Akt Inhibitor MK2206 or Everolimus in Treating Patients With Refractory Kidney Cancer

Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients must have histologically or cytologically confirmed metastatic or unresectable RCC; all histologies are permitted; patient should have undergone nephrectomy
* Patients must have measurable disease, defined as at least one lesion that can be accurately measured in at least one dimension (longest diameter to be recorded for non-nodal lesions and short axis for nodal lesions) as \>= 20 mm with conventional techniques or as \>= 10 mm with spiral computed tomography (CT) scan
* Patients must have received, and progressed on an anti-VEGF therapy, including bevacizumab, sorafenib, sunitinib or pazopanib
* Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status =\< 1
* Leukocytes \>= 3,000/mcL
* Absolute neutrophil count \>= 1,500/mcL
* Platelets \>= 100,000/mcL
* Total bilirubin within normal institutional limits
* Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) (serum glutamic oxaloacetic transaminase \[SGOT\])/alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (serum glutamate pyruvate transaminase \[SGPT\]) =\< 2.5 x institutional upper limit of normal
* Serum creatinine =\< 1.5 x upper limit of normal (ULN)
* International normalized ratio (INR) and partial thromboplastin time (PTT) =\< 1.5 x ULN; therapeutic anticoagulation with warfarin is allowed if target INR =\< 3 on a stable dose of warfarin or on a stable dose of low molecular weight (LMW) heparin for \> 2 weeks at time of randomization
* Women of childbearing potential and men must use two forms of contraception (hormonal or barrier method of birth control; abstinence) prior to study entry, for the duration of study participation and for 8 weeks after the last dose of study drug; should a woman become pregnant or suspect she is pregnant while she or her partner is participating in this study, the patient should inform the treating physician immediately
* Ability to understand and the willingness to sign a written informed consent document
* Serum pregnancy test in female patients of childbearing potential must be negative within 24 hours of enrolling on this study

Exclusion Criteria:

* Patients who received oral tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs) (sorafenib, sunitinib, or pazopanib) within 2 weeks prior to entering the study, radiotherapy, immunotherapy or chemotherapy within 4 weeks prior to entering the study, bevacizumab within 4 weeks prior to entering the study, or those who have not recovered from adverse events due to agents administered more than 4 weeks earlier (recovered to =\< grade 1)
* Patients may not be receiving any other investigational agents; patients may not have received an mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor
* Patients with known brain metastases should be excluded from this clinical trial
* History of allergic reactions attributed to compounds of similar chemical or biologic composition to MK-2206 or other agents used in the study
* Patients receiving any medications or substances that are strong inhibitors or inducers of cytochrome P450, family 3, subfamily A, polypeptide 4 (CYP4503A4) are ineligible
* Patient should have a hemoglobin A1C value of \< 8%; preclinical studies demonstrated the potential of MK-2206 for induction of hyperglycemia in all preclinical species tested; studies also demonstrate a risk of hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and hypertriglyceridemia associated with everolimus therapy; patients with diabetes or in risk for hyperglycemia, hyperlipidemia and/or hypertriglyceridemia should not be excluded from trials with MK-2206 or everolimus, but the patient should be well controlled on oral agents (recent \[i.e. within 3 months\] hemoglobin \[Hb\]A1C =\< 7.0) before the patient enters the trial
* Baseline corrected Fridericia QT interval (QTcF) \> 450 msec (male) or QTcF \> 470 msec (female) will exclude patients from entry on study
* Uncontrolled intercurrent illness including, but not limited to, ongoing or active infection, symptomatic congestive heart failure, unstable angina pectoris, cardiac arrhythmia, or psychiatric illness/social situations that would limit compliance with study requirements
* Pregnant women are excluded from this study; breastfeeding should be discontinued if the mother is treated with MK-2206 or everolimus
* Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients on combination antiretroviral therapy are ineligible
* Individuals who are diagnosed with an intercurrent cancer are excluded, with the exception of non-melanoma skin cancers, and other cancers where curative treatment was completed at least two years ago