About three years ago I found myself suddenly out of a job against the backdrop of a never-ending round of lay-offs in the tech industry - an industry I’d been a part of since the dot.com boom.
For many years, tech had been seen as a safe haven. It bounced back pretty quickly after the 2008 financial crisis, and while trends and fads in technology have come and gone, as a tech marketer with a ton of experience and a big network, I generally didn’t have to worry about finding a client or two who needed my help.
Every now and again those clients would ask me to go in-house, and even less frequently I would say "yes". That’s how I managed to get through the pandemic relatively unscathed, although a pay cut meant that I had to dip into my savings to cover my monthly bills.
So there I was in 2023 with what seemed like few job prospects, a resume that only highlighted my experience, and recruiters shrugging their shoulders and saying all they could recommend was that I eliminated some of my earlier roles from the bottom of LinkedIn and my CV. Which, in case you're wondering, is a useless piece of advice. Between my hard-won grey hair and accumulated experience, it fools nobody.
Oh, and there was my very skinny bank account which meant I couldn't just float into early retirement.
The Impact of AI on Gen X
All this happened at exactly the same that AI use dramatically increased in the workplace. Suddenly, the un-marketing-savvy founders who would usually be calling on me for my expertise, were asking ChatGPT and Claude to write their marketing strategies, come up with naming conventions, and write their budgets.
Now, you and I know that the output of these LLMs was and remains, highly flawed when it comes to the intangible art of marketing and communications strategy, understanding the nuances of constructing a marketing budget and coming up with culturally sensitive branding approaches.
However, while tech founders can readily spot when their AI chatbot is spewing out duff code or hallucinating on engineering tasks, they don’t have the marketing knowledge to know when the output is on point, or totally out of the ballpark. I’ve been handed budgets written by AI that wouldn’t make sense in a million years.
The other trend I’ve witnessed is that ‘mediocre’ is quite okay with those folks. Gen X’ers were taught to raise the bar. This doesn’t sit well with us.
An Ugly 3-Letter Word
Long story short, I thought I was the only one who was going through this personal crisis and it was a lonely and miserable time. I had bills to pay, a kid who still hadn’t ‘launched’ and what I hoped would be another 10+ years left of my career. It seemed however, that employers, clients and the AI agents they deployed to review resumes and applications, felt entirely otherwise.
After submitting close to a hundred tailored applications to roles I was absolutely qualified for, albeit at a lower pay scale, and receiving automated brush-offs within mere seconds, I soon stopped lobbing myself into ‘cold’ opportunities.
Instead, I focused hard on working my (considerable) network. I would only apply for roles where I could get a warm intro to the hiring manager - and never to the recruiting team because that would result in an immediate rejection. And even then, even when I came highly recommended, the first words I would hear from a human? “You’ve HAD a great career.”
While they legally couldn’t say: “Hey lady, you’re way too old for our team, we’d never hire you. Plus, you probably know more than us, and that would never do.” This is exactly what that three-letter word: “HAD” meant.
A Canary in the Coal Mine
Now, I’ll be the first to admit that the tech industry is dominated by young bucks and so perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that my days were numbered, but initially I thought this was just happening to me. I felt like the canary in the coal mine - just about to keel over dead because I was the most sensitive to the poisonous gases wafting my way.
I soon realized that in fact, I wasn’t alone, but my peers were putting on a brave face, posting ‘ra ra’ epics on LinkedIn and pretending everything was hunky-dory. Because what was the alternative? Own up that everything was going to s**t and life as they knew it was being turned upside down?
The Magic of Community
It was at this time that I joined a paid membership professional community, and while there were some months when I really had to question if I had the $65 for the subscription, I remained a member because it gave me the opportunity to connect with others who I soon realized were in the same boat.
What’s more, through our online forum, I heard about reasons to leave the house, say 'no' to an evening with Netflix, drive into the city and meet people in real life. And that, my friends, was where the real magic happened. All of a sudden, I felt a little less irrelevant, and found people to brainstorm ideas with. I was reminded, that I am a people person.
I describe myself I’m an extrovert thinker, but what really means, is that I work things out, especially really hard things, by talking them through with others.
At one of these events, I was chatting to a fellow member about my need to add another client to my roster. That sparked a light bulb for her, and she made an introduction that has resulted in me working on one of the most exciting projects of my career.
The future remains uncertain for me, but if you are either questioning your value to the world, especially if you’re facing the end of your career, and/or think you’re the only one in a career crisis, I can assure you that you’re not alone.
WTF and What's the Future?
My long term hope with WTF Gen X is to build a community that cuts across money/career, health and relationships - because these are things that affect every single one of us, one way or another.
My parallel hope, is that we can inspire each other by sharing stories and hearing from those who have successfully navigated this transition, redirected their passions and energies and successfully carved a path forward for the next decades.
Please share ideas for guests on the upcoming podcast launch, stories you’d like me to research or tell, and most importantly of all, reach out through Instagram (@wtf_genx) - because I will always hop on a call with you to brainstorm, hear you out and let you know you’re not going through this transition alone.