Ouch! My Job Hurts!

Why do executives feel so much pain? 

Over the years I have begun to feel like a doctor, listening more or less patiently to executives’ complaints about what bothers them at work or about pursuing a change. While collecting their symptoms I often reflect that most of this discomfort is completely unnecessary.

Here are a few common refrains from actual sales conversations this past month:

• “I’m having trouble communicating my value proposition.”
• “There are moral and ethical issues and I did not want to get myself into trouble.”
• “After 21 years in the same job, I have no idea how to market myself.”
• “There’s been a change of leadership.”
• “The company is merging and I’m probably at risk, so I’ve begun to look. But so far all I get is no response to my job applications and I don’t know what to do.”
• “My father passed away so I no longer need to live here and drive hours each day to and from work.”
• “I’m tired of being passed over for promotion, so I resigned and now I’m looking again.”
• “With the new administration, I’m not sure about my future in the federal government. So where can I fit in in the private sector?”
• “I’m ready to step into a bigger role, but should I stay in the same industry or change sectors? And, if so, which one?”

A Methodology for Managing Pain Points

Over more than 30 years, The Barrett Group (TBG) has evolved a highly effective five-step career change methodology to manage such pain points.

Many of the issues noted above can be addressed by TBG’s Clarity Program©—the first step in our process.  Much like a physician we diagnose the symptoms to better understand the client’s behavioral tendencies. This enables us to tailor the future job to fit more comfortably.  Then we review short-term personal circumstances, particularly income, career, health, and social parameters, again, to establish what needs to change to help the client be more fulfilled.  Lastly, we help the client look out five years or so—what does an attractive future look like?

Once these questions have been answered and we have an agreed target for the client’s career change process, then we can set about helping the client achieve that target—a pain-free future, so to speak.

With this diagnosis in hand, we set about defining the course of treatment.  Through the next four steps (Personal Branding, Market Access, Preparation, and Onboarding) we help the client enter the market as a solution (not a job seeker), uncover invisible opportunities in the unpublished market, excel in interviews, add compensation during the negotiation step, and lastly, onboard fluidly so as not to miss opportunities or succumb to stumbling blocks in the new position.

Of course, would-be clients want to know, will it work for me?

Well, just like a diet or exercise program, if you don’t take the medicine or follow the doctor’s proscription, you are unlikely to be cured. And so it is with career change.  Clients who diligently follow our program can reasonably expect to field interviews and/or offers in three to six months.

A Vast Amount of Opportunity 

Where do our clients land?  Certainly this changes as the market evolves. But with about 500,000 executives changing jobs each year in our target geography, there’s always a vast amount of opportunity.  [Read more about the Market for Executives.]

In 2024, Health Care led the field, followed by Financial Services, Information Technology, Manufacturing, Management Consulting, etc.  [See the Landed Clients’ Industries in 2024 graphic.]  Clearly, our methodology works across industries and is in no way reliant on industry specializations.  Many of our clients actively decide during the targeting phase to change industries. And we help them by identifying transferable experience and helping them to articulate this undeniable relevance during interviews.

Some clients are more focused on income whereas others want the recognition that comes with a title. It is important to remember that some more junior-sounding roles may actually pay more than the most senior roles when you are comparing industries or companies of different size.   As far as the top organizational level is concerned, 44% of our landed clients so far in 2024 landed C-Suite, various flavors of VP, or Head, GM, and/or MD roles.  [See the Landed Clients’ Titles in 2024 graphic.]

Directors and Managers represent another 38%. Meanwhile, positions that are difficult to classify such as “Specialist”, or “Professor” completed the full picture as “Other” at 19%.

A Resource for Offer Negotiations

What did all those hundreds of successful executive clients actually earn?

Frankly, TBG is highly resourceful in helping clients negotiate offers.  As a result the bonus arrangements (including sign-on, relocation, performance, etc.), health insurance, education benefits, travel, vacation, paid leave, stock options, and equity (among others) add up to more than the base salary in many cases.  But they are very difficult to quantify and compare, so we make do here with only the base salaries in order to provide some transparency on compensation.  [See the Landed Clients’ Base Salaries graphic.]

So, as a physician focused on helping clients to address their career and job search pains, I think we can feel pretty good about how we’re doing based on the benefits our clients demonstrably receive.  We detail these each week in our Front Line Reports, by the way, something no one else in this industry does.  Further, we know we are on the right track because no less an authority than Forbes Magazine cites us among the best in the business, and therefore the top career management firm in their annual listing—now for five years in a row.

Next time you feel career pain coming on, remember, there is a remedy.  Call The Barrett Group and get some relief.