Yes.. it is a thing - Poly Employment. Who knew that where I am today is due to multiple trends - Poly Employment, GenAI, Tech Layoffs, Remote work.
A few weeks ago I had posted about how I felt that I am a GenAI General Contractor. I work with companies on leveraging GenAI for their GTM (and sometimes just on their GTM strategy). For 20+ years prior to that I had spent at various software companies (one at a time) in various GTM roles and there were things that you just accepted as the norm -
Loyalty to the company and the people
Pride in the product and in representing it
Growth meant climbing the corporate ladder (promotions / raises), managing larger and larger teams.
Not much value was associated with mentoring peers or folks on other teams as this was not noticed.
You had a GTM ole that you were accountable for (sales, pre-sales, CSM, PS etc.) and you stayed in your lane (I fought this a lot)
You made a lot more money if you work with Enterprise (Strat) customers. Even though they were a pain and you spent more time dealing with change management / politics etc. Which is why you got paid more.
Healthcare and benefits were a given
I felt guilty about playing golf every morning and starting my work day at 9:30 am. Even though I'd work late at night and weekends. Something about, "I just came back from golf" does not sound the same as "I just came back from my exercise class" or "I just came back from a walk".
Your days are so packed that you just have no time to learn and develop new skills.
Ever since I started my own consulting firm, the rules have changed -
I am no longer representing one product. In fact depending on the challenges the customer is facing, I might be helping them using Clay.com, anyquest.ai, Gong.io. I might be recommending solutions like salesmotion.io, pipelinegeneration.ai, tribyl.com or letter.ai. And, depending on what their needs are I might learn a few more products.
I am no longer doing one GTM role. I am doing all of them. I am selling the above mentioned products and I am selling my services. I am implementing these products and I am making sure that customers are getting value from them. I do have a unique skill set where I can go deep technically, I can sell by demonstrating value and I am strategic.
I am free from growth being tied to promotion and raises. I don't have large teams to manage. I can do what I do best and can be a great individual contributor and not feel like my growth options were limited. I can mentor people without them having to be my direct reports, because it gives me a lot of satisfaction.
I can work with mid market customers and still be successful. I can work with SMBs and deliver tremendous value with GenAI. I don't need a large million dollar deal from a large enterprise. It is so much more fulfilling as the time to value is fast. It reminds me of the most fun I ever had selling, when I first joined Tableau and would go land a bunch of logos. Show them Tableau desktop, blow their socks away and they would buy immediately.
I play golf almost everyday and I make sure not to schedule meetings till after my golf is done. I still work late at night and on weekends. As they say, if the work is fun, then it does not feel like work.
I keep 25% of my time to learn, experiment and share about GenAI. This field is changing really fast and you need to invest on staying on top of it.
Of everything on the list above, the General Contractor piece (representing multiple products) is the one that I am most enjoying. My reasons for poly employment is different. It is freeing to not have to show up with a hammer to every job. Now I show up with a tool belt and I can choose the right tool for the right job. I can put the customers need first and then work from that. In the past, I had a few choices - I could either walk away from the job (if I truly had my customers interest at heart) or I could try and change aspects of the job so that it was more in favor of the tool I had or I would do my part of the job with my tool and they had to figure out the rest themselves.
Bottomline I feel extremely lucky. Over the years I developed skills that put me in this perfect position to take advantage of this huge market opportunity tied to GenAI. In fact the roles I took at Tableau and Gong were the perfect training to do what I am now doing. I think it is a true statement that "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity".
What are you waiting for?