I'm trying to figure out why would Nike hire people to do a specific thing but then put them in a completely different role that has nothing to do with it. I've seen it happen more than once and each time I could make zero sense of it. I'm not even talking about people who don't know what to do. I'm talking about competent and knowledgeable folks who would do great if they were doing what they were brought on to do. Instead, they have to play catch up. Can somebody shed some light on why this is being done?
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Not sure if this still happens but Nike likes to stockpile talent. They will bring in people they think have a good skill set and put them somewhere.
I was up for a sr director role years ago. Didn’t get the job and found out it was split on me or the person they hired. Higher ups pushed the person they hired because they thought he was a good fit for a role that wasn’t open yet.
From my experience, the hire for the role they think they need without really knowing what they need. So when that person starts I have no idea with a really supposed to be doing.
Fewer layoffs if they stick people somewhere random. You eventually leave on your own.
I think you answered your own question. People who have proven to be competent and knowledgeable in one role will most often be competent in most roles. Unless their new role requires a wildly, massively different set of skills.
I’ve also seen people moved around like this. Some of those people have liked it and some haven’t. Most of the time their new role does require obtaining new knowledge, but usually it’s all applied within a similar or at least related skill set to the previous role.
If this happens to you it’s not a totally bad thing. It means someone thinks you’re flexible, capable, and that you’ll be able to figure it out.
I agree these moves sometimes don’t make much sense to anyone. I’ve seen some movements recently where literally no one will acknowledge having any idea why the person was moved to a particular role. Some of these moves seem to be like putting peanut butter on top of spaghetti.
You see the move and you’re like “Uh…wut?”
Sometimes the Nike universe works in strange ways.