Stop Waiting for the Market to Recover — Build Optionality Now

The Executives Who Win This Cycle Aren't Waiting for Openings. They're Creating Channels.

We live in a fragilising world.

In October 2025, U.S.-based employers announced 153,074 job cuts — a +175% jump versus October 2024.

Through the first ten months of 2025, cuts totalled 1,099,500, up ~65% from ~664,839 in the same period last year.

Those are not just numbers. They're a seismic shift.

If you keep acting like yesterday's executive, you'll get yesterday's results.

And in this wave of disruption, yesterday doesn't cut it.

1. The New Rule: Never Be in One Market

Treat yourself like an antifragile system, not a single-point dependency.

Job-seeking alone = fragile.

Building channels — board seats in private equity, advisory roles with owner-founders of small-mid companies ($3-15M EBITDA), transition planning, fractional C-suite — that's antifragility in motion.

Your thesis is your divining rod.

True north.

Multiple theses make you robust, one thesis makes you brittle.

2. Build Your Radar, Not Just Your Résumé

A résumé is a fixed asset. Radars are dynamic.

You'll need ten versions of your story: one for PE firms, one for owner-operators, one for consulting roles, one for board seats.

Maybe even multiple LinkedIn accounts (distinct emails), each aligned to a channel.

Better yet — your own homepage housing all your theses, board candidacy, advisory narrative.

This is not vanity.

It's architecture.

Optionality demands structure.

3. Upgrade Your Contextual Intelligence

The world is layering automation and cost-compression into every "normal" expectation.

AI is listed as a cause for thousands of job cuts now.

Hiring announcements are down ~35% year-to-date.

For you—executive seeking to lead—not survive—this means:

• Map 50-100 private companies in your wheelhouse (whether they're for sale or not)
• Know their ownership, capital structure, value creation needs
• Use tools like PitchBook, Grata, CYNDX, plus your own engine (SignalMate)
• Use LinkedIn only as a distribution layer—not the foundation

4. Education Is Optional Until It Isn't

When the terrain shifts, your edge is your readiness.

Join networks: Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), iGlobal, American Association of Mergers & Acquisitions, McGuireWoods Private Equity Conferences, your own BlackmoreConnects Virtual PE Conference on December 17.

But don't attend as a job-seeker.

Attend as a domain-expert stepping into the deal-zone.

5. The Philosophy: Antifragile Career Design

"Antifragility is beyond resilience or robustness. The resilient resists shocks and stays the same; the antifragile gets better."

Apply this to your career:

Optionality = you are not just surviving disruption.

You're using it.

You're gaining from it.

Let layoffs, cost-cuts, AI-shifts become your source of asymmetric opportunity.

You're not waiting for the market to recover.

You're creating the market that rewards you.

Citations

• "153,074 job cuts in October; up 175% YoY."
• "1,099,500 job cuts through October; up 65% YoY."
• "AI cited for 31,039 cuts in October; 48,414 YTD."
• "Hiring plans down 35% (488,077 planned hires vs 750,333)."
• "Antifragility: 'the resilient resists shocks… the antifragile gets better.'"

© 2025 Gerald Moran O'Dwyer II | Blackmore Partners Inc.™ | BlackmoreConnects™
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