Why Empire Building Happens

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: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryanlpeterman/compose-simple-ergonomics-beautifully-done

𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗸𝘀:

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/6WaeGfLnRvc

• Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-peterman-pod/id1777363835

• Transcript: https://www.developing.dev/p/amazon-vp-reveals-everything-hes

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: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethanevansvp/

• X/Twitter: https://x.com/EthanEvansVP

• Newsletter: https://levelupwithethanevans.substack.com/

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-BAdkBGjOIlccGLZ3jbLiA

𝗪𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗳𝗶𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝘆𝗮𝗻:

• Newsletter: https://www.developing.dev/

• X/Twitter: https://x.com/ryanlpeterman

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanlpeterman/

• Threads: https://www.threads.com/@ryanlpeterman

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanlpeterman

• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ryanlpeterman