Career management and development,where to go when you have reached the top

Introduction

Darron Chapman, director at CB Resourcing, gives us news and insight into the recruitment market for the executive-level professional. Darron has over 25 years industry experience gained from working within a specialist recruitment, training and consultancy provider. In 2014, Darron set up CB Resourcing with his business partner Simon Burton with a broader remit encompassing areas such as strategy and market intelligence. He is a fellow of the Institute of Recruitment Professionals/Recruitment & Employment Confederation and was the President of the European Chapter of Special Libraries Association (SLA), the information industry body.

Career development is something that runs alongside a successful professional career. It provides focus with aims and objectives to help an individual build their expertise and climb the corporate ladder but it is not something that should be disregarded once a person has reached their career goals and/or gained the most senior position available to them in their area. Continuing development is an important part of any professional’s career enabling a person to navigate the ups and downs of the employment market.

Below is an interview with Darron Chapman, director at CB Resourcing, a recruitment and training services company specializing in assignments across information, knowledge management, research, strategy and market intelligence, on the state of the recruitment market for senior-level information, market intelligence and knowledge professionals and the best tactics to use to continue to develop a career in this sector.

What is the current state of the recruitment market like for executives?

Over the past year, we’ve seen some significant moves for senior knowledge executives within professional services, most notably within legal.

We’ve worked with a number of firms recently who are heavily investing in knowledge programmes either aligned to practice areas such as financial services or driven by technology. In particular, within large professional or legal services businesses, hiring is heavily influenced by the need for credibility with the business. Particularly experience within a relevant environment in a similar structure such as a global partnership.

What skills/sector expertise are in demand particularly?

At the moment, there is a particular need for subject knowledge of financial services within the consulting industry at a senior level.

Are there skill/sector gaps where people should look to, to expand their expertise?

The most important skill set is stakeholder management and the ability to build a great internal brand within an organization. Experience of running large programmes is also essential, project management expertise is important.

In addition, enterprise search is increasingly important as a subject area as organizations are storing more and more information. An understanding of this area and expert skills with the latest technology is critical in order to be able to find relevant information at the right time. An ability to think out of the box when dealing with technology, particularly legacy systems, to enable effective enterprise search is absolutely essential as it is often the case that organizations must work with the technology they have rather than buying in complete new systems.

Are there any sectors that are sluggish?

Banking continues to be particularly sluggish at the executive level. There has also been a lot of change in the oil sector, and budgets for information and knowledge management have been reduced. The public sector also remains slow at the moment.

But financial services domain experience is in demand…Where is this expertise needed?

It is the consulting/advisory firms who are working with banks where this expertise is required.

Are there any sectors where there is a lot of movement?

The legal sector has been particularly busy and driven by significant investments in both technology and people. Increasingly, firms are using their knowledge services capability as a competitive advantage and this has driven a lot of the hiring from consulting firms who are perceived by some to be further ahead in knowledge management.

At the time of writing, while there are a lot of people with good skills available in the marketplace, there is a caution around hiring. This is reflected in the highly specific nature of client requirements on hiring assignments we are working on. This caution is mainly the result of an uncertainty while we wait to see how the Brexit situation plays out.

What advice would you give those in leadership roles to continue to develop their careers?

Your network of professional contacts remains the most important part of your career development. It is particularly important to continue to maintain and develop your network. Position yourself as a brand with your contacts, become an expert in your role with the skills and expertise you have. Don’t be afraid to talk about your achievements. Do all of this with your next role in mind.

Many senior roles are not directly advertised, you need people to be able to find you. Find out where your peers from other businesses network (you need to find the people you don’t already know), get yourself a rich LinkedIn profile and find your voice. Benchmark externally and go beyond your job description, how are you preparing your department for the next 5–10 years to remain relevant and grow your firm?

Is there anything that people miss out on a LinkedIn profile that would help develop a ‘rich’ profile? What makes a successful profile?

There is no point putting a LinkedIn profile up and hoping for the best; you need to comment on interesting articles, post your own content, advertise, offer opinion and bring it alive! Otherwise, you might as well put a poster up of your profile in your office – no one’s going to notice you.

