In this edition:
Is 15+ years of steady employment working against you right now?
How Marketing leadership roles are being redefined
3 career moves as a Marketing Director, VP, or CMO. If you’re actively searching, this is for you. If you’re currently employed, you should pay attention
THE RESEARCH
Is 15+ years of steady employment working against you?
New research says it might be. Workers with the steadiest employment tenure, about 55% of the labour pool, have seen their job-finding rate fall 13 percentage points. For workers who move in and out of employment often, it fell two points.
The same research found that most exposed to AI had the steepest decline of any group measured. Before 2023, job-finding rates moved together regardless of AI exposure. After that, they separated sharply.
Here is what I see behind these numbers in the Marketing Directors, VPs, and CMOs I coach today.
After 15 or more years, Marketing Directors, VPs, and CMOs often struggle to articulate their true value beyond results delivered and bottom-line impact. Both their work and results are real. But a list of outcomes does not explain why you were the one who produced them.
There is also a quiet confidence that comes with seniority. After 15 years of building brands, you assume you already know how to brand yourself. That assumption is quickly erased when a sudden lay-off happens. Then things get real, real quick!
What is needed is your story. Your narrative threaded through your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your interviews and your outreach, consistent in all of them. Most leaders have never had to build one, because the work always spoke for itself internally. That is the moment a fresh perspective matters most.
THE MARKETING PROBLEM
The marketing leadership role is being redefined, whether currently in-role or not.
Most of what gets written about this market speaks to people who are out of work. That leaves out the larger group. Plenty of Directors, VPs, and CMOs are still employed and watching the ground move underneath them.
You’ve been around so you already know the signs. A restructure that moves part of (or your whole) team under someone else. An AI or martech transformation that you are expected to lead and upskill at the same time. Budget conversations where marketing has less of a voice than it had two years ago. Peers in finance and product now making decisions that you used to own.
The role mix is shifting underneath all of it.
Gartner’s 2026 CMO agenda puts AI team design at the centre of marketing leadership. The model taking shape is senior leaders directing AI workflows, with specialist expertise brought in as needed. That is a different job from the one most of you were promoted into.
So an accurate description of your role can still describe a job that no longer exists in that shape.
This matters whether or not you are actively job searching or in-role. If you are employed, the way you are understood inside your organization drives your influence, your budget and your voice at the table. If you are in the market, it supports why you’re applying and not getting any call backs. The underlying problem is the same. As the career coach for marketing leaders, it usually comes down to 5 specific gaps: an outdated narrative, no evidence, a generic (yet AI polished) resume, an unclear target and a weak LinkedIn system. Each one is fixable on its own, and most leaders have 2 or 3 running at once.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT
Three moves that work whether you are employed or not.
Write down what you want people to understand you. One paragraph on what you do, who you do it for, and what changes because you are there. If you are employed, this is what your CEO should be able to repeat about you. If you are searching, it is the spine of every document you send.
Build a proof stack sooner than later. 3-5 results with numbers attached, each tied to a decision you made. Waiting until a search starts means reconstructing years of work from memory and while under pressure.
Ask 3 people what they come to you for. Former colleagues, current peers, people who have reported to you. Their answers are usually clearer than anything you would write about yourself, and they tell you which part of your value actually shines.
If you are working through this now, whether you’re actively job-searching or not, I offer a free consultation. No obligation and a fresh perspective. Book a call now.
Keep well.
Justin Naidoo
CEO, Career & Executive Coach
Naidoo Career & Executive Coaching Inc.