Eight Ways to Win in Today’s Job Market

Whether you’re actively looking or simply keeping your options open, the decisions you make about your career in the next twelve months could define the next decade. As an investor and Managing Director in UK recruitment and talent acquisition, I’ve watched thousands of careers accelerate — and stall. These eight principles separate the professionals who consistently land the best roles, earn the most, and build lasting careers from those who wonder where it all went wrong.

1.  Know Your Market Value — Precisely

Vague awareness of your worth is one of the most expensive mistakes a professional can make. Underpaid candidates stay underpaid; overpriced ones get screened out early. You need specific, current intelligence: what are peers in equivalent roles, at equivalent businesses, earning right now? Use salary benchmarking reports, speak to specialist recruiters, and probe your network candidly. Then price yourself correctly — and defend it with evidence, not emotion. 

• Review your market rate at least twice a year — markets move fast. 
• A good recruiter will tell you honestly where you sit. If they won’t, find one who will. 

2.  Build Your Personal Brand Before You Need It

The best opportunities rarely go to the best candidate — they go to the most visible one. By the time you’re actively job-hunting, it’s already late to start building a reputation. Your LinkedIn profile, the way you show up at industry events, the content you share, the recommendations you accumulate: these are compounding assets. The professionals who attract inbound approaches from top employers aren’t necessarily the most talented — they’re the most known. 

• Treat your LinkedIn profile as a living document, not a static CV. 
• Publish or share your thinking publicly — it signals confidence and expertise.

3.  Specialise Strategically — Then Diversify Your Value

Generalists are easy to replace; genuine specialists command premiums. But there is a ceiling to pure specialism. The most resilient high-earners combine deep expertise in one domain with transferable skills — leadership, commercial acumen, stakeholder management — that make them valuable across contexts. Choose your specialism with intent, not by accident, and map out how your skill set can flex as markets shift. 

• Ask: “In five years, will this skill be more or less in demand?” 
• Build T-shaped expertise: deep in one area, broad enough to lead across others. 

4.  Negotiate Every Time — Not Just at the Start

Most professionals negotiate once: when they accept an offer. The savviest negotiate continuously — at review cycles, after project wins, when taking on expanded responsibility, and before their employer realises how much it would cost to replace them. Salary compression is real: loyal employees often earn less than new hires doing the same job. Staying silent about your value does not earn respect; it erodes your position. 

• Document your contributions and commercial impact in a running “wins log” throughout the year. 
• A competing offer is the most powerful negotiating tool you have — but only works if you’re genuinely willing to leave.

5.  Choose Sectors and Businesses With Tailwinds

Even exceptional talent struggles in a shrinking industry. Where you work matters as much as how well you work. Assess the structural health of the sectors you’re considering: Is demand growing? Are margins expanding or contracting? Is the business model being disrupted? A mid-level role in a high-growth business with strong fundamentals will often outperform a senior role in a declining one — both financially and in terms of career progression. 

• Read investor reports and earnings calls — they’re more honest about business direction than job adverts.
• Ask hiring managers directly: “What’s driving growth here over the next three years?”

6.  Treat Your Network as Infrastructure, Not a Lifeline 

The professionals who call their network only when they need a job find it isn’t there. A high-quality network is built in the quiet periods: introductions made for others, expertise shared generously, relationships sustained without an agenda. In a market where a significant proportion of senior roles are never advertised, your network is not supplementary to your job search — it’s the primary channel. Invest accordingly. 

• Reconnect with 3–5 meaningful contacts per month, with no immediate ask.
• Build relationships with 2–3 specialist recruiters in your space — before you need them.

7.  Evaluate Roles on the Full Package, Not Just Salary 

Base salary is the most visible number but rarely the most important one. Equity, pension contributions, flexible working, development budget, bonus structure, career trajectory and the quality of the people you’ll work alongside all carry real economic and personal value. I’ve seen candidates take a £5k pay cut to join a business that paid them £30k more within eighteen months. Conversely, I’ve seen people chase headline salaries into roles that cost them their progression, their health, or both. 

• Create a simple scoring matrix before any decision: weight each factor by what genuinely matters to you.
• Probe the real culture: speak to people who’ve left, not just those still there.

8.  Move Deliberately — But Don’t Stand Still

Reactive career moves — fleeing a bad manager, chasing a marginal pay rise, taking the first offer after redundancy — compound over time into a CV that tells the wrong story. The best careers are built on deliberate choices: moves made toward something, not away from it. That said, staying too long in a role that’s stopped developing you is equally damaging. A rule of thumb: if you haven’t grown meaningfully in eighteen months and the next eighteen look the same, it’s time to reassess. 

• Write a “career brief” for yourself annually: where do I want to be in three years, and what’s the most direct route? 
• The best time to explore the market is when you don’t urgently need to. Urgency destroys leverage.

The talent market rewards those who approach it with the same rigour they would any other strategic decision. Manage your career like an asset: understand its value, invest in it consistently, and make moves with a clear thesis behind them. The professionals who do this don’t just earn more — they work better, stay more engaged, and build something that compounds.