How to Avoid a Tech Layoff and Stand Out
🎙️ Episode Title: How to Stop Feeling Stuck at Work in Your Tech Job
📢 Are you working hard
but unsure if leadership actually sees your impact? You’re not alone. Most
tech professionals focus on uptime, code, and security—but executives care
about business outcomes. If you’re not speaking their language, you might
be missing out on career opportunities.
In this episode, I break down:
✔ What the “company scoreboard” actually is (KPIs & financial metrics explained)
✔ How to translate your work into measurable business value
✔ The key financial and operational metrics executives track (that affect your job security!)
✔ Why leadership doesn’t care about IP addresses—but does care about revenue and efficiency
✔ Simple ways to make your contributions visible & career-boosting
💡 Tech professionals who understand business strategy get ahead—don’t get left behind.
🎯 FREE 5-Day Business
Skills Email Course – Learn how to align your tech work with business goals
→ https://titanof.tech/cio-ciso-free-email-course/
📩 Let’s Connect!
👉 Subscribe to the podcast for more insights on tech, business, and cybersecurity
leadership.
👉 Got a question or topic request? DM me on LinkedIn (@johnbarker78)
👉 Leave a review if you found this episode valuable!
#TechCareers #Cybersecurity #BusinessSuccess #KPIs
#SoftwareEngineering #TechLeadership
Transcript
Are you working hard, but unsure your efforts stack up
Speaker:against the bigger picture?
Speaker:Let's decode the scoreboard that runs your company and why it matters to your career.
Speaker:Welcome to Titan of Tech, where we explore the intersection of
Speaker:technology and business strategy.
Speaker:Today, we're diving into an overlooked, but critical skill, understanding your
Speaker:company's scoreboard, whether you're a cybersecurity professional, software
Speaker:engineer, or tech manager, knowing how your company measures success.
Speaker:Can transform how you contribute and grow a my name is John Barker.
Speaker:I am a professor of cyber threat intelligence.
Speaker:And also of the NSA approved cyber ethics policy and law
Speaker:at the University of Arizona.
Speaker:I also serve as a virtual chief information security officer as well
Speaker:as a virtual chief information officer for many service based companies.
Speaker:Picture this your team hits every technical milestone,
Speaker:but at the end of the quarter.
Speaker:Leadership seems underwhelmed.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:It's not that your work doesn't matter, it's that the value of your efforts isn't
Speaker:visible through the lens of the company's, hold on, some business jargon incoming,
Speaker:Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs.
Speaker:These metrics are the scoreboard.
Speaker:They measure everything from revenue growth and customer satisfaction to
Speaker:operational efficiency and innovation and understanding them isn't just
Speaker:an executive's responsibility.
Speaker:It's how you turn your work into visible, measurable impact.
Speaker:But here's the kicker.
Speaker:Most professionals in tech never take the time to learn this.
Speaker:They stick to what's comfortable lines of code, system uptime, vulnerability scans.
Speaker:But by stepping back to understand the overall scoreboard, you can align
Speaker:your work with the strategic goals and showcase your value in terms that
Speaker:business executives would understand.
Speaker:Think of these as the metrics that leadership reviews determine
Speaker:whether the company is winning.
Speaker:Or losing.
Speaker:It's easy to assume that this doesn't apply to you.
Speaker:After all, you're not in sales or on the executive team.
Speaker:But here's the truth.
Speaker:The more you align your daily work with these metrics, the more visible and
Speaker:valuable your contributions become.
Speaker:For example, if your automation project reduces downtime framing, framing it
Speaker:as saving X amount of hours, which improves operational efficiency,
Speaker:that's how you connect your tech work to the company's scoreboard.
Speaker:So, let's say you had a, uh, uh, an efficiency project and
Speaker:you saved your company 10 hours of work per employee per week.
Speaker:Your company has 10 employees.
Speaker:The average cost of those employees, let's say it comes out to a hundred
Speaker:dollars per hour for the company.
Speaker:How much did you just save your company per week?
Speaker:So you take 10 hours times 10 employees times 100 per hour.
Speaker:You just saved your company 10, 000 per week.
Speaker:So what's the more impactful way to demonstrate the value that
Speaker:you brought to your company?
