Top 10 Reasons Why So Many High Caliber Medical Industry Executives will Struggle to Change Jobs in 2019

First - External Conditions (And It’s not your fault, we feel you!)

1st- A proactive job search is new, different, and awkward. For your entire professional life, you’ve either been tapped on the shoulder for an internal promotion or recruited away to a new position. You did everything “right” and in accordance with conventional practices at the time, and it worked out. As a result, you’ve never performed a proactive job search because you’ve never felt that you needed, wanted, or had to. And now, unfortunately, you have no clue where to start! The only interview experience you have, on this side of the table, was a formality to check the box. You certainly didn’t imagine that it would be difficult or awkward, but it is. Does this resonate with you? Read on…..

2nd - Fewer jobs. Despite a healthy surge of startups who launch every year, industry consolidation has made a huge impact on the number of executive level jobs available. Remember these companies? St. Jude, Guidant, Covidien, etc, etc. They and other acquisitions and mergers have reduced the number of senior level positions in the market, especially in Sales and Marketing. Startups often bootstrap through FDA approval, then move to sell the company before commercialization. High level candidates tell us they were called several times per month about Sn. Level jobs, just a few short years ago. But those calls are no longer being made.

3rd - Over-qualification and compensation challenges. While you’ve enjoyed the satisfaction that goes along with generating a healthy income and high level positions, the down side is now that you are seeking a new job, those same accomplishments seem to disqualify you from certain positions that excite you. And even if you’re willing to potentially take a lower level job or lower pay because you’re interested in the company, the employers are reluctant to hire you because they see you as a flight risk. And they also fear that you may leave for a higher paying job or one with more responsibility.  To make matters worse, some employers appear to be hiring candidates with less experience and more upside. These folks are a whole lot more affordable than the senior executives they are replacing.

4th - Lack of objectivity in the hiring process. You are accustomed to a world where even when hiring managers had an internal referral or a candidate who was endorsed from within, they would still conduct an exhaustive search and a thorough and objective interview process. That process led to a full slate of candidates from a variety of sources and backgrounds. Then, they would hire the very best candidate, regardless of the relationship to the organization. Clearly, it feels more like the “friends of the firm” get preferential treatment and are often fast-tracked with the external candidates serving as a comparison only. It might feel like employers are looking for a unicorn or a purple squirrel if they do not know you or know someone who can personally attest to the strength of your candidacy. To make matters worse, hiring managers seem to be more willing to “site on a job” and take their time with the search than ever before. What happened to the sense of urgency that seemed to be ever present 5 years ago? We will cover some ways to counteract these trends later in this program.

Oh, Those Hard-Earned Habits and Perspectives!

5th - False expectations (part 1). Many of the executives we’ve worked with over the years are extreme loyalists and to actually take the step of verbalizing the notion of changing jobs is very difficult. They hang on to the hope that things will change with their current situation, with more support, less travel, more compensation, better leadership, etc…. But once they make the “mental decision” to put themselves out there on the market, their past successes tell them that, all of the employers, jobs, and recruiters will come running. They do so, not knowing that, while this is an important step, it is only a small one in the grand scheme of things. 

False expectations (part 2). Because you’ve seen and heard about others at your level making smooth and successful career transitions, you naturally assumed that your own transition would be simple. In reality, a career transition typically takes much, much longer than most upper level executives expect. Taking the 80% of executives who fall in the middle of the bell curve, here is what we’ve observed for the proactive job seeker:

Manager Level = 90-120 days

Director Level = 120-240 days

Vice President = 240-360 days

CXO/GM = 1 year +

Quickly glance at these numbers and you can see that, if you had this knowledge, you might have considered starting your search 6-9 months earlier.

False expectations (part 3) This one is actually a combination of internal and external circumstances, as you’ll see. Your resume and background are impeccable…. You’ve earned it and you feel that it alone should be enough to land you a dream job. And in some cases, for some candidates, it does. However, more times than not, the dream jobs do not go to the best candidates, but rather to the candidates who happen to be in the right place at the right time. And they also have the right connections to search committee members. This is super frustrating! You’ve seen former co-workers bounce around from company to company with what looks like very little effort. In some cases, these folks have enjoyed a lucrative exit event or two. You can only imagine how bad their resume looks. 4 jobs in 6 years? Seriously? Then there are those colleagues of yours who left Medtronic or J&J to pursue a career as an entrepreneur. But it didn’t work out and they’ve been on the market and “consulting” for the last year. This scares you to death and you can’t imagine how that would feel, as the “primary breadwinner” to be out of work for a year. All of these factors may even keep you from fully committing to the move.

