Positioning

©️ Sunny Future (Polymaths BV). June 2026..

“Your career is not a ladder, it’s a jungle gym. Look for opportunities, look for growth, look for impact, look for mission. Move sideways, move down, move on, move off.” Sheryl Sandberg (2014)

State Of The Market - 5 Tips

EVERYTHING is tech, like it or not. Exciting opportunities lie with companies and sectors that did not exist 5 years ago: GenAI, planetary health, cybersecurity, society as a service, defense, longevity.

Look beyond borders. In Europe specifically, seek challenges where technology is at its most innovative. Geopolitics, demographics, and clusters transform where wealth is created.

Go broad then narrow. Explore new/adjacent growth areas. Zero in on companies that make an impact you care about, understand their challenges, and where your past experience can help.

The edge of innovation is not just AI. It is growth & marketing, new business models, organizational structures, and/or working on emerging growth markets or demographic segments.

Be flexible. Where needed, be prepared to explore alternatives to full time employment.

Your Company Shortlist

See our own list of 75 Better World companies that are hiring. Build yours with Claude, Perplexity, and Airtable.

Your New Positioning

You have to bring more than skills and experience to the market, or even pedigree. Your search is about securing market fit. Be prepared to be nimble, refactor, and pivot. Your Next Role = What You Want + What The Market Wants.

Market Fit: Don’t be the Minimal Viable Candidate

“I can do this”, “I’m looking for a VP role with company Y or Z”, “What role do you have with a team of 50?” - it won’t cut it. 5 fresh perspectives instead:

• Your fit is more than your cv and industry. It’s your total skills: hard and soft ones, style and leadership, lived experiences, and what you care about

• A company/sector and title wishlist doesn’t help, if that wishlist isn’t hiring

• Expand horizons: new companies are below the radar, not iPhone icons

• Strengthen your AI skills: book courses, vibe code, apply to your role

• Don’t lead with comp (“I’m too expensive”), lead with value (more later)

AI Skill Update

80% of candidates talk a big game on AI but mostly dabble in ChatGPT. Many corporate jobseekers have been locked in a Copilot cage. Be prepared to showcase where AI is relevant to your role and industry - in practice - and where you implemented solutions in the previous one.

Already, recruiters ask to look at relevant automations and agentic work, and assess your token usage.

Consider the following AI skills for inspiration:

• Detect bias in a model's output

• Build/assess agentic workflows

• Design API or MCP use cases

• Evaluate predictive modeling capabilities

• Leverage for data analysis and decision-making

• Create custom versions for specific purposes

STATE OF THE MARKET

• Re/visit your list of sectors and companies. Which adjacent sectors should be on your radar?

• Draw your shortlist of 20 beautiful companies. (use our lists + AI to sieve through)

POSITIONING

• What your total skills? Expand your company list accordingly.

• What micro credentials are you adding daily to strengthen your market fit?

AI SKILLS

• What’s your professional AI stack? And where/how have you deployed it?

• Access our resources, playbooks, and AI learnings.

• We have mapped 500+ fast-growing European companies across all sectors. If you need help identifying targets, or where your market fit is strong, book a session with us.

• Work with our coaches and leverage the Sunny Future network.

• Build your AI stack, cutting through the noise. Book your sessions with Yatin.