Some Experience Needed
The Rise of Fractional Roles as a Solution to Ageism
I was interviewing with a digital music company a few years ago. The CEO / founder was a funding bigwig. “You’ve been out of the mix too long,” he told me.
Let me tell you about the mix. It takes the average intelligent person about 2 weeks and a handful of YouTube videos to catch up to where technology has landed in most media jobs.
It’s not fucking brain surgery. Unless, of course, you are applying to be a brain surgeon. Then, maybe.
A kid I worked with once said "Get over grandpa, let me take the wheel"
I didn't punch him in the face, but I wanted to.
To be fair, I was worried I’d throw my back out.
I watched the movie Thelma (2024) tonight.
It’s a great comic film about viability as you age, along with a pretty hilarious story that blueprints a Mission: Impossible type thriller over mundane geriatric obstacles like mobility scooters and stairs and falling down, and not being able to get up.
The main character in the film is 93 years old.
Fifty-five? My age? Fifty-five is nothing.
According to the AARP, older Americans want a change in their employment to the tune of 40%. A quarter say they plan to make a job switch in 2025.
Sixteen percent plan to start their own business.
Katerina Stroponiati is making headlines building a venture fund for founders over 50. Brilliant Minds.
To wit:
“The world is making a massive mistake: it treats aging as a problem. It’s not. It’s the biggest untapped opportunity in human history.”
And yet ageism curses those trying to find new work.
I know several very well respected executives in marketing, business development and operations with spotless and rich backgrounds at companies like Electronic Arts and CNET who cannot get a callback.
It’s rare you hear from someone if you send a resume these days.
And that’s if the job is even real.
I know at least one well-regarded recruiting agency that posts ads for positions it would like to fill. This is not an ad you are answering for a job posted by an HR coordinator. This is an ad placed by a recruitment firm for a job THEY are trying to get.
You are just the commodity they’re brokering.
Meanwhile a huge percentage of job postings aren’t even real. They’re so-called "ghost jobs.”
From CBS in June of last year, “Forty-percent of companies said they have posted a fake job listing this year, according to a survey in May of 650 hiring managers from career site Resume Builder. Three in 10 companies currently have fake listings on their sites or on job boards, according to the survey.”
If you read hiring forums, they’re filled with people sending out hundreds if not thousands of resumes to no response.
This is anecdotal, so bear with me.
South by Southwest just announced it’s shrinking its annual fest to merge Music into the more lucrative Film and Interactive week.
This is in Austin. You know, the live music capital of the world?
The unofficial SXSW events I attended were well over capacity. Cameron Smith and Steve Wertheimer’s locally beloved Soco Stomp at C Boys was crazily well attended, but you can’t beat no cover, convenient location, and some of the best programming in town.
Meanwhile, 6th street was a ghost town on Music Saturday, and that used to be packed in every corner, from noon on.
When I got my badge it was dead in the convention center.
But the events that I saw that had real, honest to God crowds were loaded with acts where the median age had to be in the 60s. Steve Wynn, John Doe, Ian Moore, a tribute to R.E.M..
And yet, ageism persists in all its pernicious forms.
I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about ageism and how it can be confronted, tethered, fought, controlled.
Gen X isn’t like other generations. We built the technologies that form the cardiovascular and nervous systems of new IP.
I was in a meeting with a bunch of young people talking about social media. Only I knew about BlueSky. The 55 year old in the room.
The technological and cultural gap is not so wide among this generation.
The evolution of fractional executive roles suggests a clear solution.
Melissa Houston writes in Forbes, in December of last year, “Startups are bringing on more fractional leaders now because fractional leaders can step in during critical periods such as growth phases or transitions and can be hired to achieve specific results.”
“In recent years there has been an increased demand for fractional C-suite services which is powered by the affordability of these services. What had once only been reserved for large corporations has now become accessible to the millions of small business owners and entrepreneurs out there.”
Supply and demand.
There just needs to be a marketplace.
If you search for “Jobs over 50” or similar search terms, you’ll get almost cliched results. Greeter at Walmart. Night nurse. Grocery store checker. Minimum wage jobs for the retiree with too much time on their hands.
And recruiting firms charge upwards of 20% of the first year’s salary to place an executive.
Startups can rarely afford such expenditures when resources are scarce.
The work ethic of a good solid Gen Xer is shockingly unlike the pictures painted by 90s slacker media. Have you ever seen how hard a gig poster artist hustles?
The band I worked with this year are all turning 70 and played 4 shows in 3 days, including one at midnight, and at soundcheck the next morning at 10am.
Ageism is institutionalized abatement of risk of legal and financial issues.
There’s a solution staring us straight in the face.
Thanks for reading Are You Experienced. I’m Nick Tangborn and I’m available for fractional ops and marketing work, on top of writing this thing. You can find me at nicholas@areyouexperienced.co
Want to continue the conversation? Let me know.
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I think of fractional as specifically filling a role you’d normally hire someone full time for, like a head of Ops or Chief of Staff, but part time, so you can afford a more experienced person without blowing all your resources. And the contractor or consultant can hold multiple roles at different companies, but with the freedom that comes w consulting.
Is "fractional role" a modern way of saying "consultant"? Or is it different? (I know I could look it up, but then we wouldn't have an interaction in the comments.)
I'm seeing another pushback against ageism as I read up on perimenopause, which women begin in their late 30s through 50s. Rather than marking a period of inevitable suffering and decline, it can offer a seismic shift in focus and purpose and power. Traditional Chinese Medicine refers to it as a Second Spring.
Ageism, perhaps like most -isms, is truly dumb.