They Fired the People They Are Now Looking For
The talent shortage is a lie. It is a packaging gap — and it is fixable.
They Fired the People They Are Now Looking For
Korn Ferry published a report this week that every senior professional should read.
Companies say they cannot find people with the right skills. Those same companies laid off hundreds of thousands of senior professionals in the last 24 months who have exactly those skills.
That is not a talent shortage. That is a talent disposal problem.
What Is Actually Happening
Companies eliminated the headcount but not the need. They still have the same problems — broken go-to-market strategies, stalled revenue, supply chains that do not work. They just do not want to hire a full-time VP to solve them anymore.
They want the expertise without owning the person.
Most of the professionals I work with are still playing the old game. Polishing the resume. Refreshing LinkedIn. Applying through the portal. Waiting. Meanwhile the market has quietly shifted to a different model — one where your expertise gets deployed across two or three companies instead of owned by one.
The Packaging Gap
Korn Ferry calls this a skills mismatch. I call it a packaging gap.
The people companies need exist. They are sitting at home wondering what went wrong with a career they spent 25 years building. The companies need them but have convinced themselves they cannot afford a full-time hire at that level. So both sides stay stuck — one underemployed, the other understaffed.
The gap is not about skills. It is about how those skills are being offered to the market.
A K employee and a K-a-year independent practice are the same expertise. Different packaging. One the market is buying right now, one it is not.
You Do Not Have to Choose
Here is what I tell every professional I work with who is sitting in this exact moment.
You do not have to quit anything. You do not have to hang a shingle. You do not have to become a salesperson overnight. What you have to do is stop letting one company own all of your expertise — and start thinking about how to make it available to the market on your terms.
Some people do that through a new W-2 role. Some build an independent practice. Most smart ones are doing both at the same time, because the window Korn Ferry just documented is not going to stay open forever.
This is the dual-track approach. Keep your job search active. Keep applying for the right full-time opportunities. And simultaneously, start building the foundation of an independent practice — your positioning, your first potential client conversation, your service model — so that when the window closes, you are already on the right side of it.
Why Both Tracks at Once
The professionals who are winning right now are not the ones who made a dramatic pivot. They are the ones who started quietly building while everyone else was waiting for the market to normalize.
They kept their options open. They stayed in conversations for full-time roles. And they started having different kinds of conversations — ones that began with the problem a company was trying to solve, not with a resume and a salary requirement.
Some of those conversations turned into consulting engagements. Some turned into advisory relationships. A few turned into full-time roles. All of them moved faster than the job board applications.
That is what the dual-track looks like in practice.
The Window
We do not know how long it stays open.
The Korn Ferry data suggests companies are actively looking for the expertise they discarded. That creates a window for senior professionals to re-enter the market on better terms — not as desperate job seekers, but as experts with specific solutions to specific problems.
That window will not stay open indefinitely. When companies figure out how to structure these engagements at scale, the terms will get less favorable. The professionals who position now — before the model is fully defined — are the ones who will set the rates, own the relationships, and build the practices that last.
What Packaging Actually Means
You do not need a website. You do not need an LLC on day one. You do not need a logo or a brand name.
What you need is a clear answer to one question: what specific problem do I solve, for what kind of company, and what does the outcome look like?
Not a job title. Not a list of responsibilities. A problem and an outcome.
"I fix broken go-to-market operations for mid-market SaaS companies. Most of my clients see pipeline velocity improve 30-40% in the first 90 days."
That sentence is a business. It tells a company exactly what they are buying. It is the beginning of a conversation that a resume application never starts.
Two Paths. One Window.
If you are staying focused on the full-time track: the Korn Ferry report is a signal to sharpen your positioning now. The companies that are hiring at your level are not looking for someone who managed a budget and led a team. They are looking for someone who solved a specific problem at scale. Lead with outcomes, not responsibilities.
If you are ready to start building the independent track alongside your search: the model is simpler than you think. Two or three clients, each paying for specific outcomes, each getting a fraction of your time and all of your expertise. That is what an independent practice looks like at the senior level. And right now, the demand for that model is higher than the supply of people who know how to offer it.
Most smart professionals are building both right now. The W-2 search stays active. The independent practice starts quietly in the background. When the right opportunity comes — full-time or fractional — they are positioned to take it.
That is the play the Korn Ferry report is pointing at, even if they did not say it that plainly.