Career

Not Predicting the Turn

Predicting the Turn is the name of a book that I’m not talking about here. I’m talking about the inability to see or predict sometimes what happens in life, particularly your career. I’ve been a marketer for 20+ years and I use 20+ liberally. It’s more (50% more), but I say 20 so I don’t sound ancient, like a relic of the past to an intelligent machine or a young, hip talent scout. But, why should more than 20 years of experience sound ancient? Don’t things like wisdom come with age? The answer lately feels like a resounding “no.” In this new world of always-on social media, AI, bitcoin, blockchain, sustainability, choice, travel and, hell, most movements, it seems that people native to those needs or terms are those that reap the spoils of those roles. Technology in particular favors the young. And, that’s not just about me. I know a lot of people – men and women – who are being overlooked because of inherent ageism in the field. Wait, did I just say ageism? How is it that we don’t hear more about that? It wasn’t a thing when our parents were working for the same company for 30 years and retiring with pensions. But, it sure is now. It’s just not talked about, but why?

The reason I write here is not that, but to gain perspective on what life holds for people re-entering the job force after time “off” (forced or planned) at age 50-something. You see, I left work just before the pandemic in 2019. I left a senior role that was “interim” by design. Before that, I had moved to a new market and just finished a long-term consulting project. So a 6-month contract allowed me a completion date and gap in which to feel better after a cancer diagnosis (another story) and to re-set my career direction. And, “direction” might be strong. I wasn’t looking for a big change but to continue marketing just in a different industry and company. I was committed to finding something I loved and was hoping it would be more meaningful to the broader universe. I had already had a few solid leads and felt good about what I had to offer so leaving a planned interim role for a short bit didn’t feel like a leap.

Fast forward a few months, a major milestone birthday for my husband and a full-on global pandemic. The industry I had hoped to jump to, after seeing unprecedented gains, saw the floor drop out of its business and earnings. They weren’t the only ones. Everyone was cutting back, cutting people, cutting wages, freezing hiring; and while I lightly and skeptically looked for jobs, I had five people newly trying to work from our home. So it was easy to re-focus my feeling-better/job-finding role to COO of the household. I played tech support, cook, laundress, cleaner, safety keeper, grocer, school-to-home communications manager, task master, hugger, healer, therapist, contingency planner, cheerleader and Google docs finder to five of us, while tiptoeing around hoping the teachers  and colleagues didn’t hear me stumble up the stairs or slam the broken dryer door for the umpteenth time that day. And, that story isn’t unique, but it was unique to me. For the first year of the pandemic I was all in, trying to launch a child into College and helping her navigate her first year of college online while supporting the others and their alternating offline-to-online small world needs. I was still disciplined in sending out resumes and making contact and setting interviews, even though no one was hiring. Over time, I sent out hundreds of resumes and took a few dozen interviews with HR peeps. As time went on more rejections. At first I perceived it as an issue with timing. I just wasn’t in the right place at the right time. Then, some convinced me I was reaching too high. And then I blamed it on too much time.

Now, here I am. Four years later. I work full time in our home, launching two kids and supporting a household… while longing to get back to work and my old people-loving self, but not really knowing how to break in. Is it me? Is it my resume? Is it my age? Is it that too much time has elapsed between jobs? Or am I just prehistoric now, fossilized in the stones of time? How do I escape the jobless abyss? I’ve been saying that I’m “semi-retired” and lightly looking to get around what may be the truth. But how can I give up on the 30 years I’ve spent learning and growing to be jobless or unemployable? 

That’s in part why I launched this blog – to give voice to this gap and need and allow us both to explore it further. Looking for advice, feedback or community. Share your thoughts!

Remote work: Working hard or hardly working?

Through parts of my career I worked remote. I did this because both my husband and I pursued careers that often meant one had to compromise for the other. In our case, that was me. I kept a steady job while my husband pursued a startup, MFA, big company, startup, return to travel company, startup, SaaS and a startup again -- all from different locations. This worked for us mostly because I desired stability and availability and my husband desired expansion and expression. And, I was lucky enough to work for companies that (mostly) allowed me to work from wherever my husband's opportunities took us.

Work-from-home work not only gave my partner flexibility, but it also allowed me to be home for my children when their school days ended in the younger years. It also offered the flexibility to be there for important events – school plays, early release, doctor visits, sick days, etc. – that I might otherwise miss if locked into a commute.

Still, I have always taken a lot of personal pride in being on time, efficient and respectful of company guidelines and policies. I rarely, if ever, took advantage of remote work to slack off, run errands or engage in personal business. I had real deadlines and client demands that didn’t allow me the flexibility.

