Ex-Amazon VP shares one of his biggest regrets: ‘I worked at companies that…’

Retired Amazon vice president Ethan Evans recently shared a personal reflection of this career, revealing on of this biggest regrets: how much undue stress he allowed his professional journey to cause him. Evans has not pinpointed any specific company but mentioned that his own obsessive focus on climbing the career ladder, often at the expense of his well-being, and a past willingness to endure suboptimal management.In a long post shared on X (formerly known as Twitter), Evans, who holds 15 years of experience of working at Amazon wrote, “I worked at companies that weren’t growing. I worked for bad managers. I obsessed over promotions. None of that got me there faster—and it gave me gray hair.” His message: career growth depends more on the environment and leadership than on titles or tenure.“One of my biggest regrets is how stressful I allowed my career to be.” He elaborated further that he spent a decade “worrying obsessively about career growth and moving up,” a pursuit that ultimately yielded “nothing the hard work, learning, good bosses and growing companies wouldn’t have given me anyway.”In his post, Evans also talked about the four key elements which he thinks are important for a successful career: Doing lots of good work, growing your skills, partnering with good bosses and finding growing companies. He emphasised on the importance of latter two and advise young professionals to look out for environment with supportive leadership and dynamic growth. Along with this, Evans also shared an advice for the professionals who are struggling with unsupportive management. “Move if you do not have an advocate.” He stressed that working in a toxic environment out of fear can lead to unnecessary stress and will ultimately hinder long-term success.