Hiring Trends: Employers Seeking Unicorn Candidates Amid Budget Cuts and Role Freezes

Jenni Adair · 2026-04-01T15:34:59.417Z

I think the openings are getting pulled and the budgets are getting put on hold or cut. That's what I'm seeing as I look for roles. I think there are plenty of candidates to choose from but they are all looking for a "unicorn" (whatever that looks like in their eyes) and don't seem to care as much about how much experience one has but rather finding someone they can pay less and add more jobs to the plate. This is what I'm seeing anyway. Ha!

10 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Mary Green
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I think for our roles we've always seen a bit of a kitchen sink JD, bc they don't always know what they need. But this has evolved to now be expected. The best I can offer is to do a phased approach, but it isn't easy. Oracle laid off 30,000 people starting this week. This will make it even harder to stand out. It feels like you have to be the unicorn and make it obvious or you don't get the job. 😞
Mary Green
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Irwin Hipsman have you seen how often companies are hiring for similar roles? I've noticed the same companies hiring less than a year after posting about CMA, but it is the same position.
👍1
Luis Gonzalez
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Jenni Adair nailed it on the head
Jennifer Lyons
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Mary Green are you suggesting the roles aren’t filled, or that turnover is high? Jenni Adair that’s some food for thought. Maybe I should add a lowball rate at the top of my resume, with the caveat that, for that rate, I do not travel, I work from home, I will always be business casual, and I will only work 9-5. And they have to offer support, training, and growth opportunities.
💯1
Sandhya Simhan
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Customer marketing has a branding problem (at least in B2B) 🙃 I agree that everyone thinks we're the case study + email + community forum + kitchen sink team. Nobody's thinking "oh that's the team running the expansion playbook." but that's literally what we are — or should be. I'm closer to a growth PMM than anything else in marketing and I keep that title internally because product, eng, and sales will absolutely brush me off otherwise. ALSO we're sleeping on AI compared to PMM. I'm in a bunch of those communities and the PMM slacks have whole channels just for Claude and Openclaw. There are tons of courses and PMM influencers on LinkedIn talking about AI workflows and I struggle to find the same for customer marketing. The harsh truth is that it's an employer's market. "I've done this before" doesn't matter nearly as much as "I can figure it out with AI". I say this as someone who has the blue chip names on my resume butb the recruiters who reach out always care more about my LinkedIn posts on AI. RevOps already learned this the hard way... GTM engineer is just RevOps with AI fluency baked in. I think we're next in line for that same reckoning.
Mary Green
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Jennifer Lyons turnover is high.
Jennifer Lyons
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Yup. That’s been my observation as well.
Amy
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Sandhya Simhan you are spot on with AI and "kitchen sink" 👀. And let's not forget that now we are also expected to be proficient in the complex world of customer marketing technology vendors, how they integrate with Salesforce, etc. Not to mention being able to speak the language of security, legal and compliance teams who have to understand the value + review and approve of new technology platforms.
2
Kevin Lau
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What I've seen at least in hiring both people managers and ICs, the JD is often times completely inaccurate to what they will actually be doing in seat. It also becomes increasingly complicated when the hiring manager is not able to communicate the departments value ie disconnect btwn case study team vs. orchestrating the post-sale. How you sell it internally is half the battle before the role even becomes available. And unfortunately just bc a role is greenlit doesnt mean it's guaranteed to be around until it's filled especially for public companies where saas values are decreasing overnight because of AI. All this to say, I dont think it's just a customer marketing problem. Other departments have the same challenge.
Kristin Blye
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Sandhya Simhan I'd love to learn how you're running expansion playbooks as a customer marketer! It's a need-to-have skill. Do you have any tips or tricks on how to get started?

Mary Green
·
·
I think for our roles we've always seen a bit of a kitchen sink JD, bc they don't always know what they need. But this has evolved to now be expected. The best I can offer is to do a phased approach, but it isn't easy. Oracle laid off 30,000 people starting this week. This will make it even harder to stand out. It feels like you have to be the unicorn and make it obvious or you don't get the job. 😞
Mary Green
·
·
Irwin Hipsman have you seen how often companies are hiring for similar roles? I've noticed the same companies hiring less than a year after posting about CMA, but it is the same position.
👍1
Luis Gonzalez
·
·
Jenni Adair nailed it on the head
Jennifer Lyons
·
·
Mary Green are you suggesting the roles aren’t filled, or that turnover is high? Jenni Adair that’s some food for thought. Maybe I should add a lowball rate at the top of my resume, with the caveat that, for that rate, I do not travel, I work from home, I will always be business casual, and I will only work 9-5. And they have to offer support, training, and growth opportunities.
💯1
Sandhya Simhan
·
·
Customer marketing has a branding problem (at least in B2B) 🙃 I agree that everyone thinks we're the case study + email + community forum + kitchen sink team. Nobody's thinking "oh that's the team running the expansion playbook." but that's literally what we are — or should be. I'm closer to a growth PMM than anything else in marketing and I keep that title internally because product, eng, and sales will absolutely brush me off otherwise. ALSO we're sleeping on AI compared to PMM. I'm in a bunch of those communities and the PMM slacks have whole channels just for Claude and Openclaw. There are tons of courses and PMM influencers on LinkedIn talking about AI workflows and I struggle to find the same for customer marketing. The harsh truth is that it's an employer's market. "I've done this before" doesn't matter nearly as much as "I can figure it out with AI". I say this as someone who has the blue chip names on my resume butb the recruiters who reach out always care more about my LinkedIn posts on AI. RevOps already learned this the hard way... GTM engineer is just RevOps with AI fluency baked in. I think we're next in line for that same reckoning.
Mary Green
·
·
Jennifer Lyons turnover is high.
Jennifer Lyons
·
·
Yup. That’s been my observation as well.
Amy
·
·
Sandhya Simhan you are spot on with AI and "kitchen sink" 👀. And let's not forget that now we are also expected to be proficient in the complex world of customer marketing technology vendors, how they integrate with Salesforce, etc. Not to mention being able to speak the language of security, legal and compliance teams who have to understand the value + review and approve of new technology platforms.
2
Kevin Lau
·
·
What I've seen at least in hiring both people managers and ICs, the JD is often times completely inaccurate to what they will actually be doing in seat. It also becomes increasingly complicated when the hiring manager is not able to communicate the departments value ie disconnect btwn case study team vs. orchestrating the post-sale. How you sell it internally is half the battle before the role even becomes available. And unfortunately just bc a role is greenlit doesnt mean it's guaranteed to be around until it's filled especially for public companies where saas values are decreasing overnight because of AI. All this to say, I dont think it's just a customer marketing problem. Other departments have the same challenge.
Kristin Blye
·
·
Sandhya Simhan I'd love to learn how you're running expansion playbooks as a customer marketer! It's a need-to-have skill. Do you have any tips or tricks on how to get started?