Get Unstuck in Your Career in 5 Steps

Evans’s five-step loop is to do your current job well, ask your manager how else you can help, follow through, connect additional contributions to your growth goals, and repeat. He recommends asking for feedback and taking on useful work to build trust. If the extra work becomes too much, ask your manager to help delegate lower-value tasks.

When Evans’s manager initially blocked his move from Amazon to Twitch, Evans explained that the choice was to let him transfer within the organization or risk losing him. He also suggests framing a move as evidence of the manager’s ability to develop talent, or working together on a transition plan or a new role. Evans advises observing which colleagues work well with a manager and learning how they build that relationship.

Evans describes trust as confidence in someone’s consistent, predictable actions, and says crises can build it quickly because people see what others are willing to take on. He recounts backing an Amazon video project with TiVo that used 7% of his team’s resources, despite senior leadership reservations. The project succeeded, expanded to smart TVs, and became a key example in his promotion to director.

When Amazon’s Appstore launch failed, Evans sent hourly updates describing the status, plan, and next report time. He accepted help from principal engineers, worked to fix the issue, and attended a meeting with Jeff Bezos five days later. Evans says he then spent years demonstrating operational reliability before being promoted to VP.

After retiring from Amazon, Evans built a teaching business that he said earned $700,000 a year while he worked about 20 hours a week. He credits an operating partner, Jason Yung, for helping develop a newsletter and live courses, and says LinkedIn offered advice that improved how he presented his content. His advice for building a professional network is to share something you love consistently, since finding an audience can take years.