Closing out 2023...

As we close out 2023, my main observation from the front lines of talent acquisition is: there is a "surplus" of highly-qualified, high-performing, senior-level executives actively job searching right now in real time -- as a result of layoffs. Layoffs that started at the tail end of 2022 and have mounted steadily throughout 2023. These layoffs have taken place mostly at the Director and Vice President levels, based on the multiple emails and LinkedIn messages I receive daily.

Many of the newly-unemployed have never been unemployed and are initiating active job searches for the very first time in their careers. Having mastered the job of a full-stack developer, finance or marketing director -- has nothing to do with putting together a great resume, LinkedIn profile, and most important, knowing how to position one's career history, and tell one's story, on multiple job interviews.

I share these posts and my spur-of-the-moment videos of my walks in the woods with my dog (IG trailside_chats), to spread the joy that I have experienced for 25 years helping candidates and clients alike with their hard-to-fill, senior-level searches and to share real, actionable information about how everyone involved in the job search "process," can make the experience rewarding and enjoyable. Knowledge is power. It helps people feel more empowered and confident about something that is quite mysterious and daunting.

Back to the negative topic of layoffs. Some were a result of companies' updated RTO (return-to-office) policies in a post-pandemic world -- where employees who were told they could move anywhere, did -- and now, cannot easily relocate back to home base per the new company mandate. Some were the result of companies consolidating their multiple corporate headquarters from recent acquisitions. Not everyone can take a relo package, no matter how generous.

And lastly, many of the layoffs were the direct result of the hiring sprees companies went on in 2021 and 2022 in a candidate-driven job market, the likes of which I have never seen in 25 years of recruiting, with grossly-inflated salaries and compensation packages being distributed left and right to attract top talent. Companies have decided that the time to recalibrate is now. From my perch, and knowing salaries down to the decimal having worked in this business across multiple job functions pre salary ban regulation, I will share that salaries and total compensation for most industries are still high and better than they were pre pandemic.

So... Having listened to hundreds of newly-unemployed, senior-level execs share their stories and resumes with me in 2023, I have one piece of advice to share that I have been sharing over and over again with anyone I have had the opportunity to help: if you have been working in one job function for your entire career or in one industry, and your employer or employers have kept you silo'd - boxed into that job function or doing one thing for most of your career -- your employer (s) does not integrate its job functions, even ones that routinely work together at many companies, please take some time to understand "business." Make sure that your knowledge of business, not just your mastery and knowledge of your job function, is reflected in that painful document called a resume and in your oral storytelling, and you are able to explain concisely and easily, how your job function and long-time work in it, has contributed to achieving overall company goals, especially revenue ones. To do that, you need to understand your company's business model:

HOW DOES YOUR COMPANY MAKE ??

If you have been working in a job function for 5-40 years, even if you have spent your career working in a traditionally, non-revenue generating role, let's use PR/Communications as an example of that as most company leaders do not view PR as a direct revenue generator (for the record, I do - as well as talent acquisition/recruiting because it costs a lot of money to replace employees who leave), I need and want you to tell and show me - that you understand your company's business model (s) during our interview or exploratory chat. What you did in your current or past role (s) that contributed to the needs of the business, HOW you helped your company and different teams - thru your marketing, communications, product development, technology, and other skills, make ??

If you don't know, because your job function has been extremely silo'd within your organization and your organization has never really embraced an integrated approach to doing business, meaning, your employer keeps all job functions squarely in their "lanes," and different teams and departments are not talking to one another, the time is now for you to learn -- about general business dynamics and how to incorporate the needs of the business into your job search storytelling.

If you have the desire to learn, there are many "fixes."

