Your Industry Probably Isn't Going to Return to Its Glory Days - 4 Must-Dos

 

This rumor is posted on professional anonymous network Fishbowl Consulting:

'Bottom 5-10% at Accenture getting laid off within the next month or so. 8 weeks straight on the bench also equals layoff. Tough times in the industry."

Unfortunately, speculation about and confirmation or discussion of layoffs or fear of layoffs have become the norm in management consulting. Usually, like much of professional services, its dynamics have been cyclical. Following reduced demand it has been expected there will be upticks, then a possible boom.

Maybe not this time. The pricey services of management consulting could be among the fields which aren't going to bounce back from the current slowdown. Only the top brandname firms could be left standing and they will likely hire fewer of those erudite Knowledge Workers.

In management consulting the primary challenges are the new confidence and cost-consciousness  of businesses. If they are hitting a wall they are more apt to focus on the situation in-house, with their own people. Not only could they come up with the strategy. They will be the ones to also implement it. Management consultants have the bad reputation of doing their slide decks, then adios. They don't stick around for making things happen.

Other fields which could be contracting on a long-term basis include advertising, news, human resources, humanities university teaching and religion. 

In contrast those niches and niches within niches which can play it big are growing. Big is so back. Small might be only a necessary stop-off: You start a little enterprise so that it can be purchased by the big. No, small is no longer beautiful.

In law, for example, the big are getting bigger. They range from Kirkland & Ellis to Paul Weiss. The media coverage about them focuses on their high-profile accounts and poaching of star talent. Big attracts more big. 

And America seems more apt to accept big. Many expect giant Google to win the antitrust government (federal and state) lawsuit "United States, et al. v Google." 

During this period of transition in the labor market, there are 4 takeaways:

1) Don't have magical thinking that your line of work will return to its former glory days. Those Camelot Moments may be over. There may still be jobs but if you are young or even mid-career look for more runway elsewhere. It's 20th-century slow-time thinking to struggle to hold on to what you got. 

2) Jump those hoops to be hired by those big brandname organizations. That increases your marketability exponentially. Typically there are up to six to eight interviews. Think of it this way: The more interview opportunities you have the better you get at the process. 

3) Make big career moves. As the old adage goes, the biggest risk is not taking a risk. When Paul Weiss chair Brad Karp began his new term in May 2023 he shifted to increasingly opportunistic. The law firm's brand, influence and power are able to orbit in a different kind of ether. 

4) Learn to speed up the grieving process. Sure, we all have to mourn the professional comfort zones we lost. But get to the other side fast. A tactic for that is to leap into developing a new network. One group of lawyers who hadn't made partners froze in time by meeting regularly as a kind of "alumni" association. A useful guide is "Necessary Endings" by executive coach Henry Cloud. 

Data or the gut for your careers and communications? Both of course. Complimentary consultation with intuitive coach, content-creator, and Tarot reader Jane Genova (text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com).