Because of how we work when supporting our clients, we have a very unique “glimpse” into how over 5000 Executive Search companies and almost 20 000 decision makers react – the majority of which being located in Europe; and we collect and analyze how they respond; and we observe if and what kind of trends there are to leverage them into better career management & more effective job search methods.
Before there are trends, there are signals which we usually keep to ourselves. But these are not usual times, so we decided to share these signals by the end of each week. If the country / context is important, we’ll add them. Otherwise, we’ll keep it general for confidentiality.
This is not a full version of this week’s report. View the complete report here.
We’ve continued reaching out to CEOs, HR Directors, investors, board members, that we know personally, to take the temperature. Below you’ll find their shortened quotes in no particular order.
However, we’ll start with a KPI that gives a quite good feel of the overall trend on the job market:
Number of published job ads on LinkedIn
Note: some job ads might have been taken off LinkedIn, not because the recruitment process was put on hold or canceled, but because they are costly, especially if you have dozens of them. A company might have wanted to simply cut costs and move to more cost effective alternatives. Some local job portals are offering substantial discounts.
| Initial list of 18 countries | Sorted |
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| Extended list to 36 countries | Sorted |
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Note: to view details of each region, visit the full report. The regions are divided into: Visegrad, Baltics, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Iberia, SEE, BENELUX, DACH, Western Europe.
Collected Quotes from CEOs and HR Directors
The vast majority of executives are with market leaders in their respective industries. By default, the board members are members of local boards; if not, we’ll indicate the exception.
Food industry: The by a few % to support and motivate the team.
Legal services, debt collection: We’re not planning on any lay-offs. I’ve noticed that people are actually getting more and more interested in our innovations, as they will want to reclaim their money in a fast and cheap way.
IT / Telco: It’s stable. We’re still getting a lot of projects. But the longer isolation period can influence the investments. Still, no lay-offs at the moment.
Food industry: No lay-offs at the moment but we’re having some issues. We’re experiencing a significant decrease in sales and our suppliers are not very cooperative. We’re fighting, though, and we know we’re going to get through it all. We are also trying to see the good side – the crisis exposes all the problems, so we’ll know what to work on in the future.
Retail: No lay-offs at the moment. But we’ll see how long that will last.
Candidate quotes:
CEO, healthcare: I’ve recently received 2 invitations from headhunters to join processes for PE/VCs.
Director CEE, horeca: A lot of people were laid off (including me), but the company gives the opportunity to come back once everything is running normally again.
Our recommendations for experienced managers and executives:
- Keep engaging in recruitment processes. You don’t know if your job is indeed safe. Better to have a Plan B. It’s always better to be able to choose from a couple of options while you have a job rather than wake up with no job and have no options.
- If you have restructuring / change management / interim experience, prepare your project list or list of business cases.
- Prepare and practice interviewing online:
- from a technical perspective
- from a light & background perspective
- from a communication perspective
- Work on your branding: on paper (CV), online (LinkedIn) and orally (strategic interviewing). Charisma alone will not get you shortlisted against hundreds of candidates; especially now that companies will look for low-risk candidates who can demonstrate very specific skill sets and leadership competencies.
If you want to discuss your professional situation confidentially or if you considering hiring Career Angels for support, contact Bichl.Sandra@CareerAngels.eu who will personally match you with the most appropriate consultant. For efficiency, add your CV and availability for a Skype call.
If you want to contribute, email your signals to Sandra (everything will be kept confidential).
Market Signals published thus far:
Week 13
Week 14
Week 15
Week 16
Week 17
Week 18
Week 19
Week 20
Week 21
Week 22
