Here, Christopher Smith founder of Singapore-based Rock Paper Scissors writes on behalf of the Experience Advocacy Taskforce to uncover the secrets of creative longevity past 6o.
In 2021, I faced a harsh reality in the media and advertising talent market. At age 57, exploring new job opportunities with agencies in Singapore, I discovered how dramatically things had changed from when I first arrived in 2010. Back then, at 46, I was in demand, working with agencies, brands, and NGOs, building valuable experience across markets, industry verticals, and diverse business cultures. But now, everything was different.
With over 30 years of experience, the interest in me had cooled. I went from an inbox full of meeting requests to not getting a reply from recruiters and HR leads I was looking to meet with. As close friends, I was fortunate to know a few people in the HR industry. I asked about the market; “Is there an abundance of highly experienced media professionals clogging up the hiring process?” My friends, who hold the keys to approving new hires, confirmed what I had suspected for a while. It wasn’t the market. It was me. I was too old, looking for a job in an industry infatuated with youth’s energy over the experience and wisdom of age.
Today, at age 60, I am the founder of a strategy design consultancy and sit on an industry advisory board charged with changing the problem of ageism in the advertising community. I am optimistic about the next 10 years, my next chapter in a career driven by curiosity, transformative shifts in how we approach marketing and advertising, and, most recently, the emergence of Generative Artificial Intelligence.
To say that I adopted GenAI would be a gross understatement. I embraced it, devoured it, and shifted my free time to rigorous, deep-dive explorations of what this dawn of the Age of AI had to offer people like me: people who were approaching or past what might be considered the expiration date for media and advertising professionals. According to a study published by Total Jobs, that age was 57.
AI technology became my unexpected catalyst for professional reinvention at an age where most industry veterans are expected to exit gracefully out of the agencies they had built, to leave behind the cohorts they had mentored, and to disappear from the industry altogether, making room for younger, albeit less experienced talent.
What was it that drew me to AI? What did I see that others my age are not yet seeing? As part of the mere 5.6% of ChatGPT users aged 55-64, I discovered that AI isn’t just a tool for the young – it’s the great equalizer that allows seasoned professionals to leverage decades of experience in powerful new ways. I possessed a combination of earned wisdom and cutting-edge technology that created opportunities instead of obsolescence. Being “dated” became an advantage in the AI era, where the ability to ask the right questions and evaluate the answers – shaped by years of experience – proves more valuable than technical knowledge. My deep industry roots, my pattern
recognition skills, and my lived experience earned in the trenches of industry transformations that began with the invention of MTV- the launch of the internet, the development of the DVD, the laptop, social media, and now artificial intelligence – all became not just my history, but my opportunity to re-invent my worth and value in the emerging AI-driven workplace.
My deep industry roots and pattern recognition skills were forged in the crucible of transformative industry shifts. I wasn’t just present for these changes – I actively adapted to each one, from witnessing how MTV revolutionized visual storytelling in the 80s to navigating the seismic impact of the internet in the ’90s to mastering the social media revolution of the 2000s. Each wave of change taught me not just to survive disruption but to thrive in it. As AI reshapes everything again, I’m not just watching it happen – I’m driving the change. These aren’t just bullet points on my timeline; they represent decades of learning to turn technological disruption into opportunity.”
In its simplest form, generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Gemini are chat windows where I ask questions and get responses. My superpower, my value, has come from being able to lean on my years of asking questions and evaluating answers. This is something that no one can take from me and that few will ever be able to possess. Experience, like age, is addictive. The longer I choose to work, learn, and question, the more experiences I will develop and the higher my value will become.
Much is being discussed and written about the benefits and challenges of the rapid and seemingly unregulated developments in AI. Some will wring their hands in worry or nod their heads in agreement. But others will take a step back and look at the dawn of the Age of AI through the lens of experience and wisdom. They see this as just another inflection point in our timeline, another fantastic opportunity to harness innovation and use it as a catalyst for personal and career transformation. I have chosen to be the latter.
