increase your chances

Hi all, Jordan here 👋

Today, we’ll dive into the top career lessons from an ex-Amazon VP,

Ethan Evans

. Ethan is one of the most prolific teachers for engineers and managers. He’s hired 1000+ people, led teams of 800+, and has driven 25+ Principal Engineer & Director promotions.

Ethan teaches a cohort on Maven, “Stuck at Senior Manager? How to Break Through to Executive.” Although the course targets managers, I wanted to join Ethan’s course. I thought, “If I knew how Senior Managers and executives think, I’d know how those lessons would translate to faster growth as an engineer.”

I asked Ethan and his operating partner,

Jason Yoong

, if I could join the cohort in exchange for sharing my lessons with you. They were more than happy to let me join!

Today, we’ll dive into Ethan’s step-by-step process he used to get promoted to VP and drive promotions of multiple Senior+ engineers.

⭐️ Main takeaways

• How to figure out what’s holding you back from promotion

• How leaders make promotion decisions and what you can do about it

• High-impact, underutilized tips to get promoted faster

🤔 Figure out why you’re stuck

If you want to get promoted, you know your destination.

But do you know why you’re not there already?

Ethan suggests 3 steps to get unstuck.

1. Figure out where you want to go. What’s your dream role and title?

2. With that in mind, write 2-4 sentences about where you are now.

3. Identify the gap between those two. The most common gaps are skills, relationships, or time.

Figure out your gap. Often, it’s time, skill, or relationships

Once you know the gap, the biggest blocker to fixing the gap is not asking for feedback. Generally, your manager wants to promote you. It makes them look better to have a more senior team. At the same time, managers are extremely busy. You can either blame them or accelerate the process by taking ownership of your growth.

Ask for feedback often, listen well, and address your gap.

🔑 Keys to the promotion process

Now that you’re working to address your gap, you need to work within the company’s promotion process to give yourself the best chance.

First, understand how the process works:

1. How much repeated success is required?

   1. Why it matters: You might have the skills of the next level, but you need to prove it. The promotion committee needs to know your past successes aren’t one-off accidents.

2. When do reviews happen?

   1. Why it matters: You can create a workback plan with your manager. Plan for what you must do between now and then to set yourself up for success. Ask your manager, “What gaps can I fill between now and then?”

3. What do you need to write about?

   1. Why it matters: You can ask your manager or mentor for examples of promotion documents, which you can model your document after. Plus, you can see what work has resulted in promotion in the past, which helps you look for similar opportunities.

Second, understand how leaders decide on your promotion:

1. Do they trust you can do the job at the next level?

2. Is the scope of your current work at the next level?

How to build trust

To build trust, Ethan recommends the magic loop. It’s a five-step process that shows your manager you’re their ally and further motivates them to help you.

As trust builds, you’ll move from left to right

Step 1: You need to do your current job well. This is essential. I also mentioned this in one of my first articles on how I went from Junior → Senior in 2 years.

“It’s essential to not skip the base-level responsibilities. If you skip these and try to act like a Senior right away, it will hurt you more than help you.”

Step 2: Ask your manager how you can help them. If you start step 2 by asking your manager how you can help them and they say, “Do your current job well,” you know you’re still on step 1.

Step 3: Do what they ask and be reliable. Establish communication norms and don’t make them chase you for updates.

Step 4: Discuss how you can grow and ask for work that helps advance that.

Step 5: Deliver that work with high quality.

Trust is hard to understand, but Ethan’s definition makes it easy.

“Trust is consistency over time” - Ethan Evans

Think of a friend who never breaks their promise. When they make a promise, you can trust they won’t break it because they’ve shown you they are the type of person who keeps their promises.

Do the same with your manager—consistently deliver next-level work, and they’ll trust you at the next level and want to advocate for your promotion.

How to get scope

To get scope, Ethan’s recommendations for engineers are:

• Propose an initiative based on a problem you see

• Look for ways to reduce costs or make the team more efficient

• Volunteer for work without an owner

I’d also ask your mentor or the people 1-2 levels above you what work they would do if they had more time. That work will likely have next-level scope since the people at that level wish they had time to work on it.

Other promotion-case builders

On top of building trust and getting scope, here are 5 more tips to stand out.

1) Be a chameleon

Adapt to your manager’s style.

Chameleons change their color to match the background without changing who they are. If your manager prefers email, use email. If they prefer Slack, use Slack. If they like lots of detail, give them that.

When your manager thinks of you, make them think, “Working with them is so easy.”

2) Get a mentor involved in the decision

Staff+ engineers are often in the promotion room with the managers who decide on your promotion.

If you can get one of these Staff+ engineers as your mentor, you’ll have direct access to what they’re looking for when promoting engineers. They’ll help you get to where you need to be and be able to advocate for your growth in the promotion room.

