While we are talking about hiring top quality Sales Engineers, paradoxically it might be harder to find those top A-list employees during a downturn. Why? This article at Summation discusses why the employment market is so much noisier now: http://blog.summation.net/2009/03/why-hiring-is-paradoxically-harder-in-a-downturn.html
The main reasons are:
- While top people might be out of work due to large scale economic reasons (business goes bust, niche product sales drop) but they are the people organisations want to keep the most
- Because it is harder for less skilled employees to find jobs, they have to apply for more and go to more interviews
- Screening Interviews have more applicants and therefore need to let a lower percentage through