Midlife Crisis/Transformation Career Switch

[Cleinad]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Ageism is real in the world, especially in SG....almost all companies prefer younger, cheaper compared to older, more expensive workers....

Yes bro u are so darn right. it is especially more so in the fields of marketing/advertising/social media/branding. coz once u start sprouting white hair in your late 30s and beyond, I can tell u confirm plus chop whatever u say or recommend for social media will be disregarded.

i still can recall got once myself, the senior hr manager (a guy in his early 50s) were in the meeting room with our boss, discussing on recruitment tactics on social media. beside us were 2 interns (20, 22 year old or so). after we talk for a bit, the boss said: "Let the YOUNG ones talk."

his old school mindset is, social media = tik tok and both myself and the hr manager don't look like tik tokers (read: not wearing skimpy clothes bouncing our assets while doing some xmm dance), so let the young people share about social media strategies

anw, this is just one of the many experiences that I've personally faced over the years. and after much research, I've come to the conclusion that marketing is a young person's game.

read this blog: https://www.mullenlowegroup.com/news...-persons-game/

he is absolutely correct, but the question is, in any given company, you only need 1 x lao jiao marketer to direct and lead the way. what about the rest of us average-grade marketing employees? we will be replaced by cheaper and younger employees who are digital natives.

i can tell you that I've done my due diligence and had spent thousands of dollars to upgrade my marketing skillsets from SEO to digital marketing to marketing analytics to design thinking and, at the end of the day, this industry is as frivolous as fashion because once u look out of season, then no matter how much training you had invested in your marketing skillsets, u will definitely be stereotyped as old and not in vogue in the latest social media trends and styles.

another veteran marketer said it so aptly when she said:
imaging there are 2 meeting rooms in the office. the meeting room on the left has 5 employees in their 50s with greying and balding hairlines and the one on the right has exactly the same number of employees in their 20s. both groups are wearing the same set of clothes with the same pose.

which group comes to mind first when you are considering for digital marketing?

well, almost all respondents instinctly chose the younger group for the job!

get what I mean?

i dun know your exact job role, but i guess it may be like close to cutting edge of marketing...one way you can leverage your skills is to look for roles in industries that are behind the curve....eg. just digitalising their marketing recently, etc.....like instead of working in marketing industry directly....you can try looking for digital marketing roles in other industries...due to covid, many businesses have to undergo some form of digital transformation...

[Cleinad]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

i dun know your exact job role, but i guess it may be like close to cutting edge of marketing...one way you can leverage your skills is to look for roles in industries that are behind the curve....eg. just digitalising their marketing recently, etc.....like instead of working in marketing industry directly....you can try looking for digital marketing roles in other industries...due to covid, many businesses have to undergo some form of digital transformation...

yeah bro. I've tried, but keep kena rejected coz it's the employers' market now - their wish list is very long. need to have computer science degree for business digitisation (my dip in IT + BSc biz + 15 years marcomms exp are not enough), then need to have actual IT project mgmt experience, then need to have Agile / Scrum Master certification, THEN preferably from a related sector. wow...!

I'm in my mid 30 as well, started marketing in FMCG industry for 5 years and move into strategic marketing in B2B and later business strategy planning and operation across APAC. I feel that marketing are for younger people, they know what is trending and where they can reach out to the audience, easily replaced by these young grad. Moving into business planning strategy and ops was a good decision, you look into total business and advice management on the direction, suits more as you aged. I have been in mnc all these time and recently moved into tech startup to craft business strategy to scale up the business. Just crossed 5 digit monthly salary, quite happy with my decision to shift. Operation and business planning is on high demand now. Worth to look into this area. Marketing is a plus especially it helps alot in crafting business strategy.