A Note For My Mid To Late 30-Somethings

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Ladies. I feel like I write for women but if a man is out there reading and needing a little encouragement, you’re welcome too. My darlings this career shift has been rough. We were sold a dream and it has evaporated. If you’re my age, you may have started your career during the Great Recession. For me, I graduated in 2008 and I didn’t land a job until summer 2009. And that position was a one year contract. But it was start, the foundation of my career.

My Career Start in Museum Education and Research

My first professional job was in the government public service as a research officer at Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey which has the Marcus Garvey Multimedia Museum. My role was a mix of museum education and public outreach and research and writing and event planning. It was fun, it stretched me. There was public speaking, press releases, media relations and event planning and logistics and management and communications plus research and writing and even giving tours at the museum. I had a blast doing it. So much so that when the opportunity came to do the job full-time in 2011, I took the leap. And that was whirlwind of activities, planning and execution because it was the lead up to Jamaica 50 and that was an electrifying time to be working in the culture and heritage space.

The Dream Job

After two years as research officer, I got the opportunity to move to the Jamaica Information Service as research officer and writer in the publications department. I got that job specifically because of my role at Liberty Hall. It was 2013 and there was push for civics in primary schools and teaching Garveyism so I deemed perfect for the role at the JIS.

Working in public information and public relations for the government of Jamaica meant condensing and neutralising information so that the average Jamaican could readily know what policies meant. One stand out project was a ‘Get the Facts’ campaign about the 2013/2014 IMF agreement. It meant breaking down technical terms and economic terms into digestible information leaflets that were printed and also posted on Facebook. But my most memorable and fun piece of work at the JIS was my research and writing on Nanny of the Maroons. That was fun.

In May 2016, I saw a job ad for the role of content features writer at Global Directories, the publishers of the phone book. The job promised writing in lifestyle, culture, art, music across the Caribbean. And I wanted that job. I applied and I got that job and started in July 2016. This was my dream role. I was living out my dream of making my career as a writer. Not a researcher, not in the public sector but as a writer.

Writing and Representing the Caribbean, South and Central America and the Channel Islands

In 2017 Global Directories rebranded and became Yello Media Group and I was managing a content portfolio for digital content marketing across 20 countries. In 2018, I got my first promotion to senior writer and team lead. I became a people manager leading a team of brilliant women who wrote thoughtful and fun and original content for:

Anguilla

Antigua

Aruba

The Bahamas

Barbados

Belize

Bonaire

BVI

The Cayman Islands

Curacao

Dominica

Grenada

Guyana

Jamaica

Montserrat

St Kitts and Nevis

St Lucia

St Vincent and the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

Turks and Caicos

The Bailiwick of Guernsey

The team was amazing. I had a team of five writers and my director listened and respected my expertise and experience and we given room to explore, experiment and create. 2016-2019 were magical years for my career and development. But then 2020 happened.

COVID-19, AI and a Career Crisis

My team and were already on a hybrid work schedule when the world locked down in March 2020 so it wasn’t a difficult transition to WFH. We quickly got used to Microsoft Teams and work continued. But so did job insecurities, salary cuts or stagnant wages. Then by 2022 AI was the rage the big thing and things started to feel shaky and they got shakier until it felt like the career growth and build and development started to feel like it was a career ceiling.

Is there room for growth in content marketing in 2026? Are skills still deemed transferable to move into publication management? Corporate communications? Content strategy? We all can’t be project managers. Is there room in Fintech for folks with a humanities background? Is the two-year time investment plus millions of dollars worth it for an MBA? Should I dust off my manuscript and publish something? Do I still have energy and creativity needed for long-form content? Do I have a story in me that is book worthy? Do I self-publish or should I draft, query and get an agent and hope for a book deal? Will any of that be fulfilling?

I feel unmoored.

What’s Next For Us in Our Late 30s

When I check LinkedIn so many of my connections have an ‘Open to Work’ banner and there’s a echo chamber sort of effect where so many people are career coaches, and resume writers and remote work specialists and it feels draining and sad and pointless. Not to mention it is damn near impossible to know who is running a scam and using LinkedIn services as their top funnel to bag their next mark or target.

Let me share one my personal dreams for year 40 that I am slowly and sadly letting go of because well it feels unaffordable. I dreamed or wished to have a sabbatical, a year of rest, reading, writing and travel for my 40th birthday. That was the goal. That was the dream.

After 13 years of building, optimizing processes, creating and maintaining style guides, content workflows and editorial calendars and project management where do I go from here? In a few short years I will be working for 20 years and I’m grateful for this journey but the pressures of this world, between global tensions and war, the rise of xenophobia, racism and the climate crisis, inflation and high cost of living, and the idea that we fighting to keep data centres away from our clean water. I don’t know what is next.

But friends, I encourage you to hold onto to small wins, celebrate them, spend time with those you love, invite beauty into your home through art, music, dance and plants. Cook and enjoy slow meals with those you love. Cherish each day. Savour that first sip of your morning coffee. Journal your thoughts and feelings and hold those you love close. Tell them you love them and do it frequently, daily and multiple times per day. Love your life. That is a radical act of resistance.

I want to us to hold close and cultivate more of those small moments and intimate pockets of life that allow us to happy, satisfied and content. Because all around us there’s more evidence of discontent and regret and fear.

You can choose your focus for your life and your way forward. That may mean deciding to pay off debt, lowering your cost of living and creating your own ‘soft life’. But we can focus on personal satisfaction even when the outside factors that we have no control of try to derail us.

Take some time today and decide what your core focus is and how despite the career setbacks or even delays, you can find your own moments of peace and be your own safe space.

Thanks for reading and be well.

Let’s see where we land in August.