Executive Careers in a More Selective Market
As we move through the second half of 2026, executives in Chile and across Latin America are navigating a career market that feels increasingly selective.
Opportunities continue to exist, but organizations are taking a more considered approach to hiring. At the same time, technology is redefining roles and skills, organizational structures continue to evolve, and executive careers are becoming less linear and increasingly regional.
In Chile, the broader employment environment illustrates some of this pressure. National unemployment reached 9.5% in the May–July 2026 period, up 0.8 percentage points year over year. While this figure does not represent the executive market specifically, it provides important context for the environment in which companies are making talent decisions.
For executives, this is not necessarily a reason to be pessimistic. It is, however, a reason to be more deliberate.
1. A more selective market requires sharper positioning
In a competitive market, experience alone is not enough.
A long career, senior titles and experience in respected organizations are valuable credentials, but they do not automatically communicate what an executive can contribute to the next organization.
The question increasingly becomes: What problems can I solve, and what evidence do I have that I can solve them?
Executives need to be able to articulate their value in terms of business impact: growth generated, transformations led, teams developed, markets opened, efficiencies created, risks managed or organizational capabilities strengthened.
This requires moving beyond describing what I have done toward explaining the value I can create going forward.
That distinction becomes particularly important for senior executives whose experience spans multiple companies, industries or functions. The broader the career, the greater the need for a clear narrative connecting that experience.
2. Experience matters, but relevance matters more
One of the challenges I frequently see in career conversations is the assumption that extensive experience should speak for itself.
It rarely does.
Organizations are increasingly looking not only at previous responsibilities, but at the relevance of that experience to the challenges they are facing today.
Research on talent trends in Chile during 2026 points toward skills-based hiring, adaptive leadership, AI-enabled recruitment and increasingly precise talent decisions.
For an experienced executive, this does not mean abandoning the value of experience or trying to reinvent oneself completely.
It means learning to translate experience into relevance.
A career built over 20 or 25 years can be an extraordinary competitive advantage when the executive can demonstrate how those years have developed judgment, pattern recognition, resilience, strategic perspective and the ability to navigate complexity.
The question is not simply How much experience do I have? It is: Why does my experience matter now?
3. AI is becoming part of executive employability
Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from a technology conversation to a leadership conversation.
Recent research from McKinsey Global Institute estimates that approximately 57% of current work hours across Latin America could theoretically be automated using technologies that already exist. Importantly, this represents technical potential—not a prediction that 57% of jobs will disappear.
Perhaps more relevant for executives is another finding: demand for AI fluency in Latin America grew almost elevenfold between 2023 and 2025.
This has important implications for leadership.
A CFO does not need to become a data scientist. A commercial director does not need to become an AI engineer. Nor does a CEO or CHRO need to master every new technological platform.
But executives increasingly need to understand how technology changes their function, their teams, their customers and their decision-making.
AI fluency is therefore becoming part of executive currency.
The strongest leaders will not necessarily be those who know the most about technology, but those who understand how to combine technology with judgment, relationships, communication and business understanding.
4. Think beyond Chile: the executive market is increasingly regional
For executives based in Chile, career positioning should increasingly include a Latin American perspective.
Many leadership roles already extend beyond one country. Multinational structures, regional reporting lines, distributed teams and cross-border responsibilities mean that an executive sitting in Santiago may be leading operations or stakeholders across several Latin American markets.
At the same time, this expands the competitive landscape.
Executives should therefore ask themselves: Does my professional narrative travel beyond Chile? Can I demonstrate experience managing different markets and cultures? Have I developed relationships outside my immediate professional ecosystem? Can I communicate the complexity and scale of my responsibilities in a way that is relevant to regional or global organizations?
International experience is valuable, but regional capability is not simply about having worked abroad.
It is about demonstrating the ability to operate effectively across different business environments, cultures, stakeholders and levels of complexity.
5. Networks and visibility are career infrastructure
Perhaps one of the most important changes executives can make is to stop thinking about networking as something that begins when they need a job.
By then, it is often too late.
Professional networks need to be built and maintained throughout a career.
That means maintaining relationships with former colleagues, clients, industry peers, headhunters, professional associations and people outside one’s immediate circle. It also means remaining visible in the conversations that matter within an industry or profession.
The objective is not transactional networking.
It is developing a professional ecosystem in which people understand who you are, what you contribute and where your experience may create value.
The same applies to professional visibility.
LinkedIn, industry events, boards, professional associations, mentoring, speaking opportunities and thoughtful participation in relevant conversations can all contribute to positioning.
For senior executives, visibility should not mean becoming a constant content creator. It means being appropriately visible to the market in which you want to participate.
Career development and career transition are increasingly connected
Perhaps the most important lesson for H2 2026 is that career development and career transition should no longer be treated as completely separate moments.
Career management should happen while things are going well.
Executives who periodically reflect on their positioning, continue developing their networks, understand how their market is changing and remain clear about their professional value are better prepared when an opportunity—or an unexpected transition—appears.
The second half of 2026 is therefore a useful moment to ask: Is my professional positioning aligned with where the market is going, or only with where I have already been?
For executives in Chile and across Latin America, managing a career increasingly requires the same disciplines we expect in business: understanding the environment, anticipating change, building relationships, developing capabilities and making deliberate choices about where to invest time and energy.
The market may be more selective.
That makes clarity, relevance and strategic career management more important—not less.
Fuentes
Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas (INE), Chile, National Employment Survey, May–July 2026.
McKinsey Global Institute, Agents, Robots, and Us: How AI Reshapes Work and Skills in Latin America, July 2026.
Robert Walters Chile, Tendencias de Talento 2026.
Original Content by Ophelia Fox, developed with the support of artificial intelligence (ChatGPT)