It’s August 2023, the stock market is resuming an upward trajectory it seems. The job market is slowly recovering. In the tech sector, however, it appears that the ball is still in employers’ court.
For people I know personally, the recent job market tightening has had different impacts.
The lucky ones have kept their jobs and are trudging along. People seem to have more gratitude versus complaints about their employers than in the past couple of years. Or at least they are less vocal about the negatives.
Those who weren’t as fortunate have either been laid off or quit and are searching for their next adventure.
Finally, there are those who are looking to jump to another role because they can’t stand their current role.
The last two groups of people seem to be having a rough time in this job market. It’s not that they aren’t talented and will not be able to find a new job.
Rather, it’s that finding and landing a new gig takes at least double the effort it took in 2021-2022 and 3x the length of time.
Why the job market has gotten so competitive
The employer-employee relationship is a story of supply and demand.
In times of high supply of job seekers (like we are in right now), employees lose bargaining power. Job hopping becomes less frequent, salaries barely increase (or stay stagnant) and layoffs may increase as well.
In great economic times, companies are hiring for more roles than they can fill. Job seekers have multiple options, and thus bargaining power increases. This is where you see crazy compensation packages being thrown around and people hopping between new jobs every year for a salary bump or a fancy new title.
Ah, this chart takes me back to economics class in college.
In the boom times of 2022, we saw multiple friends nearly double their total compensation. And I am not talking about going from $50K to $100K or even $100K to $200K (both of which are impressive!).
No, we knew people who were already making close to $250K jump to a new job where they doubled their compensation over night to $500K+!
Truly, it was incredible, and in the back of everyone’s mind, it seemed unsustainable.
So, the pendulum swung in the other direction, and this is the job market we find ourselves in today, where doubling one’s total compensation is rare and close to impossible.
Job hopping in tech sales is a double whammy, but sometimes it’s justified
As a tech salespeople, it’s important to think twice about job hopping. I talk about the reasons why in a previous post.
The opportunity cost of losing a pipeline and having to relearn a new product, rebuild pipeline, learn how to work with new people is huge.
And yet, there are times where it makes sense to do so. Now that I have been in sales or customer roles in tech for over 6 years at both startups and large F500s, I’ve started to slowly understand that there are circumstances where no matter the financial impact, it makes sense to leave.
Some of those reasons that I’ve identified are:
Toxic people that you have to interact with regularly. Especially those who control your fate, like your manager. It isn’t until you get a boss that you dread being around that you understand the impact it has on your overall well-being (even outside of work). Unfortunately, in sales, especially when times aren’t the best, it is common for the worst sales leadership tactics to come out in the form of micromanagement, insults, or public shaming / disrespect.
No personal growth or earning potential. In previous posts, I talk about being in environments where you can learn and earn. But let’s face it, if you are neither learning or earning, that is not an ideal environment. I would only stay if you are trying to coast for personal reasons (family or health for example) and there is little risk of you being let go.
Conflicts with your values. This is more of a general bucket, but it’s important to mention. If there is a constant conflict with your values as a person and the culture of the company, it may be justified to start looking to leave. As an example, if you are forced into unethical selling practices by sales management, this hopefully is a conflict with your values where it makes you uncomfortable enough to look to leave.
This is a short list and there are probably plenty of other reasons someone may start job searching.
As much as I talk about the opportunity cost of switching jobs in sales, I am not a proponent of staying in toxic, boiler room sales teams. Life is too short to stay in a destructive environment, which will whittle away at your mental and physical well-being.
And as long as you can afford to (I recommend at least a 6 months’ salary cushion), start looking or even leave that job if necessary. I personally like to have something lined up before I jump, but each circumstance is unique.
The job market will turn around eventually (late 2023 perhaps?)
Eventually, the job market in tech will turn around. And depending on how you interpret the data, some are saying the overall US jobs market is already on an upwards trajectory.
I will continue to be cautiously optimistic until I start seeing the professionals in my network start moving between jobs at an increased rate.
I believe that as we are seeing a recovery in some of the publicly traded tech stocks, a similar trend will occur with the stronger private tech companies. So, these companies will begin to hire again at an increased rate, and overall this should create a greater supply of jobs that are posted.
From here we should see a rebound in tech hiring.
One metric I’ve been keeping an eye on recently has been the number of applicants for job postings on LinkedIn. However, I am beginning to suspect this is a false metric, because the barrier of entry to apply for a role on LinkedIn is close to zero.
A job seeker simply has to hit the “Apply” button, and in some job listings they will automatically have their LinkedIn profile / resume submitted.
The barrier for entry in landing a new job has never been lower.
This may be artificially making some job listings look more competitive over others.
I have mentally started ignoring these applicant numbers, as I’ve seen recruiters posting that the majority of the applications that get submitted on LinkedIn auto-apply are irrelevant or poor fits for the role.
However, I will keep tracking these numbers to see if they start to drop as the job market in tech picks back up.
In summary, things aren’t great, but they are getting better. Stay strong salespeople (and those in tech in general)!
The good times in tech, hopefully with AI and computing leading the way, will hopefully be back soon.