The times they are a-changing. I woke up early this morning to get some extra work done – maybe I was worried about Wall Street or perhaps it was a coffee deficit. My email inbox was full of dire warnings about the collapse of the global economy, recession, bankruptcy and job cuts. That last topic, or more generally, job security, has come up in a number of emails and calls I have received over the past two weeks from Sales Engineers concerned about their job.

Yet on the “fair and balanced” side of things, I know there are still recruiters out there looking to hire SE’s into a number of smaller and mid-sized companies.  I know this because I receive a dozen emails every week from recruiters who want to know “if I know anyone who might be interested in a position” and I know they are not trying to hire me!

This is all prompting me to abandon my original idea for the November Talking Point focused on Sales Methodology and to write something about how to hang onto your SE job during a recession.

My first piece of advice, and I quote my good friend Eric in this, is to “fill in the gaps”. What is NOT getting done in your organization right now that should be. Is there a skill gap, a coverage gap, customer satisfaction issues, product definition deficiencies? Choose one of those gaps and talk to your boss about how you can fill it – in addition to doing what you are doing right now.