Are we harnessing the benefits of experience ?

 The topic of experience crops up regularly in my social media threads and it's normally divisive.

There are two  main  areas , namely the oft mentioned , reportedly ageist nature of certain industries and disciplines including my own field of brand  marketing;or the value of  formal learning , typically  juxtaposed with  the hidden elephant in the room of experience. I'll  save the latter  topic for another post though and concentrate on the age related angle here if I can just  find my glasses and stay awake.

I have a personal interest in this topic  as my interest in the practice of marketing has outlived my employability (although age may not be the main reason of course); I have also seen  highly motivated and  capable  people consigned to the career scrapheap due effectively to their age, although  this could never be acknowledged overtly  due presumably to legislation. My own  last full time  marketing post was secured at the age of 50 ,and I was told informally  this was an exception or experiment on their part. 

Marketing is  accused of many things,  but not understanding or being representative of an (ageing ) demographic  never mind the economic profile of the consumers it seeks to woo is something that's  easily fixed if there was a will on the part of employers..after all isn't marketing  all about being focused  on meeting  consumer needs?

Experience is of  itself no guarantee of  future economic value to any potential employer, and shouldn't  be given precedence over talent and potential. Equally  there needs to be proper space for younger people to grow their careers without opportunities being blocked by older  incumbents. Perhaps a case for more creative  job sharing ? Other criteria of evaluation eg  performance should of course be applied in the same way to all.  Marketing  for example has quite a different  face now to when I began my working life , so it doesn't follow that my experience will  still be relevant.  Conversely  the essentials of marketing  are as relevant today as they always were , even if they've had a rebrand ...

Others have written eloquently about  how deep knowledge of a business can disappear  with the loss of key personnel  , such as happens all too often after  acquisition ;  it also applies I would argue with retirement of key people. 

Conversely  and speaking   personally  I suddenly found myself with over 30 years of frontline brand marketing experience I  could  neither use to earn a living  ,nor share with others ,hence my  overuse of Twitter  where I regularly enjoy being part  of conversations with others of all backgrounds and ages  including  academics and practitioners. 

I don't  buy into the stereotype of all older people  as necessarily more resistant to change or technically more challenged than today's digital natives , but there will of course  be some. If nothing else experience has honed my own ability to smell BS early on though.

Given the likely  continuing increases in retirement age more and more people will have to find ways to stay gainfully employed beyond their  current  employment sell by date.

The challenge then is to find ways to gainfully  and creatively harness the experience that the older person has  and wants to offer:  I'm not  personally looking  for full time employment  in marketing , or indeed elsewhere, but the odd advisory role in a  project however  might be of interest.  I've noted before an excellent ,historic scheme with a former employer of bringing  back experienced people on a ( paid) project basis where specific skills or experience were lacking  , and it self evidently  could have  potential benefits for all .

So  back to the beginning  , are we harnessing the potential of  all the accumulated experience out there ? You tell me..