Observations while closing out the year

This month I received 3 calls from people who had all been recently downsized during a 4th quarter purge but their companies.  ALL of them were completely caught off guard.

They were long standing employees who had not updated their resume for years, and they were now scrambling to try and remember what they had accomplished during their tenure.

It is a lot easier to document your successes when you are still with your company, rather than ask a former colleague to do you a favour by running random reports after the fact, so that you can piece together the measurable lifts that you brought to your former organization.   

I also spoke to a former candidate who had a VERY long tenure with a company who was released in the Fall.

They are now shocked at how little interest there is in them from other companies.

Changing after a long period of time is dangerous.

You are not as attractive as you might think that you are to the outside world.

The inability to adapt to new environments or to change with new dynamics is the number one complaint or concern from companies. Following that concern, is the question regarding whether they are 'sleepy" and content with marginal growth after being with a company for such a long period of time.  The final concern from other companies is, "if they have been there that long, why didn’t they see the end coming and either do something about it, or get out?

I have seen a lot of overconfident candidates brought down considerably during this type of reality check.  Please avoid falling into the same trap.

Don’t get too comfortable and avoid stretching yourself because you are worried that you are going to miss the family like culture at the office, or the thought of missing the rapport with your friends when you hang around that familiar water cooler.  Employees who work at long standing small to mid size companies are most likely to overvalue this perceived comfort.

The world moves fast now, companies need people who adapt quickly and people who adapt on their own instead of waiting for the company to tell them how to adapt. 

They say that the 5-5-5 resume is still the best resume and I agree.

  Employees with 

5-year tenures with each company are far more attractive than the loyal employee who has worked their way to 5 weeks of vacation with their steady tenure.  The 5-5-5 candidates are usually the strongest because of their varied experience and faster progression.  They are used to continually building relationships, networking and making sure that they are staying relevant.

Farewell 2018!

Mike