You also need to include context on your role, responsibilities and outcomes of your achievements. Obviously, there are limits to what can be shared but this needs to go beyond generic job titles – show us how good you are. This is not something that is passive, you need to be proactive in your industry – comment, publish and share. When creating your digital brand, you need to think about who you are and how you want to be perceived. A strategy for what you want to achieve and how you plan to do it is the best place to start. What a successful profile achieves for one person may not be right for another. Think about how you wish to position yourself – do you want to be seen as a thought leader? Do you want to be seen as an active player in the sector, a go-to person with specialized expertise? Do you want to aim for a C-suite position or are you planning to be an independent consultant?

Are there areas where demand is high?

Knowledge and research are very busy but this is nuanced by a need for a subject specialism. Sometimes, the domain knowledge, such as life sciences or financial services, is more important than a knowledge or information background.

Do you find that this has driven people to move sector?

We’ve seen a number of moves from consulting to legal. I think this is driven by the fact that the legal sector is investing heavily in knowledge tools and systems. If your current sector is sluggish, be open minded and investigate where else you can apply your skills.

What are the most important qualities/skills employers are looking for at the moment for a senior-level executive/leader?

The most important thing we hear time and again is stakeholder management. But what does this really mean? In most organizations we work with, knowledge services are run as a cost to the business, so executives must be able to build an excellent internal brand for themselves and their department. It is important to know who your stakeholders are. This is not always obvious so continuing to develop your internal network will help you in this process. It is invaluable to capture success stories and a great way to do this is to make it an integral part of any project you run. Take a moment at the end of a project to review what was successful, what was good and why? Were there any obstacles or challenges? How did you overcome them and how has this helped the business? Being excellent at proving your value and using these success stories to illustrate them will help your stakeholders see clearly and easily why what you do is an important factor in the success of the business. Knowledge and information is usually dealing with intangible results, so executives must be excellent relationship builders and able to interpret and deliver on the needs of the business.

More and more senior professionals seem to be moving out of employed work to self-employed work, do you see this reflected in those you work with?

There are certainly some that are going down this route, particularly those later in their career who often choose this as a lifestyle option.

Are the vast majority still staying working for organizations?

I’d say in general the people we deal with at the senior level tend to stay within organizations. Some go down the self-employed route but this is often influenced by lifestyle. This is not for everyone, working by yourself can be quite lonely.

What advice would you give to those considering such a move?

Build your personal brand and network while you’re employed. Before doing this, candidates really need to ensure they have positioned their expertise beyond that of the corporate brand of their employer. Develop a stakeholder map of your external contacts from your professional network so you can see who the key influencers would be in helping you in your new career choice, develop further your network, looking at who your peers network with and making contact with those you do not yet know. Develop a clear business plan: How will you start? How will you manage if things do not happen as quickly as you’d hoped? How will you manage if things move much faster? Winning and also delivering work on your own can be very challenging. Maintaining a clear focus, keeping to a plan and anticipating the next step, always finding time to look for new work before the last project has finished will help to maintain a constant workflow. Networking with fellow independent consultants will keep you in touch with the market. Passing leads on to trusted colleagues that you cannot fulfil yourself at the time will help you embed yourself further, both with your peers and also with organizations who will come to see you as an important go-to person for their projects.

What are the challenges that those in leadership and executive roles face in terms of career and continuing development?

This can often come down to money. If firms are not investing in moving information forward, it can be a struggle to progress your department. Lack of senior stakeholders to act as sponsors for knowledge and information is also a common challenge. Finding time to focus on your own development isn’t always easy when you have multiple demands.

What advice can you give those people to help them move forward?

Grab opportunities and don’t be nervous about failing. Senior executives in knowledge and information need to continually be aware of their sector and the wider environment so as to be able to adapt themselves to stay in tune with their businesses. In the end, it comes down to knowing your skills inside out, that is knowing how they can be applied in other areas. Often, it’s a matter of semantics – what is called knowledge management in one organization maybe called something entirely different in another, perhaps coming under human resources or internal communications, for example. Being able to see where and how you can apply your skills and translating them using the language of the organization concerned is an important factor often overlooked.

In conclusion, this is a great industry to work in, it’s exciting, fast paced and always changing as new tech comes along. The keys to success are adaptability, keeping relevant and up to date through working and developing your network of contacts regularly. Be aware of the latest developments and develop a long-term plan for how to develop as a result of them to keep your career moving.