Careers are not what they used to be! Some professions (e.g. medicine, law, and the military) still offer a fairly consistent career structure, but for most of us, the old and reliable career structures are evaporating.

This is not a problem for “Millenials” (born 1980 and 1994)—they are calibrated to current career conditions. But what about Gen Xers (born 1961 to 1979)? Gen Xers have been called “the in-between generation” – overlooked and under appreciated. 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 suggestion for Xers – think of your career as a product that you are selling in a turbulent and competitive market place. After all, the shelf life of jobs is getting shorter and shorter, and competition for jobs is getting tougher and tougher. In these market conditions clever marketers keep their product (i.e. career) vibrant and attractive to consumers (i.e.
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 in terms of “career marketing,” you may just stay one step ahead of the competition for that next career move (before it evaporates!).

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Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present. ~ Rudy Giuliani