Careers are not what they used to be! Some professions (e.g. medicine, law, and military) still offer a fairly consistent career structure through which people progress over their lifetimes. For most of us, however, the old (and reliable?) career structures are evaporating or are already gone.

This is not such a problem for “Millenials” (born 1980 and 1994) – they are coming into the workforce with career expectations calibrated to the current conditions (keep learning, keep moving, get balance). But what about career development for Gen Xers (born 1961 to 1979)?

Sandwiched as they are between the Boomers (born 1943 to 1960) and the Millenials, Gen Xers have been called “the in-between generation” – overlooked and under appreciated (according to Jeff Gordinier in his book “X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft But Can Still Keep Everything From Sucking”). Many Gen Xers have career schizophrenia – attitudes somewhere between the desire for stability and structure of the Boomers and the career fluidity of the Millenials.

Here’s a thought that might help Xers think about their career development (also useful for Boomers) – think of your career as a product that you are selling in a turbulent and competitive market place. After all, the shelf life a jobs is getting shorter and shorter (no careers for life here!) and competition of jobs is getting tougher and tougher.

In these market conditions clever marketers keep their product (read career) vibrant and attractive to consumers (read employers) by revamping and repackaging. If you look at your career as a product it forces you to address some basic marketing issues such as:

• Your brand image /appeal to the consumer (employer)
• Your promotional strategy (how do I make myself known to the consumer)
• Your value proposition – how do you provide value for money to the consumer?

By thinking “career marketing” you may just stay one step ahead of the competition for that next career move.

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