I think this is the toughest job market in a generation. But in my experience, the bigger problem isn’t the market. It’s that a lot of very capable senior people are still playing the old game, and the rules have changed. For most of my career, being senior meant being the expert, and that is what got you hired. I would now say expertise is only around a third of how a senior person is judged. The other two thirds are how well you use AI to amplify your work, and who knows and rates you, including what your network tells you about where your industry is heading.
Even the third that is expertise has changed. What matters now is your core value proposition: the specific value you would bring to the next organisation, and why you rather than anyone else. Most people I meet still describe themselves through generic strengths. “I’m good at building relationships.” “I deliver complex change.” Those are true of almost everyone at that level, so they don’t help anyone stand out.
In October I ran a small poll of senior professionals on LinkedIn, asking what would count most in their next move. Expertise and experience took 42%. Who knows and rates them also took 42%. How well they use AI took 8%. That matches what I see every week. Senior people already sense that relationships matter as much as experience. Very few have woken up to the fact that AI belongs in the same conversation.
The old game was simple. Search for jobs, apply for jobs, wait to hear. Many people still think that is what progressing a career looks like. In my experience, searching and applying is now only about 20% of the effort. The other 80% is visibility: being known for something specific, by the right people, often before a role is ever advertised. That is where AI and your value proposition come in, because together they shape what people see when they look at you.
Part of the reason is volume. Earlier this year I placed a test job advert for a senior role on LinkedIn, with a bold line at the top: “Please do not apply, this is a fake job.” In April it drew 350 applicants in a week. In September a similar advert drew around 400 in the first 30 minutes and 920 within six hours. People applied anyway, in their hundreds. When everyone is applying for everything, expertise on paper becomes the entry ticket. It stops being the thing that gets you chosen.
The same pattern shows up at interview. Someone is asked for an example of a time they led a complex project, or built stakeholder relationships. They give a good answer, from 2021 or 2022. The trouble is that the world they are describing has gone. The tools have changed, and so has what good looks like.
Star Power
The strongest answers now recognise that. In effect they say: this is what I did then, and on reflection, this is how I would do it now. I teach this as an extension of the familiar STAR technique, which I call STARRT. The second R is Reflection: what you would do differently with today’s tools. The final T is Throwback: when a question is very general, you politely pass it back and ask for clarity. Asked for a time you led complex change, you might say it has been a consistent theme over the last ten years, and ask whether there is a particular example they would like. These sound like small changes. In practice they tell the panel you are current, and already thinking about how the work will be done in their organisation.
A client I worked with recently showed what this looks like. They didn’t just apply for the role. They used AI to build an interactive dashboard for the organisation, something that would once have taken days and was put together very quickly. Then, when asked about a programme they had led, they talked through the communications plan and explained how much of the stakeholder mapping could now be automated, and how interactive tools could keep engagement high by speaking to each audience in the way most relevant to them. They were offered the role, and the organisation was so impressed that it offered more than the salary it had advertised.
That is what I mean by using AI to amplify your work. Not treating it as a chatbot, but using it to show, very practically, the value you would bring. In that one example, expertise, AI and a clear value proposition all came together, and were made visible to the people making the decision.
Relationships matter just as much, and they are not about the number of connections. It is who knows you, rates you and would put your name forward for a role that is never advertised. It is also what your network tells you: what is changing in your industry, which organisations are about to restructure, where the next problem is coming from. People who keep those conversations going hear about change early. Those who stop tend to find out at the same time as everyone else, often after a restructure, when rebuilding is much harder.
For employers, the point goes beyond individual careers. If organisations judge senior people on three things, they should develop them on three things. In my experience, most leadership development still centres on functional expertise, with very little to help senior people use AI in their own work or keep the outside relationships that tell an organisation what is coming.
None of this means expertise no longer matters. It still counts for a third, and nobody gets through the door without it. But the rules have changed, and the people doing well now are the ones who are alert to that, adapt quickly and stay agile. Expertise still gets you in. It no longer gets you chosen.