False expectations (part 4). Perhaps you expected that the recruiters you assiduously kept in contact with over the years would be a whole lot more helpful in your time of need. You may have assumed that a few quick calls to the recruiters you’ve cultivated relationships with over many years would light up the phones for you. However, the stark reality is that most recruiters have 50K, 75K, or even 100K other candidates they’ve worked with in the past, but only place 100-200 candidates per year. The odds that your recruiter ”friend” would have a position at your level, in a product category that interests you, with a client who is looking for someone with your background, in the geography where you live or are willing to relocate to, at the exact time you are looking to make a change is very, very low. You might feel like you’re left holding the bag after contacting your recruiter friends and being told that they’d “put out some feelers” and get back to you if they “got any bites”. But, so far, there’s been no follow up. You’ve been “ghosted,” and it stinks!!

Summary - You may need to recalibrate your expectations in all these areas.

6th - Limited bandwidth. You’re currently employed and committed to achieving the goals you set out for yourself and your team. Your job keeps you very busy and so you struggle to find the necessary time and energy to make this career transition a priority. And so you end up relying mostly on the “hope” that the employer or recruiter of your dreams will find you. This tenacious focus on your current job makes you a killer employee (both now and to your future employer), but unfortunately penalizes you right now. You are behind the eightball compared to other candidates who’ve carved out the time to network with people who are actually going to help them land their next position. These would be board members, GMs, Presidents, VC partners, and PE firms, etc. You are so loyal that you feel that you would, in some way, be violating some unwritten rule between you and your current employer about how you are to spend your time and energy, if you spent any time at all on your own career path plan. Again, these are the very traits that we all want in a new employee and they are the same ones that penalize you now. You are now realizing that you should’ve carved out the time to “control” your career path months or years ago..

Relationships (You can do it and even enjoy it, we promise)

7th - Socially Shallow. (This might just be a good time for you to get in touch with your inner millennial – or hire one!) Okay, you have a Facebook account and you use it to share pictures and keep up with the events of your family and friends. Great start! You probably also have a LinkedIn account, but you might rarely check it, and you certainly haven’t optimized it for a career transition. If you’re going to be honest with yourself, social media was never a component of your success before so why do you need it now? It's easy to assume, and rightfully so, that there should be a premium placed on your performance, not some “online” index or metric that you could easily whip up from your local Starbucks?!? But the fact is, the world has changed and the data that shows how social media is critically important to job seekers is overwhelmingly conclusive. In many (not all) cases, the best jobs are going to those who are socially engaged and well connected online. Your instinct tells you to optimize and re-optimize your resume, maybe even having multiple versions for GM vs. CXO positions, etc. You may’ve even paid an overpriced resume writer to “fix” your resume and write a cover letter no one will ever read. However, in reality, your resume doesn’t even matter because you are not getting the attention of the right people. So the resume never even gets seen. If you do get the hiring manager’s attention, he/she will likely spend 45 seconds on your linkedin profile, wayyyyy before they open up your resume. More and more candidates are using their Linkedin profiles instead of resumes, for the benefits of plausible deniability, etc. Therefore, your’s needs to be killer!

8th - Inability to leverage your network (part 1). You might feel that you have a pretty deep and diverse network of colleagues and associates who will help you land that next position. But unfortunately...you are confidentially on the market, so these important relationships are essentially worthless. Another question: how many of these colleagues have you really kept in close touch with? And, more importantly, with how many would you feel comfortable telling that you are on the market and need their help finding a new job? It’s my bet that it’s been 4 or 5 years since you’ve spoken with them? 

We understand. It happens. You’ve concentrated 100% of you time on driving revenue, developing your people, and leading your teams. That means you’ve spent very little time keeping in touch with former colleagues who now work for other companies. Sure, you “had” great relationships with these folks in the past, but reaching out to them now to confidently inform them that you’re proactively on the market for new employment, just doesn't feel quite right. Does this resonate? Read on.

