---
title: "Marketers, What Can You Still Do After 35? This Is the Best Advice I've Ever Seen"
description: "This article addresses the '35-year-old crisis' in the workplace, emphasizing that while age can be a barrier, it's not the end of career prospects. It advises that by age 30, one must tackle three major issues—family responsibility, skill-age alignment, and knowledge structure—and then build a solid foundation before 30, and after 30, focus on professional branding, becoming a good middle manager, and joining a growing company."
author: "New Distribution"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
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published: "2018-02-25"
language: "en"
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# Marketers, What Can You Still Do After 35? This Is the Best Advice I've Ever Seen

> This article addresses the '35-year-old crisis' in the workplace, emphasizing that while age can be a barrier, it's not the end of career prospects. It advises that by age 30, one must tackle three major issues—family responsibility, skill-age alignment, and knowledge structure—and then build a solid foundation before 30, and after 30, focus on professional branding, becoming a good middle manager, and joining a growing company.

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Recently, there's been a lot of talk about housing prices, and many people complain that they can't afford to buy a house and feel lost...
But in reality, how many Chinese people truly lack a place to live? Compared to housing prices, rent is cheap; if you can't buy, you can always rent. If you can't even afford rent, you can always go back to your hometown and find a place to live.
If we're just talking about 'housing' or 'a house,' it's not really a problem for Chinese people today.
The real question is: when you're no longer young, what can you still do?
What's the most awkward and sensitive age in the workplace?
**Probably 35—**
**At 35, you might receive rejection letters saying 'age not suitable' when you submit your resume.**
**At 35, even if you work for a big company like Huawei, you face the risk of being let go.**
**At 35, even if you don't use a thermos cup, the 'midlife crisis' is already following you like a shadow...**
But I also want to tell you that 35 doesn't mean the end of your career prospects; it depends on how you spent the years before 35.
Today, I'm sharing an article from senior career planning consultant Yang Yi, who, based on years of consulting experience, reveals the key to breaking the '35-year-old dilemma.'
The article is a bit long, but no matter how far you are from 35, it's worth reading carefully.
**Whether you admit it or not, you must pay attention to the '35-year-old phenomenon'—**
Many companies explicitly require candidates to be under 35 when recruiting. If you're 35 and still submitting resumes on job sites and changing jobs frequently, you should reflect on what you've done wrong.
Of course, based on our practical consulting experience, if you only start thinking about this at 35 or even older, you might find it too late to solve; many practical difficulties will leave you helpless and at a loss.
To avoid a messy career after 35, you should at least set clear goals by 30 and use five years to pursue them.
This might be the last best opportunity for growth. Miss this window, and you're no longer young; society won't be as forgiving of your youthful recklessness. Otherwise, every wrong step you take will cost you tenfold later.
1
**At 30: Three Major Problems You Must Face**
**First, can you shoulder family and responsibility?**
If you're already settled down, you must clearly realize: how should your career develop to ensure you can support your family? This includes not only your spouse but also your children and parents (especially if both of you are only children, you'll need to support four elderly parents).
At this stage, your pressure multiplies, but if your career growth doesn't multiply, or even regresses in some way, your future career will face more pressure. This pressure often leaves you with no energy to seek better development.
Many people hesitate to change jobs due to a big concern: if I jump, my income might not be as high as now; so, would I easily move from my current job?
So, if you want to act, do it early. Before you're burdened with family, travel light and charge forward with all your might—that's your only choice. Don't enjoy comfort now, or your later life will be 'comfortably' mediocre forever.
**Second, does your ability match your age?**
Among our many clients, one of the trickiest situations is the mismatch between ability and age. Many people with 3 or 5 years of experience have abilities not much different from those with just one year, so when they try to break through in their careers, they encounter many obstacles.
There are two reasons for this:
One is frequent job-hopping without accumulating in one direction, leaving you without a marketable skill;
The other is long-term accumulation in one direction, but only the first year involves growth; the rest are repetitive work, marking time.