3) Build a relationship with your skip manager

I love Ethan’s quote for interacting with executives and people 1-2 levels above you:

“Be bright. Be brief. Be gone.” - Ethan Evans

Ethan mentioned as a VP, coffee chat requests frustrated him because they felt like a waste of time. He was working 60+ hour weeks, so a 30-minute coffee chat ate into time with his family. Worse, people came with nothing to discuss.

Sadly, I used to do that. Now, I always come with an agenda in my manager, mentor, and skip 1:1s. I comment on the agenda ahead of time with, “Hey <name>, I added a few notes for discussion here if it helps to check ahead of time.”

The agenda shows I’m not there to waste their time, resulting in feedback like, “This felt insanely productive. I appreciate you coming prepared with topics.” Sometimes, we don’t cover all agenda items and chat about personal, get-to-know-you topics. That’s okay too. The important part is what the agenda represents: care for their time.

To make it more productive, give them value.

Three quick ways to do that are:

1. Get advice on a problem

2. Share news they don’t know about

3. Ask how you can support their goals

4) Network in your team and across the org

Jason Yoong, Ethan’s operating partner, has a quote:

“The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best is today.”

Networking has helped me get fast help, strong peer reviews, and more scope.

Here are a few networking tips I’ve picked up:

• In intro 1:1s, spend half the time getting to know them personally and half what they’re working on, how they like it, and how you can help them.

• Find common interests. I typically find commonalities around video games, pets, and personal growth.

• Give kudos. I thank people for their help and try to make them the hero wherever possible. I also send kudos directly to their manager. I wrote about this more in my last article on phrases that top leaders use.

5) Be visible and known for something

The best scenario for a promotion decision is that everyone in the room knows who you are and your work. They think of you as someone doing work at the next level.

The worst scenario is if they’re hearing about your work for the first time.

To gain more visibility and become known for something, check the full article on how to become a go-to person and why it gets you promoted. There are 10 ways to get visibility in that article.

📖 TL;DR

Figure out why you’re stuck: The gap between your current and future state is usually time, skills, or relationships.

Keys to the promotion process:

• Know how the process works

  • Understand how much repeated success is required

  • Know when reviews happen

  • Understand what you need to write about. Get examples from your manager and mentor.

• Promotions happen when you have the trust to operate at the next level and the scope to prove it

  • Build trust by following the magic loop

  • Get scope by proposing initiatives, looking for ways to reduce costs or improve efficiency, volunteering for work without an owner, and asking people 1-2 levels above you what they’d work on if they had more time

Other promotion-case builders:

• Be a chameleon

  • Adapt to your manager’s style without changing who you are

• Get a mentor who will be involved in the promotion decision

  • They can tell you what they’re looking for and advocate for your growth

• Build a relationship with your skip manager

  • Come prepared with an agenda

  • Ask for their advice, share news they may not know about, or ask how you can better support their goals

• Network in your team and across the org

  • Spend a mix of time getting to know people personally and how you can help them in their work

  • Find common interests

  • Give lots of kudos

• Be visible and known for something

  • The best scenario for a promotion decision is for everyone to know you and your work already. Gain more visibility by following the tips in this article

🙏 Thank you to Ethan and Jason

Thanks again to Ethan Evans and Jason Yoong for allowing me to join the course and share these insights.

Plenty more topics were covered, like executive presence, influence, perceptions, executive sponsorship, prioritization, networking, and more. This article covered only 15-20% of Ethan’s course.

If you’re interested in learning more, I highly recommend enrolling:

• Sign up for the live cohort waitlist. I hear the next cohort will be September 7-8.

• Or check out Ethan’s on-demand courses. Use code JORDAN for 15% off any course until Friday, June 28.

• I also recommend signing up for Ethan’s newsletter,

  Level Up by Ethan Evans
  . His paid community is the best I’ve seen.

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📣 Shout-outs of the week

• Ethan Evans book list - Throughout the course, Ethan recommended books whose core lessons tied back to what he was teaching. I’ve read a few of them and can stand by them. I’m looking forward to checking out more.

• Unlock Your Storytelling Superpower (video) by

  Peter Yang
  and Robbie Crabtree — Great primer on telling impactful, memorable stories. I’ve seen firsthand the impact of great storytelling at work, so I’ve been digging deeper into resources like this. I’m excited to share my lessons with you soon.

Build your brand, presence, and a side income

If you want to build your brand, presence, and a side income, this is for you. BCM is a private community that will help you make this happen. They have limited spots available until June 30.

One of my favorite creators, Kevin Powell (900k+ subscribers), is part of the community. As a creator myself, I can 1000% say a good group of people around you makes all the difference. I recommend applying. They’ve also kindly sponsored this week’s newsletter.

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