This has to be the busiest year ever for musical chairs. People are company hopping like crazy. And companies have been chopping people like crazy.
The Conference Group laid off channel people. NgenX discontinued their agent program (and laid off channel personnel.)
Broadsoft lost Jeffrey Pearl and Mike Wilkinson.
Frontier and Charter are laying off as they work through integrations.
Some of the job loss is Synergy - that marketing term for redundant jobs after mergers and acquisitions.
Some of it is due to companies just not marketing clearly or correctly.
Who is your target customer? How do they benefit from your services? Why should they buy from you and not someone else?
These are basic questions that many companies just can't answer.
And while they flounder to figure it out, there are companies buying market share and taking mind share (Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Google, Slack to name a few).
And admittedly some of it is that people just have not gained any extra skills. With all the books, blogs, online courses, even taking in just one of those per quarter will help you improve and grow. And when that happens you get more valuable. You should be investing in yourself.
Do you have the skills necessary for 2020?
Today, the average Person watches 5 hours of TV Each Day! My friend pointed out: "If you live to 96 and watch 4 hours of tv a day, that is 16 years watching TV ... 16 years of your life!" Think what you could learn or change if you just took 30 minutes a day for reading, learning or volunteering or whatever.
I saw this article today in the Telegraph: The importance of job satisfaction. "The work you do impacts everything else you do in life. Not only does it enable you to earn the money you need to provide for yourself and your family, take a holiday, buy a house... a job also allows you to feel you are part of something."
For some you just need the paycheck, but if you treat the job search like a marketing campaign, you can win a job you want. BTW, it isn't the company, so much it is the boss you are working for that is the chief factor.
If you haven't done so, connect with me on LinkedIn. And check their job board regularly, while also reaching out to your network. But please don't say you are looking. Be specific. What job titles will apply, what size company, geography, etc. The more specific you are, the more salience happens. (That means that when I hear it, I will immediately think of your name!)