1. Become a student of business. Listen to (free) podcasts like "Big Technology," "Pivot," and the "People vs. Algorithms." Subscribe to (free) e-newsletters by experts in their industries and job functions like Peter Yang (product/creator) on Substack. Substack is the home for many bylines and top editorial voices of yesteryear who have migrated there in the hopes of monetizing their exemplary, industry-specific content, in areas that you, me and many others, know little about -- AI and digital payments being two that come readily to mind. How do Apple and Amazon make ??? How do the companies that sell their products on those online first-party/third-party storefronts (like the one you just got laid off from after 7 years in your leadership role) make ??? How do credit card companies that process millions of payments globally per day -- and banks who issue the credit cards themselves and rely on those credit card companies to process their transactions -- make money?
2. Call a friend from yesteryear or have lunch with someone at your current company who works in an area you need to learn more about, and ask them to explain it to you. Before I take on a search in an industry where I am not a SME (subject matter expert), I call one of my 30,000 first-degree LI connections or a friend, neighbor, or family member who works in an industry, to learn more about the industry I am going to be recruiting in. I make sure I do my best to become an expert on the dynamics, the back end mechanisms of how an industry and its various job functions work together, like an orchestra, so that I can service my clients to the best of my abilities and appear semi-intelligent when I talk to senior-level executives that I need to recruit, for a senior-level, often-specialized position. No one is an expert on everything. People love to talk about their passions, time permitting.
3. For employers: start training your recruiters, talent acquisition teams and the EAs, admins and HRBPs who support them, by offering lunch and learns bi-weekly with different executives by job function and business unit. Host 1:1s, preferably in person, for 30-minutes/one hour, where the functional job expert or even a "newbie," can explain "to a five-year-old" the nuts and bolts of her/his daily job. How s/he interacts and works with other teams and departments at the company. Talent acquisition, done right, is an investment.

I always provide an anonymized example of what I am sharing so here is a real life, recent example:

Let's say you have worked in the global beauty industry for 20 years as a Communications leader. PR has not historically been viewed by company leadership as a revenue-generating role, as it is hard to tie PR and Communications directly to revenue growth. Its KPIs are very different historically than the KPIs for a company's marketing, revenue and strategy teams. Okay. Fix what you can. Focus on what you can fix. Instead of telling your entire story to someone like me - who does not know you but understands PR and the beauty industry well as I worked in both of them and recruit Communications execs for a living, as "I am great at building relationships. " And you have been working for 20-30 years in one industry and had a very successful career at major high-profile brands anyone would be eager to work for/at, tell me about those relationships you have built, created and/or nurtured, and HOW and WHY you went about building them in the first place. What did the company look like when you joined? What were its problems that needed to be solved? and HOW did you go about leading that solution or change?What company buisness leaders did you work with to get there? What about business leaders and types of companies from outside your company -- manufacturers? Distributors? In what countries? If a company hires/retains me to find someone with extensive experience working in or with companies that fuel the company's growth in specifically Taiwan or LATAM, then that is a "must have" in terms of what I am proactively looking for. If you have been working in Communications at a high level, with a multi-six figure compensation package, for 20-30 years, I assume you have pitched media at some point in your career and have relationships with media (who change all the time) and cover your industry, but it is probably not why I am going to be thinking of recruiting you for a high-level role. For only your media contacts. I need "more." And I would like to see that info in your resume, on your LI profile (where I find you) and especially, when we speak.

As a retained recruiter/search firm, every single person I am going to identify, recruit and possibly interview, for one role, will have very similar skills to yours. My job is to find candidates who have the exact skills and experience my clients want.

If my client who retains or hires me, needs someone who has deep relationships with manufacturers, government officials, and distribution companies, specifically in Taiwan, then that is one of the many "must haves" I am searching for - when I contact you about the job. If you write or say that you are "great at building relationships," but do not share any examples on your resume or during our phone or video convo about those relationships, no examples, you are not doing your best job of telling your story.

Better is: I have many strong relationships in APAC including in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan. I introduced our skincare brands: A, B, and C to X distribution company five years ago. X supplies all of our skincare products to 5000 retail stores throughout APAC and the UAE (one example). I also worked with the marketing team at Chinese ecommerce juggernaut X and our N.A.-based head of Sales, when ecommerce company X started working with American brands three years ago, and two of our skincare products, A and B, are now the category sales leaders in beauty on ecommerce company X, bringing in annual revenues for our company north of $5B.

Maybe your brand/company/employer has strong relationships with social media giants like TikTok and Amazon and you worked with the head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at your own company and the category marketing lead for beauty/fashion at those platorms to maximize or amplify those relationships when your company began advertising on their platforms three years ago. WHAT did you actually do, to contribute to the results - did you create a successful influencer marketing campaign that resulted in any industry awards or saved your company any money in ad spend that would have gone elsewhere but your campaign achieved X results? And did that result in any sales growth that you can tie in to your efforts/leadership?

