With more than 15 years experience connecting Walmart suppliers with the best and brightest talent, Cameron Smith & Associates has a gained a unique perspective on the supplier community. We grew accustomed to a rapidly changing landscape as the supplier community swelled in response to Wal-Mart’s growth from roughly 50 vendor offices to the approximately 1,200 companies who today employ more than 5,000 people in Northwest Arkansas.
 

Although we have seen a tremendous amount of change since 1994, The pace of change accelerated during the past six months. With layoffs at Wal-Mart, supplier teams downsizing, and an increase in career changers and college graduates, the supplier job market has changed dramatically, requiring us all to study and adapt to this new landscape.
 

For those of you between jobs, I want to encourage you to look beyond the news headlines for opportunity. After all, you only need one job so don’t be influenced by reports regarding the national employment outlook. Above all, don’t panic. Remain positive and trust your instincts, and remember that challenging times require strengthened strategies. Your job is to find a job and it requires a well-defined strategy, good market intelligence and perseverance, and many of those seeking new opportunities find the services of a recruitment firm helpful.
 

For those currently working for supplier teams who may be unhappy but reluctant to look at new opportunities, I have two words for you - career readiness. It is important to be pragmatic and prepared. You never know when opportunity will knock, and if it does, it will require you to act quickly. Complacency is never a good strategy. Be proactive in mapping out and managing your career path.
 

It is also important to cultivate relationships. For years, relationships between associates and suppliers were taboo. Now relationships are built into some job descriptions we work from and it is not unusual for the job description of a leadership role to include relationships above the buyer and DMM level. And guess what? That strategy is working. It clearly has affected the bottom line in some cases, and companies are willing to reward candidates who have built trusting relationships. Although the overall volume of supplier jobs is down, 2009 has produced some of the largest compensation packages we have ever seen.
 

The changing landscape is also affecting hiring managers who are challenged to attract and retain the best talent and are focusing on what makes people loyal and what makes good people leave. For example, supplier team lead job satisfaction has less to do with job security, compensation and lack of challenge and more to do with lack of support from the corporate office and limited advancement without relocating away from Northwest Arkansas. Top-tier companies are addressing this gap and today there are seven team lead roles with the title of president of Wal-Mart Global.
 

When it comes to relationship managers or national account managers, job dissatisfaction has to do with the lack of additional responsibilities, the strength of the brand and compensation. Several supplier teams have added a junior national account manager, a developmental role to handle smaller categories and dollar volume.
 

For category managers the big question is, are these positions sustainable executive careers? The answer is, “yes.” Although the job descriptions for these positions continue to evolve, the crucial role of providing market trends and consumer insights will not change. The reasons category development managers cite for considering a job change involve the strength of the category and category “advisorship.” Other considerations relate to compensation and the potential for additional responsibility.
 

Analyst positions within a supplier team remain the most sought after and recruited positions. Everyone wants the best and brightest. Compensation ranges for these positions have reached all-time highs in the supplier community, and analysts who have significant interaction with buyers can transfer those skills into account management positions. The biggest attraction for these candidates is work life balance. We have seen a desire for more flexibility, as employees’ home and personal lives require more attention.
 

Looking ahead, there are several forces that will influence the job market in Northwest Arkansas. For example, we will continue to see smaller and medium suppliers putting stakes in the ground for one- and two-person offices and we expect there will be increase opportunities for third-party suppliers. As Wal-Mart International grows, it will impact the local supplier community to a greater degree than it already has and we are convinced there will eventually be a substantial international presence in Northwest Arkansas. Another noteworthy development is the interchangeability of retailer and consumer products backgrounds. This creates new employment possibilities, as positions at Wal-Mart and the supplier community have never been more interchangeable.
 

Despite all of the changes we have seen lately, the Wal-Mart growth story remains intact and the company is on track to become a $500 billion business. That level of growth ensures suppliers will face substantial challenges to keep pace with the growth, and will require talented individuals to manage and grow their businesses.

Note: This article originally appeared as a guest column in the June/July issue of Retailing Today: Connecting Northwest Arkansas.  You can read more industry news at  http://www.connectingnwa.com/.