This was before the pandemic though when remote work was the exception. Managers were skeptical, if ever, allowing employees to work from home. 

But life keeps moving while you work from home and one time I had to call my young son’s daycare to ask if I could pick him up early for a doctor’s appointment. It was a benign 30-second conversation with the childcare provider, but one I’d never forget. "Hi [so and so], I have to pick up H early for an appointment." As soon as the words came from my lips, I realized I hadn't muted the other call I was on for work. 

These calls and disruptions became commonplace and even comedic during the pandemic. Cats walking across screens, kids yelling, laundry drop offs, toilets flushing – all were part of work from home and Zoom culture. Having, and not hiding your personal life, became normal in the pandemic era. 

But, back then as one of the sole females with young children on a big team, I was called out for being "unprofessional." I think it was simply replayed back to me as that, but I always felt like it was more. Indeed, she wanted surveillance and accountability. I felt terrible for my lapse and terrible that it happened. I wasn’t a slacker, I always met deadlines, I carried a heavy client load and had 100% retention and growth from my clients. 

How do you handle these scenarios as managers today?

Take the Chance, Even if it Doesn’t Pay

I’ve worked in marketing all of my life and can honestly say I love what I do (did). Don’t get me wrong, it hasn’t always been unicorns and rainbows. I’ve had my share of disappointment, rejection and failure. My first dose of humble pie came when I was fresh out of college and only accounting majors and shiny friends had jobs with the Big 4 or pharma with decent pay and company cars. But, I got my first lucky break through a friend that tipped me off to a barely paying internship when I was fresh off a European tour. She was leaving said internship for a job in Public Relations with an agency – a dream job for this wannabe. I went in for the interview in January and was hired almost right away by the head of PR. I was lucky to have had a contact which meant I didn’t have to run the gauntlet of background checks, interview panels and assessment tests. But, it was January and it was a low-paying internship so I’m pretty sure the competition wasn’t stiff. In any event, I took the job. 

I worked for the head of PR (VP I think) and a newly HBS-minted VP of Marketing from the Northeast. It was a 100-person technology “startup” going on its 20-somethingth year. I started out filing magazines in a tiny library/closet, ran errands and drafted the occasional press release. The new VP of Marketing maybe took pity on me or actually needed more arms and legs to get work done and said, “All of those magazines that you’re filing, read them. Read everything you can get your hands on.” It was a complicated technology then in a space, dominated by engineers and product managers with EE and CS degrees. I did what he told me, I read and read and read. I offered to do anything and everything. I started out feeling lucky, and my parents reminded me, that my first job out of college was with a growing technology company. But, I had good credentials having studied journalism, gone to a decent school and interned for a US Senator with a White House PR offer in the bag. Quickly – within the first several months or even the first year or two – I realized the lucky part wasn’t the job itself but working for a person that was smart and willing to help me grow. He gave me opportunity after opportunity. Within a year or two I was managing a team, all marketing communications, technical writing/publications, fulfillment, PR, tradeshows and just about anything in marketing that didn’t fall under sales or product management. I advanced as much as I could in a hundred person company, taking on more and more and generally smiling while I was doing it. 

My “boss” was full of quips and smarts and knew I was a sponge and how to harness my enthusiasm. When he came back from trade shows or conferences, we all gathered to hear from the outside. He shared anecdotes about events, gave credit to celebrate our wins and ended with key learnings and opportunities for the team. Soon I had grown enough for him to offer: “I have an opportunity for you to excel. I’m out of town next week during the board meeting and I’d like you to present to the Board.” And later, “co-present with me at X conference” on a mainstage with an audience of 100s in Vegas or LA. I had grown up on stage singing in show choirs and solo, but speaking about technology in front of masses was a whole different story. I wasn’t good but I was learning. I took those opportunities and more came. As the internet began to grow and this technology moved into Microsoft Office, began shipping worldwide and was adopted by companies like Sony, I would later realize how lucky I was. I had my foot in the door of a new, market-making technology before the internet boom. I didn’t make a lot of money but I stayed hungry and eager, learned a ton and leveraged it into a later job with what was then the biggest tech company in the world. 

So if you need a change or re-entry and have some flexibility – go for the job that will allow you to learn most. Look for the really smart people who want to grow with you and to help you grow. You can make the money later but you won’t get back the time and learning – learning that you can parlay into your next job and sometimes life. I stayed in that job until my boss actually left the company, probably too long. But it laid the foundation for my career that’s always been in marketing with a heavy dose of technology. And, I'm still learning and applying the wisdom I took from this.