So, for those who are 30, from now on, you must seriously examine a question: How many years have I worked since graduation? Does my ability match my age?
If not, you must establish a sense of crisis early and run forward to close the gap with those who are more foresighted, ensuring you won't be pushed off the horse in competition.
**Third, have you built and upgraded your knowledge structure?**
In the workplace, people at different job levels do different things, and their perspectives and thinking patterns also differ.
A basic salesperson thinks about how to maintain the terminal; that's tactical and their duty. But if a marketing director still thinks like a salesperson about dealing with terminal owners every day, that's a dereliction of duty.
Every company's operations consist of strategy and tactics. Big strategies are broken down into smaller ones, and smaller ones into execution tactics carried out by frontline staff. Different levels of people are responsible for different heights of work, each doing their part—that's the meaning of teamwork.
Similarly, each level has a different knowledge structure. The higher the level, the higher your perspective and thinking must be, and your overall knowledge structure must also develop and break through. Otherwise, your ability will forever stay at the concrete operational level, with no major development or promotion.
2
**Before 30: How to Build a Solid Foundation**
I suggest you do two things.
**First, find a goal you can strive for 5, 10, or even more years.**
This is the ideal state. A clear goal allows your career growth to accumulate experience around one point, and this accumulated experience is your bargaining chip for future promotions and raises. Although experience isn't necessarily related to ability, without experience accumulation, your ability has little chance of improving.
Macolm Gladwell, in his book *Outliers*, says: Whether they are top athletes, entrepreneurs, musicians, or scientists, surveys show they all put in at least ten years of effort, no less than three hours a day, before they emerged.
There's a story in the book:
Maxim Vengerov was born in Siberia. At age 4, he came into contact with his first violin and showed extraordinary talent.
Moreover, his talent was proportional to his dedication. He practiced 7 hours a day, gave his first recital at 5, won international awards at 15, and became a world-class violinist at 34.
Vengerov said: 'My mother came home at 8 p.m., and after dinner, she taught me violin until 4 a.m. For a 4-year-old, it was torture, but two years later, I became a violinist.'
Many people complain about lacking opportunities. But that's not the case.
Frank Furedi, a sociology professor at the University of Kent, believes that people who effectively invest a lot of time in practice naturally have their own luck: 'They work almost obsessively hard, and when luck comes, they're already prepared.'
If you haven't encountered opportunities, don't complain; first reflect: what aspects are you unprepared for?
Based on our experience, only by persisting in one direction for at least 5 years can you expect returns, and these returns will have a relatively long-term impact on your future career. Also, it's this long-term accumulation that makes your foundation solid and firm, and your footing more stable.
**The second big thing I suggest you consider is learning to be a person.**
I even think that being a good person is a hundred times more important than doing things well. Finding a suitable career goal may not be easy for many confused people, but learning to be a person is a professional quality you can cultivate at any company, at any time.
**In the cultivation of being a person, there are four elements that can have a decisive impact on your future career:**
**1. Your interpersonal skills**
This includes your relationship with your superiors and your colleagues.
**2. The ability to keep learning**
I once met a client, nearly 40, who had been an accountant for 14 years but was still just a grassroots supervisor, with no promotion prospects and no raise for years.
We asked him: 'In these 14 years, have you undergone any training, further education, or any other form of self-improvement?'
'No.'
'Never?'
'Never.'
This is an extreme example, but this phenomenon is very common in the workplace.
Without learning, your career development stagnates. You think you haven't regressed, but others are progressing, and the gap between you and them widens imperceptibly, which is equivalent to regression.
**3. Establish a professional spirit**
Whether you have goals or not, whether you like the job or not, as long as you're in that position, you should do it well.
Even if you don't like the job, don't treat it negatively, because you're not only wasting the company's time but also your own.
In the workplace, you can gain only two things: returns and growth. Before you have clear goals, do your current tasks to perfection, and strive with all your might to get everything you can from that position. Treating work negatively will leave you empty-handed, gaining nothing.
