As professionals rethink their careers in 2025, a quiet transformation is unfolding. More and more executives and senior leaders are stepping out of traditional corporate structures and stepping into new territory: small businesses, entrepreneurial ventures, and growth-stage companies.
This week on The Job Hunting Podcast, I spoke with TJ Slattery, founder of Crowsnest Consulting. His career has spanned industries and business models, from founding and exiting a startup brewery to advising small business owners across the United States. His insights are both practical and timely for professionals considering a career pivot. Below, you will learn more about what we unpacked in our conversation and what it means for your job search.
Current Job Market Trends:
Hiring activity has slowed in many industries, but not all opportunities are disappearing. Here's what we're seeing this week:
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United Kingdom: The job market is experiencing a slowdown in hiring, with a decrease in permanent job vacancies. This trend underscores the importance of differentiation and flexibility in career strategies.
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Australia: Despite global uncertainties, the country has seen a slight increase in total jobs, indicating resilience in specific sectors. Targeting industries that demonstrate growth may yield opportunities. Click here to read LinkedIn's report on Australia's top companies.
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European Union: The EU is actively attracting foreign workers to address skill shortages in various sectors, presenting opportunities for professionals considering relocation or seeking roles in high-demand industries. I have seen this happen with clients of mine who are being interviewed in Europe, live overseas, and don't have a European passport.
- International Development and NGOs: In a meeting with HR leaders of NGOs and International Development agencies, organized by LinkedIn Germany, I found out about the extent of the budget cuts to the sector and their impact on job security for thousands of professionals worldwide. You can read more about it here and here. I'm hoping to be involved in the efforts to provide coaching for these professionals. But if you know people in this sector, it's important to keep in touch with them and support them in the months ahead.
Joining a Small Business Means Leveraging Your Corporate Experience in a New Way
Your years of experience in corporate environments have tremendous value. But as our podcast guest (ep 285) TJ Slattery explains, that value may be even greater outside of the traditional corporate world.
Small businesses and startups are increasingly hiring experienced professionals to help them prepare for growth, structure their operations, or even prepare themselves for acquisition. In these roles, you won’t be one of many. You’ll often be the person shaping strategy, streamlining operations, and stabilizing performance.
The key difference? Small businesses often lack the infrastructure that corporate professionals are used to. They need people who can operate independently, roll up their sleeves, and deliver impact without relying on large teams or formal systems.
Cultural Adaptation: It’s Not Just a Smaller Version of Corporate
Working in a small business environment requires a mindset shift. Here’s what to expect:
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Less structure: There may be no HR team, no onboarding process, and no formal job description.
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More variety: You’ll likely wear multiple hats, moving between strategy and hands-on delivery.
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Ambiguity: Your role may evolve as the business grows, and you’ll need to grow with it.
TJ calls this the “Swiss Army knife” factor. Small business teams need versatile, proactive, and confident people navigating uncertainty. This shift can be challenging but deeply rewarding for professionals coming from a more structured corporate environment.
From Big to Small: How One Executive Made the Shift
One of my clients, a highly experienced senior executive, recently made a bold career move. After a successful career in a large, complex organization where she led significant operational and financial portfolios, she accepted a leadership role in a much smaller company.
For many experienced professionals, this type of transition can raise questions: Will I still be challenged? Will I be the right fit? Will hiring managers see past the size of my previous roles to recognize what I can offer in a leaner setup?
When she contacted me for coaching, these were exactly the types of questions we discussed together. A big part of our work was helping her reposition her story and update her resume so that her strengths would clearly translate to a smaller organization.
Here’s what we focused on:
- Adaptability: We unpacked her past experiences and reframed them to show how she’d driven efficiency and innovation, often with limited resources or while leading change through ambiguity, something that smaller companies value deeply.
- Versatility: We revised her resume to highlight her work across functions and her ability to wear multiple hats, not just manage large departments.
- Values and Leadership Style: We discussed her leadership approach, and she learned to speak confidently about it. In smaller teams, a personal leadership style can make or break culture fit, and it needed to come through clearly.
- Strategic Thinking, Scaled: Rather than focusing on the size of the budgets or teams she had led, we focused on the strategic thinking behind her decisions: how she created sustainable funding models, navigated crises, and built high-performing teams. That kind of thinking applies in any business, big or small.
The lesson here is that transitioning into a new context requires the right skills and knowledge of how to tell your story, potentially in a new way, for a new audience. That’s where coaching can make all the difference.
If you're navigating a shift in industry, role, or organization size and are unsure how to position yourself, this kind of strategic career work can help you open the right doors. Contact me if I can help you.
Join Me Tomorrow: LinkedIn Event
Elizabeth Lotardo is hosting a LinkedIn Learning event, and I'm her guest. She will ask me how to network and grow your career in 2025 and beyond. Elizabeth was my guest for The Job Hunting Podcast episode 283 and is an expert in self-leadership.
What we plan to cover:
- Tips to stand out in crowded applicant pools
- Strategies to build your network (no cringe required)
- Techniques to better target your search and increase your ROI on job-hunting time
- Language to position career changes and pivots in conversations
Listen to This Week’s Episode
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If you’re considering stepping out of corporate, know that there are more options than you may think. Working in or with a small business is a chance to apply your skills more directly, make faster decisions, and have greater ownership of outcomes. The best time to explore this path? Before you feel forced to. To get ahead, I highly recommend listening to this episode, as it's rare for us to have a guest like TJ, discussing business ownership, startup, and small business dynamics.
- Listen to the full episode on the podcast website
- Listen on Apple Podcasts
- Listen on Spotify
- Listen on Audible
Time Out
I'm listening to Selena Gomez's new album, like half the planet, and I love every song. My favourite is Bluest Flame (in collaboration with the awesome Clarlie XCX), but the treatment of the sounds on Younger and Hotter Than Me is gorgeous. You can feel the influence of Finneas (Billy Eilish's brother), who is playing the piano.
If you need something light and funny, try Not Dead Yet. I will watch anything with Gina Rodriguez. She plays a journalist who writes obituaries and sees dead people. I know how it sounds, but I promise it's funny.
If this newsletter helped you:
- Please help me raise awareness for the newsletter. You can forward it to other professionals who may benefit from it. I will be forever grateful to you. They can click here to subscribe.
- Visit my website for more information about career coaching. There are services and courses available to help you achieve your career goals.
To your career success
RBX
Renata Bernarde | Career Coach | Host, The Job Hunting Podcast
