Some days, being a recruiter feels a lot less like recruiting… and a lot more like being a career therapist. The last 18 months have been some of the toughest I’ve seen in my 25+ years in this industry. Every day, I’m having conversations with incredibly talented professionals in Dynamics 365, NetSuite, Data Analytics, BI, and AI who never expected to be in the job market right now. And lately, it hits even harder: 👉 2 out of every 3 conversations I have each day are with someone who’s just been impacted by a RIF. Not because they weren’t performing and certainly not because they are not valuable. But because the market has shifted, budgets tightened, and entire teams are being cut loose. These are senior architects, functional consultants, practice leaders, data engineers, delivery managers—people who have built careers, practices, and products… suddenly needing to start over. And while my job is to help them find their next opportunity, a big part of it has become: ✔ talking them off the proverbial cliff and regain confidence and focus ✔ clarifying what they really want next and reminding them not to settle If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the phrase “I’ve never had to actually go look for a job before, I’ve always been approached”, anyway. It has always been our mantra that we only work with folks that are gainfully employed and not actively looking for work. This just isn’t a reality at this time. It is no longer the lower producing folks being cut free, it really doesn’t seem to matter how strong your experience, skills or even tenure is at this particularly wonky time. My point is two-fold, if you are a victim of a RIF yourself, trust me, you are NOT alone. There are many, many others in the exact same boat as you and feeling just as frustrated and just as betrayed. Secondly, for companies that are actually in the glorious position of being able to grow your teams now. Please, please do not look at these candidates at this time with prejudice. If anything, kind of like the stock market when it hits a low, this is an incredibly great time to scoop up some amazing talent that just 2 years ago was not available at all, and in most cases, will be much more flexible in their compensation expectations. If you are a business owner or leader and are in this fortuitous position, please give me a call or drop me a note. I’ve been speaking with a good amount of amazing talent in sales, delivery and leadership in both the MS Dynamics and NetSuite channels that could have a major impact for you right away.
