The Market Got Narrower Than Most People Realize

A few weeks ago I posted about how senior candidates handle interviews. I wrote it for fellow operators and recruiters. The people who responded most weren’t who I had in mind.

My DMs filled with senior candidates looking for work. Many of them out of work for a while. Most reaching out cold.

I’ve been sitting with what that response says about this market. These are capable, experienced people who have done real work. And what I’m seeing from the hiring side is a market that has gotten narrower than most people realize.

Companies are hiring exact matches for exact problems

Not potential. Not pivots. Not adjacent experience.

The senior hires I’ve made this year, all 22 of them, had done the exact thing we needed, in the exact context we needed it. Same stage of company. Same kind of problem. Same scope. When two candidates were both strong, the one who had already done the precise job is the one I moved forward. That has been true all year.

It didn’t always work this way. There used to be more room for the person who hadn’t done this specific job but had clearly done harder things and would figure it out. That room has mostly closed.

When budgets are tight and every hire has to land immediately, hiring managers stop hiring for what someone could become. They hire for what someone has already proven. Certainty wins over upside.

A lot of capable professionals are positioning themselves for roles the market isn’t giving anyone right now.

That is the part worth absorbing. If you’re experienced and you’re not getting traction, it usually isn’t a verdict on your ability. You may be aiming at roles that are screening for a more exact match than your resume currently shows. The fix is partly where you aim, and partly how clearly you make the match.

Three things I’d change today

If that’s where you are, here is where I’d start.

Turn off the Open to Work banner. At the senior level it tends to hurt more than it helps. The green frame puts your availability first, before anyone has seen what you’ve actually done. In a market that quietly rewards looking selectively interested, that’s the wrong thing to lead with. You can still signal that you’re looking. Use the recruiters-only setting, write a headline that says what you do, and stay active. You just don’t need the banner doing it for you.

Update your headshot. A current, professional photo matters more than people think. It’s one of the first things a hiring manager sees, and a dated or casual one creates friction before you’ve said a word. You don’t need an expensive shoot. If there’s a JCPenney portrait studio near you, you can usually get a clean one for under $50.

Don’t cold DM your resume. A resume with no context is work for the person who receives it. They have to figure out who you are, what you want, and whether it’s worth their time. Most won’t. If you do reach out to a recruiter or hiring manager, tell them which role you applied to and why you’re a fit. Keep it to a couple of lines. That small bit of context is the difference between a reply and silence.

The honest part

None of this fixes a narrow market. I won’t pretend it does.

What it does is make sure you’re not getting screened out before anyone reads what you’ve done. You can’t control how many exact-match roles exist this quarter. You can control how clearly you show that you’re one of the people who fits them.

Aim at the roles that are actually moving. Make the match obvious. Then let the work speak.