Speaker:Hey, we deployed this code.
Speaker:We deployed this new system.
Speaker:Yay, great.
Speaker:Or if you said, Hey, we saved the company 10, 000 per week by doing XYZ.
Speaker:It's going to make it more powerful for those non technical managers.
Speaker:So let's break down some of the most important financial
Speaker:metrics that executives track.
Speaker:These numbers influence investment decisions, hiring, and even
Speaker:layoffs, as we're seeing now.
Speaker:If you want to stay ahead, pay attention to these metrics.
Speaker:Obviously, you've got overall revenue.
Speaker:The total income before expenses, you've got profit margin, how much of that
Speaker:revenue turns into actual company profit.
Speaker:You also have EBITDA, Earnings Before Interest, Taxes,
Speaker:Depreciation, and Amateurization.
Speaker:And you also have burn rate, which is pretty much how fast is the company
Speaker:spending his cash reserves, or if you're working on a specific project,
Speaker:how fast are you spending the money that was budgeted for that project?
Speaker:So some financial numbers aren't the only key indicators, the operational metrics,
Speaker:such as customer acquisition cost turn rate can signal whether a company is
Speaker:growing substantially or struggling.
Speaker:So you've got other things such as.
Speaker:What's the, what, how much does it cost to acquire a new customer,
Speaker:which you may hear is the term CAC, or customer acquisition cost.
Speaker:You may hear what is the customer's lifetime value, so the total revenue
Speaker:from a customer over a period of time, how long do they averagely stay as a
Speaker:customer of your business, which then turns into what's the churn rate,
Speaker:what's the percentage of customers.
Speaker:Who leave after or over a given time period or other productivity metrics.
Speaker:So measuring efficiency and output and just kind of the various departments
Speaker:learn the scoreboard.
Speaker:Start by asking to attend meetings for performance metrics are discussed.
Speaker:Ask questions like how do we define success this quarter or what's
Speaker:driving customer retention or just understanding leadership, how they
Speaker:see things at that bigger picture,
Speaker:so translate your impact.
Speaker:Once you know the metrics, map your work to them.
Speaker:For instance, a software update might enhance user experience,
Speaker:contributing to customer satisfaction, reducing the churn rate.
Speaker:They'll stay a customer longer.
Speaker:A security enhancement might reduce risks.
Speaker:Which protects revenue and brand trust.
Speaker:Tech professionals often struggle to articulate the
Speaker:business value of their work.
Speaker:For example, reducing server response time isn't just a technical achievement.
Speaker:It improves the customer's experience, leading to higher satisfaction scores.
Speaker:Similarly, automating a repetitive task doesn't just save time.
Speaker:It allows the company to reallocate resources toward more innovation.
Speaker:So this is a communication gap between non technical leadership and you.
Speaker:And they won't spend the time to learn what you do.
Speaker:They don't care about IP addresses.
Speaker:They don't care about Python code.
Speaker:They don't care about firewall firmware.
Speaker:But you need to spend the time to speak their language.
Speaker:Less zeros and ones and more dollars and cents.
Speaker:The key is to tell the story of your work in terms of outcomes
Speaker:that matter to the business.
Speaker:This not only boosts your visibility, but positions you as a strategic thinker.
Speaker:Understanding the scoreboard isn't a one and done task.
Speaker:Treat it like a muscle you build over time.
Speaker:Read quarterly reports from The industry news and stay curious
Speaker:about how your company adapts its goals during the course of a year.
Speaker:The more fluent you become in the language of business metrics, the more naturally
Speaker:you'll tie your work to measurable impact.
Speaker:Here's the bottom line.
Speaker:The company scoreboard isn't just a tool for executives.
Speaker:It's your compass for aligning your work with what truly matters.
Speaker:By understanding KPIs, mapping your efforts to them through a financial
Speaker:lens, and telling the story of your impact, you're not just another cog
Speaker:in the machine, you're a key player driving success for the company.
Speaker:And if you're ready to dive deeper into aligning your tech skills
Speaker:with business success, check out my free five day business skills
Speaker:email course in the link below.
Speaker:And hey, while you're here, feel free to slap the like button if you like.
