💡 𝘈𝘴 𝘘4 𝘬𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘴 𝘰𝘧𝘧, 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦’𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘶𝘱 𝘫𝘰𝘣 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘴𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘰𝘯. 𝘛hey are not mine alone but aggregated from my daily conversations with job seekers, founders, VCs, and startup enablers 1️⃣ 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗿 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗲𝗹𝘂𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲. Startups may be hiring, but they’re setting the bar high. For eg I recently discussed a B2B Marketing Leader role for a post-Series C company and realized that, based on the criteria, the right candidate doesn’t exist in SEA. The search will need to go global. 2️⃣ 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗳𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗴𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹. Many ex-startup leaders are launching communities, which is fantastic. But as I get invited to more, I sense community fatigue might start setting in as people are pulled in too many directions. 3️⃣ 𝗖𝗿𝗼𝘀𝘀-𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴. Senior roles are increasingly moving across the region as talent pools in neighboring countries rise but not all is rosy. Read article in comments for something we wrote yesterday 4️⃣ 𝗣𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗹𝗶𝗼 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲. Many senior leaders are embracing the flexibility and diversity of roles, with fractional leadership communities and platforms emerging to support this growing interest. A ex-candidate texted me yesterday to share her excitement about pursuing five different projects after she left her full time role. The energy is contagious! What else are you seeing? Grateful for some feedback #StartupLife #TalentTrends #Q4Insights
Grace Clapham
2mo
I wholly agree about community fatigue but I think it's also because too many people building community like a fad right now. It reminds me back to days in 2011-2015 where there was an abundance of events and communities as the SG govt was trying to drive startup ecosystem. Like anything there is a time and a need for certain communities, and some is there for a season vs a reason. In my experience and what I always say when I'm working with businesses or startups is that it's easy to start a community but sustaining it or building strong engagement is hard. Often from working with startups, scaleups or big well known brands they miss the strategic planning and want quick wins, making it often a one sided approach and often not clearly thought out. I've also been seeing the last year that the word community is just being thrown out everywhere and a bit over used. I'm very conscious of the type of companies or brands to work with that really want a growth strategy with a CLG approach.
Rue-Hann Lim
2mo
Definitely an increase in fractional services Elena Chow :) I may be incorrect, but from a quick conversation with a handful of founders my preliminary observations of the challenge with pre-seed or early stage startups is budget. And thus the fractional service may be for a shorter timeframe or a smaller scope to start off with. However, I resonate with your ex-candidate on the diversity and excitement of pursuing different projects :) learning a whole lot!
Nicki Soffe
2mo
Thanks for the insights Elena. From my limited experience in job searching over the past few months, I agree that senior roles are elusive, and it seems that there is still indecision from employers. It may be that the role isn't fully budgeted, they aren't sure exactly what the role is, or they repurpose it part way through the recruitment process.
Josiah L.
2mo
Agree! More employers should be open-minded and consider employees who are remotely situated. There’s so much untapped talent globally, and remote work allows companies to access diverse skill sets while fostering innovation and flexibility. It’s great to see this shift happening, but there’s still room for more companies to embrace it fully.
Christina Lim
2mo
You are right on the community fatigue. i have also found that they are more of the same..
Ivo Verhaegh
2mo
Tnx for sharing Elena! Re. point 1, do I understand correctly that startups are mainly hiring for senior roles instead of junior or medior at the moment?
Moritz Kaffsack
2mo
The contagious energy surrounding portfolio careers is real! Once your mind is open to the possibility of putting independence and self-fulfilment at the core of work life, it's hard (maybe impossible) to turn back. And it’s infectious - as Portfolio Careers in Asia's huge organic growth shows. Here to stay, I'm sure. Something else that strikes me: I see talent needs becoming very specific lately, often targeted at important, but very niche skills. Maybe this is because with slow hiring, open tasks are distributed to generalists already on the team, leaving only the really tough problems for specialists to crack? Would be interested to know if anyone else is seeing this.
Grace Clapham
2mo
Moritz Kaffsack I would agree that events aren't communities. In fact I gave a keynote presentation not long ago to 300+ MICE organisations on talking about why Events are NOT communities in my perspective but that they are part of the community flywheel/journey. I believe as long as your reason for being, your why is authentic, the community provides a sense of belonging, meaningful relationships and shared trust(though I'm not a fan of that word!) there will be a need for the community. And then how one considers leveraging CLG as a brand is dependent but doesn't mean it shouldn't be authentic still. From reviewing 1000s if not 100,000s of thousands - for profit, non-profit or casual communities that have formed over passion the core attribute that is essential is having the sense of belonging around a shared sense of identity or coming around shared interests, challenges, and connection. The problem I see is right now everyone and their mum is wanting to build a community, just like in the early days of everyone wanting to build startups. But there is limited questioning as to do we need to build just "another community", what purpose will this community serve that adds value, closes a gap, am I willing to commit to this
Michelle Low
2mo
Elena, you bring up a good point. I'm also seeing an increase in cross-border hiring - not just in terms of back office roles but also client-facing roles too. I've found that in my past experience in running SEA teams, the keys to success are: 1) over-communicate. Especially make the invisible norms visible 2) intentionally set the employee up for success. (It can be something as simple as a second monitor!) 3) factor in frequent travel and accommodations in the budget. 4) hire right (harder than it sounds!) 😀😀 Exciting times ahead!
Talent & Career Solutions I SEA Startups I Talent@Web3
2mohttps://www.connectone.com.sg/insights/from-singapore-to-malaysia-key-considerations-for-startups-exploring-cross-border-teams