Looking at the macro landscape, AI is rewriting the rules faster than most agencies can adapt. If I were starting today, I wouldn't chase a title or a corner office. The real value is in the stuff machines can't fudge - reading a room, understanding why a client is actually nervous, translating that into a message that lands.
Strategy and account planning feel like the last bastions of human insight. You're essentially a cultural anthropologist who happens to work in advertising. That skill doesn't depreciate. Client-side brand management at a tech firm also has legs - they crave people who speak both data and human.
But here's the thing: a colleague in the industry told me after twenty years he still loves it. Not because of the pay or the perks, but because every day is a puzzle. You work with creative people, you make someone feel something. That's worth more than job security.
Electrician? Sure, steady work. But I'd miss the craft. The question isn't which role is safe - it's which role lets you build something that matters while the ground shifts beneath you.
