The Elite Edge: The Corporate Middle Child: The Most Exposed Layer ⚖️📉♟
Doing The Research For You.
Deepali Vyas
February 23, 2026
In partnership with
Elite Edge | Vol 2 Week 8
The Corporate Middle Child: The Most Exposed Layer
There is a layer in corporate America that carries pressure from above and below — and gets credit from neither.
It’s not the CEO.
It’s not the junior analyst.
It’s the middle.
Directors. Senior Managers. VPs without P&L authority. Functional leaders who execute strategy, absorb chaos, and own outcomes they didn’t design.
From the executive-search seat, this layer is the most exposed right now.
Organizational compression rarely hits the top. It hits the middle. Boards protect narrative at the top; cost pressure gets absorbed below. Middle leadership lives in the tension: accountable for delivery, morale and performance, but without full authority over compensation, capital or strategy.
Then add AI.
AI doesn’t replace vision — it replaces coordination. Status reports, workflow tracking, and multi-layer updates become algorithmic. The more your value is coordination and not judgment, the more your role is audited.
And this week’s Wall Street Journal coverage of “reverse recruiting” is another symptom of a market under strain — where white-collar job seekers are now paying recruiters to find them jobs rather than employers paying recruiters to fill roles, a reversal of the traditional model. It underscores how difficult it’s become to stand out when algorithms and Applicant Tracking Systems swallow resumes without context.
This isn’t a career hack. It’s a market signal: visibility and value articulation matter more than ever.
So here’s the brutal truth: middle leadership won’t be protected by performance alone. You need narrative, exposure and leverage that can’t be compressed.
🎯 Prescriptive Strategies
1️⃣ Shift from Coordination to Judgment
Audit your week. If most of your time is spent updating decks and aligning stakeholders, you are sitting in the compressible layer.
Move toward:
Decision architecture
Risk mitigation
Revenue impact
Capital allocation
Coordination is algorithmic. Judgment is defensible.
2️⃣ Make Your Value a Board-Ready Sentence
If your CEO were asked to justify your role in a board meeting, what would they say?
Not “I manage teams.”
Your value expressed in impact terms.
Example:
“I reduced operating costs by 12% while improving retention and protecting customer satisfaction.”
One sentence. That’s defensible.
3️⃣ Build Lateral Power
Your survival does not only sit with your boss.
It sits with:
Finance
Revenue leaders
Product partners
HR sponsors
Strategic allies
If your absence is only noticeable to your team, that’s vulnerability.
4️⃣ External Optionality is Not Optional
Your title is not your power. Your leverage is.
Update your resume around impact, not responsibilities.
Optimize LinkedIn for defensibility and searchability.
Engage your network with strategic conversations — not transactional asks.
You do not build a parachute in a freefall.
📚What I Read This Week…
🔗📰 Wall Street Journal: Job Hunters Are So Desperate They’re Paying to Get Recruited
The job market for skilled professionals is tightening so much that some candidates are hiring reverse recruiters — paying to have recruiters pitch them to hiring managers and apply on their behalf, sometimes for thousands of dollars or a percentage of first-year salary.
This highlights a structural shift: the traditional funnel where employers pay recruiters for talent is being inverted. Candidates who cannot control narrative online are now paying to be seen.
From a strategic standpoint, this reinforces a fundamental career truth: if the market cannot articulate your value, someone else will shape it for you — often at a cost.
📰 My Answer to Reverse Recruiting
When I read the Wall Street Journal piece about candidates paying thousands of dollars for “reverse recruiting,” I felt something I don’t usually feel — disappointment.
Not because the market is hard. It is.
But because monetizing desperation instead of fixing positioning goes against everything I believe about careers. Some of these services charge $1,500 a month — and then take 10% of your first-year salary when you land.
On a $150,000 role, that’s $15,000 out of your pocket.
Add in a few months of retainers and you’re well north of that.
That isn’t strategy. That’s outsourcing anxiety at a premium.
And when AI is used to impersonate you in outreach? That’s not leverage. That’s reputational risk.
So I asked myself a harder question:
If the system feels broken, what’s the real answer?
My answer was Concierge Recruiting.
🔴 Why I Built It
I built it from the hiring side of the table.
After years inside executive search, I know most professionals don’t lose because they lack talent — they lose because they lack process, positioning, and disciplined exposure. They’re trying to run a six-month job search on top of their actual job and life, without understanding how decisions are truly made.
Finding a job is a full-time job.
And most executives do not have the time — or frankly the desire — to manage a full-scale search while leading teams, running businesses, and living their lives.
They want it done for them.
Concierge Recruiting is my answer to “done for you.”
Not mass applications. Not impersonation. Not false guarantees.
Structured, recruiter-grade search management with a human in the loop.
Yes, it costs money — because serious strategy requires real execution. But here’s the difference: you should not have to pay and stay forever.
The goal is not dependency. The goal is outcome.
🎯 The Philosophy
We guarantee the process — not the job.
We rebuild your narrative (resume and LinkedIn optimization), design your strategy, activate across a broader surface area of the market, and review traction monthly. The metric is simple: more at-bats. More real conversations. More interviews landing in your inbox.
You don’t need career therapy forever. You need momentum.
When you land, you leave. And when you reach your next inflection point — promotion, pivot, board ambition — you come back.
That’s the relationship I want with you.
If you’d like to explore whether Concierge Recruiting is right for you:
Email hello@vyas-media.com or book a 10-minute pre-screen here:
https://calendly.com/matt-vyas-media/concierge-recruiting-pre-screening
Pre-qualification required. We protect the process — and your reputation.
🎙️What I Listened to This Week… (Podcasts)
Final Thought
The corporate middle isn’t weak.
It’s structurally exposed.
And exposure is only dangerous if you don’t see it.
Middle leadership will not be protected by output alone.
Not in a world of automation, compressed hierarchy, and opaque algorithms.
Visibility must be intentional.
Value must be articulated outside your org chart.
Leverage must be cultivated before you need it.
This is how you avoid being compressed — and start controlling your narrative.
You’ve got the Edge. Now sharpen it.
Until next week,
— Deepali Vyas
Your Elite Recruiter
Doing the research so you don’t have to.
✨ UPCOMING WEBINARS ✨
🎥 The Portfolio Career Playbook: Saturday, Feb 28th at 10am ET
A 75+ minute strategy session on that includes live coaching + access to portfolio frameworks and positioning tools.
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💼 This Week’s Elite Job Drops 💼
💼 Exclusive Job Drops — Before They Hit the Market
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This is hiring-side thinking applied to your brand.
If the middle feels unstable, your external leverage must be strong.
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Elite Edge takeaway:
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