9th - Inability to leverage your network (part 2) - Confidentiality. You’re currently employed and cannot afford to jeopardize your employment status. This “situation” creates a very difficult conflict. You want to be exposed to new opportunities, but only if you can be assured that no one from your current employer will ever find out. This is tough! While all HR professionals and recruiters talk about ultimate confidentiality..., “unofficial” reference checks are pervasive in our industry: “Hey Bill, did you know Mary Johnson when you guys worked together at (insert your employer)?”. Unfortunately, even some of the most ethical hiring managers break this cardinal rule with the hopes of gaining some insight into your candidacy. Oh, and then there’s the setting in Linkedin that can “notify” recruiters that you are open to new opportunities. However, wouldn’t this be super easy for your internal recruiters and HR teams to see?

10th - Limited executive recruiter relationships. Because you are a loyalist and extremely busy, she rarely returned recruiter calls, emails, and inmails. If you did take a call, you didn't really take the time to develop a personal relationship with the executive recruiter. You’ve since learned that these executive recruiters hold the keys to 75%+ of the executive positions that come available. You’ve also learned, the hard way, that less than 10% of these executive jobs are ever posted publicly. Ugh!

Summary

After putting years in the industry and assuming that your experience would speak for itself to move to the next level, you are being undermined by inexperienced and lesser expensive candidates. An entirely different hiring atmosphere is pulling the rug out from under those executives who thought they had it made.

So, what is the way to stay above the fray?

To be relevant in any industry, you have to keep forward-thinking to stay ahead of the competition. The same is true even for those who don't think a career or position change is on the horizon.

For top-level executives, if you aren't watching, the hiring market will pass you by! That is why it is more critical now than ever before, whether you are considering a career move or not, to keep an eye out, to keep networking, and to not assume that what you have done in the past, job performance-wise, will determine your future.

Staying relevant in the job market is now just as important as staying relative in your industry...if not even more so! Buckle your seat-belt. We are about to release a series that was designed exclusively for the medical executive who is proactively on the market. We will give you the tools you need to ensure that you are not one of the aforementioned statistics. We will help you counteract these realities and ensure that you are properly equipped, enabled and empowered to win! 

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BONUS REASONS WHY MANY EXECUTIVES WILL STRUGGLE

Unfamiliar with other product categories and markets. You are expert in your product category, disease state, etc..but you haven’t had the time to keep your thumb on the pulse of what other categories are growing, and which ones are dying. Unfortunately, that keeps you from hearing about positions that may be a perfect fit for you and your background. You have learned the hard way that many companies talk about diversifying their leadership team with notions of “new ideas and new blood”....but when the rubber meets the road, many employers do the opposite and hire what they know, which are folks who come from within their industry. This hurts those candidates who desire a product or disease state category change.

Geographical challenges. Years ago, ambitious employees would quickly and enthusiastically relocate all over the globe to climb the corporate ladder. Times are changing and employees/candidates are more reluctant about relocating than they’ve ever been before. Compounding the problem, employers are also increasingly reluctant about assuming the cost and risk of moving a new employee. It’s been years since you’ve heard about an employer buying a home and paying for all relo expenses for a newly hired employee. We’ve seen several recent occasions where the executive committed to relocate within 6-12 months and ultimately decided they did not want live in the town they committed to. Our world has become a whole lot more virtual, but for the most part, employers still want their executives to live in their HQ town. IMO, employees need to realize that it’s really all about the person. I’ve worked with leaders that are in the office 5 days a week, but you’d never know they were there. And other leaders who made such an impact on the first day they were around their people, that they had more impact than most have a month together, just as we talked about in the first module.

Discrimination. It is likely that you’ve already been the victim of some sort of discrimination...and there are many types. Here are a few.

• Age - Age discrimination is pervasive and nearly impossible to extinguish. We suggest that our candidates take 5 or 6 different head shot photos and have their close friends vote on which ones make you look the most professional and the most “vibrant”. 
• Presentation - Linkedin, Google images and Facebook, for better or worse, have created an environment where hiring managers can quickly drop you into a yes, maybe or no bucket simply based on your photo or what they “feel” when they see your “brand”, without ever looking at your background. It is terrible, but it is the reality of the situation with some hiring managers. You probably do not want to work for these folks anyway, but its important to know that these biases exists.
• Style - It could be your accent, it could be the way you verbalize your background. It could be a number of reasons that, when factored in, cause the interviewer to eliminate you...which has absolutely nothing to do with your background or your ability to “do the job”. You find yourself scratching your head when you interview for a position, have the perfect background, nail all of the questions, seem to hit it off with the hiring manager and do not get advanced. Was it something you said? What happened?

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