By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
One of my last conversations on Friday afternoon was with a coaching client whom I met for one session. In that session, I provided him with advice on positioning himself in his job search, as well as how to present himself effectively in video interviews.
He told me that after that session, everything changed for him. He told me that he just finalized details for an offer he received and was starting on Monday.
One session made a difference. 30 Minutes.
Maybe I can do that for you.
Last week, I announced I was offering “The Resilience Pivot: Turn Job Search Rejection into Career Success” at a discount, $0.99, for a limited time. This will be the last week for the offer. after all, resilience isn’t about “banging your head against a wall” until it breaks.
This week, I am adding, “Job Search Strategies for Recent Graduates: A Guide to Your First Post-Graduation Job Search” for $0.99.
Don’t let your son or daughter’s hard-earned, expensive education go to waste. “Job Search Strategies for Recent Graduates” is the practical, no-nonsense guide they need to bridge the gap between graduation and gainful employment. Forget generic advice – this book delivers targeted strategies, specifically designed for today’s competitive job market.
The Stacking Principle: Why Average Skills in Oversupplied Markets Are Invisible
By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter
If you market yourself on a baseline capability like “project management,” “financial analysis,” or “software engineering,” you are functionally invisible.
These are not differentiators. They are commodity skills in an oversupplied market. When thousands of people share your exact functional title and educational pedigree, the market treats you as an interchangeable cog. When a business has an abundance of options, it filters strictly on price or structural convenience, forcing you to compete in a race to the bottom.
To break out of the commodity trap, you must stop selling individual ingredients. You need to stack your anomalies–the rare combinations of disjointed domains, specific operational histories, and baseline technical execution that define your Onlyness. The goal is not to be a slightly better version of your peers; the goal is to become the only logical solution to a highly specific, high-stakes corporate friction point.
1. The Trap of the Linear Expertise Curve
Most career development models push professionals down a linear path: if you are a marketer, become a better marketer; if you are an engineer, learn another language. This advice works beautifully in an undersupplied market where demand outpaces capacity. In an oversupplied market, it is a liability.
Think about how standard career advancement typically functions versus how you actually build a market monopoly.
In a standard linear progression, you start with your core baseline skill and continuously try to add more of that same skill on top of it. You take more courses, hit more standard milestones, and check the same boxes as everyone else in your field. All this does is cement your status as an interchangeable cog in a massive corporate wheel.
The Anomaly Stack completely breaks this model. Instead of stacking more of the same commoditized capability, you take your core baseline execution engine and intentionally layer an entirely disjointed domain and a specific operational anomaly directly on top of it. You are no longer multiplying standard compliance; you are engineering an unassailable market monopoly that makes you the only logical solution to a complex corporate crisis.
As you climb the linear expertise curve, the marginal utility of your skill flattens out. The market will not pay a premium for a 10% improvement in your core function because it can buy an “adequate” version of that skill for a fraction of the cost. True market value is unlocked at the intersection of mismatched domains.
2. Identifying Your Anomalies
An anomaly is any structural detail in your professional history that deviates from the standard linear path of your peer group. It is the thing that makes your resume look “weird” to a low-level corporate recruiter, but makes you priceless to a line executive dealing with a multi-layered crisis.
To map your stack, isolate assets across three distinct tiers:
The Core Lever: Your baseline execution engine (e.g., Data Architecture, Corporate Finance, Supply Chain).
The Disjointed Domain: A secondary capability completely outside your main function (e.g., Deep Behavioral Psychology, Distributed Ledger Technology, Predictive Margin Modeling).
The Operational Anomaly: The specific, high-velocity environment where you earned your scars (e.g., Hyper-growth post-Series B, rapid down-market restructuring, cross-border corporate integration).
3. Engineering the Stack for Maximum Leverage
One skill is a commodity. Two combined skills create a niche. Three stacked anomalies create a monopoly. Let’s look at how stacking transforms an invisible professional into a premium asset.
Consider a senior finance director competing in an oversupplied market. If they lead with standard accounting and forecasting, they blend into a sea of thousands.
The Linear Profile: “Corporate Finance Director with 12 years of experience in budgeting, forecasting, and team leadership.” (Invisible. Fully commoditized.)
The Anomaly Stack: Combine Corporate Finance + Semantic Data Integration + Post-Acquisition Restructuring.
The Monopolistic Frame: “A financial operator specializing in mid-market software mergers. I integrate disparate, non-relational data systems from newly acquired entities into unified predictive margin models, protecting cash flow during rapid restructuring phases.”
Look at what happened to the competition. By stacking the anomalies, this professional is no longer competing against every finance director on LinkedIn. They are now competing only against the tiny handful of people who can write financial structures and manipulate raw data infrastructure during an active corporate merger. They have priced out the noise.
The Bottom Line
Stop trying to win an oversupplied game by doing more of the same. The market doesn’t reward general compliance; it rewards specialized leverage.
Audit your history. Isolate the operational anomalies and disjointed domains you’ve accumulated over your career, and stack them directly on top of your core execution engine. Turn your profile into an uncopiable signature. When you anchor your career in your Onlyness, you stop chasing the market and force the market to chase you.
Ⓒ The Big Game Hunter, Inc., Asheville, NC 2026
This week, I am going to skip sharing blog content I released the previous week. It will return next week.
If you want to go deeper into the ideas behind this article, download my book, “ONLYNESS: The No BS Playbook for the AI Age.”
People hire me for No BS job search coaching because I make finding work much easier. I don’t write resumes. I leave it to people who are experts at that. I can critique them as I have for hundreds of thousands. I have helped tens of thousands of people actually find work.
Become an Insider at any level at JobSearch.Community. You’ll receive free info, coaching from me, and a lot more. If a monthly membership is too expensive, you can purchase individual pieces of content.
Subscribe to JobSearchTV on YouTube
Subscribe to No BS Job Search Advice Radio wherever you listen to podcasts.
#BeGreat
Jeff Altman, MSW, CCTC
No BS Job Search & Career Strategist | Decoding the LinkedIn Algorithmic Pivot to Get You Hired | Mastering “Onlyness” for High-Impact Professionals & Staff.