**4. Have a strong inner self**
Many people I've met are actually fragile inside, unable to withstand the various hardships that come along the long road of life. Remember, everyone's growth isn't smooth sailing. Even Jesus suffered trials.
A strong inner self can let you see hope in despair, while pessimism only makes you miss opportunities in front of hope.
There's a line in *The Shawshank Redemption*:
'Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free. The strong save themselves; the saint saves others.'
You may not be a saint, but you must become strong.
3
**After 30: How to Achieve a Qualitative Breakthrough?**
To achieve significant development in your career after 35, you should start at 30, make good use of 5 years, and prepare for the following three crucial things:
**NO.1**
**Complete your professional brand building**
'Japan's strategy father' Kenichi Ohmae proposed this view in *The Professional*:
'What makes you win? In the future, what will drive world trends is competition between individuals. Can you dominate the world stage and forge core competitiveness that others can't surpass? Your only reliance is professionalism.'
Are you a top business person or an ordinary office worker? The difference lies here! Give yourself a professional positioning and build your brand image; it will add more valuable chips to your future career.
To support your 'professional' brand image, you need to make efforts in the following two aspects:
**First, the knowledge structure issue mentioned earlier.**
Move away from concrete operational issues, raise your perspective higher and farther, and become a person with 'foresight' rather than 'short-sightedness.'
Look up to the best in the industry, set them as your goals, and use them as role models for your growth, gradually closing the gap with excellence. At this time, on-the-job learning, further education, etc., need to be put on the agenda; learn to enrich your mind with new knowledge.
**Second, establish your influence within the industry.**
To become an excellent professional, you must also look up to the best, establish influence in the industry, and use your ideas to influence others.
Last year, we met a very excellent young man who left a deep impression.
He was a junior college graduate in printing, and after graduation, he went to a printing factory as a salesperson. It was such a seemingly low-value position, but he built his influence in his own unique way.
He set a requirement for himself: write an article every month and publish it in the most influential magazine in the industry. Of course, not every article could meet publication quality, but he had to ensure quality and write one each month.
The benefits of doing this: first, it establishes your influence in the industry; second, it helps you form your own knowledge structure.
**NO.2**
**Cultivate yourself into an excellent middle manager**
Stepping into a management position is a key step in your career growth. Future development space is closely linked to this promotion. But not everyone can sit firmly in this seat.
Gallup once conducted a survey and found that the reason grassroots employees frequently leave is often not the company but their superiors: the middle managers.
Because of poor middle management, the development and growth of subordinates are adversely affected, preventing them from growing effectively in both professional ability and professional conduct.
You must realize: your management could change the lifelong fate of your subordinates; it's your wrong management style that unknowingly hurts them, forcing them to leave the company.
When your growth is hindered by your superior, that's your misfortune; you can choose to 'vote with your feet.' When you become a manager one day, we hope you don't pass on this misfortune.
**NO.3**
**Find a growing company and grow with it**
This is a very important thing.
First, you can witness a company's growth from small to large, from weak to strong, gaining a deeper understanding of its operations, and you can also appreciate your role and position in the company's growth.
Second, during the company's growth, your value has more room to be realized and is easier to showcase.
Many people tend to prefer big companies when job hunting, which is understandable, but for rapid growth, finding a smaller, growing company is actually a better choice. Because during growth, there's a more urgent need for talent, and your promotion will be faster.
Third, your loyalty will bring more returns to your development.
One of the most important criteria for companies in hiring is loyalty. Especially now, when job-hopping and turnover rates are high in many companies, loyalty becomes a very valuable professional spirit.
✎✎✎
Whether you're already 'approaching 30' or still on the way, always remind yourself: don't waste your prime years; seize all the time you can to accumulate more depth for your life.
Finally, I'll end with my favorite Steve Jobs quote:
**'Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.'**
**'And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.'**
_Source: Business New Vision Online Media_


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