In a highly-competitive job market where so much incredible talent is unemployed and job searching, it is critical that anyone you share your story with, leaves the phone or video chat with a clear idea of where your skills and experience lie and that you understand the needs of the business. I look for you on LinkedIn or through my extensive personal or pro network. Others are only reading your resume, with little understanding of what you have done in your career, unless you tell them/us.

Being able to talk about "the business" goes beyond talking about your job function area or department.

I often find that senior-level execs are afraid to appear tactical. That somehow, getting into granular detail about their work, their successses, what they are proud of - makes them appear small, not strategic, un leader-like. That is not accurate. The right person interviewing you - who really knows the business and needs someone like you on her/his team to compliment what the team is missing, a certain skill that is missing, where the team needs a stronger bench - that is the person who will recognize - through the story you share - how you can contribute to helping the company and her/his team solve some real challenges.

I come back to a recent LinkedIn post by Ray Dalio about the importance of functioning like an engineer WHILE thinking creatively and having a vision. "Understand that a great manager is essentially an organizational engineer." These are different skills. Not everyone has them. His point is that great managers and leaders do.

Details matter. The WHY (what was the problem to be solved, what needed ampliyfing, fixing) and the HOW (what did you do to help contribute to the solution, guide the team, solve the problem - HOW did you go about doing it - what was your "process?"), and of course, the RESULT.

The key in your job search is to frame your story in these areas in terms of what you CAN DO for another company/employer, perhaps in another industry, and what problems or challenges you can help another company or employer solve -- based on what you did in past roles. This explanation or story requires a general understanding of business and I am finding that many, even at the multi-six figure, high-level title and compensation levels, do not understand the importance of thinking of their careers and experience in this context (not a fan of this word given current world events -- but it fits!).

My hope through this post is that every senior-level executive I recruit and coach, takes this to heart and starts thinking about telling her/his story as a "business person," not just a job function expert. That they start thinking about the big picture in terms of revenue -- whether that means online or retail sales of products, subscription growth, customer acquisition, advertising... How what they did contributed to revenue growth in some way and they can communicate about it on an interview, their resume, etc. Sales, business development, strategic partnerships... these are not the only job functions at a company that have the ability to drive revenue growth, as they often work in lockstep with marketers, content creators and marketers, and communications.

I just got off the phone with someone who worked at one of the world's leading consumer electronics manufacturers and at a leading digital wireless company that has grown exponentially in the past 8 years through acquisition, in areas far outside wireless/mobile. S/he worked closely with the latter's retail leaders and teams, at both the executive and store level. Those are two completely different workforces. At the executive level, those are the people in charge of figuring out the strategy for driving sales at the retail level, online and off. At the store level, s/he is working with the frontline employees who make the "magic" happen. The people actually working directly with the customers. S/he has experience working with both, but not once during our convo did s/he mention this experience in any of her storytelling, even though she included it as a separate section at her current employer on her resume. I know how important that experience is for a wireless carrier - having worked at one myself - and for any company that sells product online and off.

Knowing what matters - and doesn't - for the jobs at companies you are applying to - understanding what the company's hiring leaders may be looking for, their struggles, and how you can help them, and sharing your story and great experience so it resonates - how what you have to offer syncs directly with what they need, is the direction I'd like to see more senior-level execs move in in 2024.

Back to that beauty role ??? My advice to this candidate, once I understood better the type of relationships s/he was referring to and asked for specific examples, was to start thinking about pursuing roles outside of Communications in order to leverage those strong relationships. Perhaps a role in Business Development and/or Strategic Partnerships at a company that needs to create or amplify its partners in the beauty category. To head online to LinkedIn Jobs and start researching job descriptions by title and see what pops up. S/he will quickly see patterns emerge and how her/his experience and interests align with that role. S/he could be a big win for a company that needs someone with strong relationships and SME.

As I myself have learned through age and life experience, sometimes, the only person boxing you in and limiting your personal or professional growth, is you.

May 2024 be the year we all change that. ??