Richard Edge is the founder of Careerships and an executive careers partner to senior professionals. A former HR Director, he works with directors and senior leaders on how they are judged in the AI era and how they plan their next move.
November 3, 2026
Senior people are still playing the old game, but the rules have changed
by Richard Edge • Comment, Workplace
Even the third that is expertise has changed. What matters now is your core value proposition: the specific value you would bring to the next organisation, and why you rather than anyone else. Most people I meet still describe themselves through generic strengths. “I’m good at building relationships.” “I deliver complex change.” Those are true of almost everyone at that level, so they don’t help anyone stand out.
In October I ran a small poll of senior professionals on LinkedIn, asking what would count most in their next move. Expertise and experience took 42%. Who knows and rates them also took 42%. How well they use AI took 8%. That matches what I see every week. Senior people already sense that relationships matter as much as experience. Very few have woken up to the fact that AI belongs in the same conversation.
The old game was simple. Search for jobs, apply for jobs, wait to hear. Many people still think that is what progressing a career looks like. In my experience, searching and applying is now only about 20% of the effort. The other 80% is visibility: being known for something specific, by the right people, often before a role is ever advertised. That is where AI and your value proposition come in, because together they shape what people see when they look at you.
Part of the reason is volume. Earlier this year I placed a test job advert for a senior role on LinkedIn, with a bold line at the top: “Please do not apply, this is a fake job.” In April it drew 350 applicants in a week. In September a similar advert drew around 400 in the first 30 minutes and 920 within six hours. People applied anyway, in their hundreds. When everyone is applying for everything, expertise on paper becomes the entry ticket. It stops being the thing that gets you chosen.
The same pattern shows up at interview. Someone is asked for an example of a time they led a complex project, or built stakeholder relationships. They give a good answer, from 2021 or 2022. The trouble is that the world they are describing has gone. The tools have changed, and so has what good looks like.
Star Power
The strongest answers now recognise that. In effect they say: this is what I did then, and on reflection, this is how I would do it now. I teach this as an extension of the familiar STAR technique, which I call STARRT. The second R is Reflection: what you would do differently with today’s tools. The final T is Throwback: when a question is very general, you politely pass it back and ask for clarity. Asked for a time you led complex change, you might say it has been a consistent theme over the last ten years, and ask whether there is a particular example they would like. These sound like small changes. In practice they tell the panel you are current, and already thinking about how the work will be done in their organisation.
A client I worked with recently showed what this looks like. They didn’t just apply for the role. They used AI to build an interactive dashboard for the organisation, something that would once have taken days and was put together very quickly. Then, when asked about a programme they had led, they talked through the communications plan and explained how much of the stakeholder mapping could now be automated, and how interactive tools could keep engagement high by speaking to each audience in the way most relevant to them. They were offered the role, and the organisation was so impressed that it offered more than the salary it had advertised.
That is what I mean by using AI to amplify your work. Not treating it as a chatbot, but using it to show, very practically, the value you would bring. In that one example, expertise, AI and a clear value proposition all came together, and were made visible to the people making the decision.
Relationships matter just as much, and they are not about the number of connections. It is who knows you, rates you and would put your name forward for a role that is never advertised. It is also what your network tells you: what is changing in your industry, which organisations are about to restructure, where the next problem is coming from. People who keep those conversations going hear about change early. Those who stop tend to find out at the same time as everyone else, often after a restructure, when rebuilding is much harder.
For employers, the point goes beyond individual careers. If organisations judge senior people on three things, they should develop them on three things. In my experience, most leadership development still centres on functional expertise, with very little to help senior people use AI in their own work or keep the outside relationships that tell an organisation what is coming.
None of this means expertise no longer matters. It still counts for a third, and nobody gets through the door without it. But the rules have changed, and the people doing well now are the ones who are alert to that, adapt quickly and stay agile. Expertise still gets you in. It no longer gets you chosen.
Richard Edge is the founder of Careerships and an executive careers partner to senior professionals. A former HR Director, he works with directors and senior leaders on how they are judged in the AI era and how they plan their next move.