What gen X and millennial marketers think of the profession – and each other

Generation Exchange: We bring experienced marketers together with junior colleagues to investigate their differing attitudes to the profession and the world of work.

Today, much is made of the differences between millennials, who are beginning to rise to positions of influence in businesses, and the generation above who manage them – whether that’s because being ‘digital natives’ gives the former a fundamentally different perspective on culture, or because they have career expectations totally unlike their forebears’.

But how does the generational – and attitudinal – divide really play out in the workplace?

Are senior and junior marketers at odds with each other with regard to work-life balance, brand purpose and the role of marketing in the business; or do they actually have more in common than they realise?

In an attempt to answer these questions, Marketing Week challenged seven of the country’s top marketers to a meeting of minds with their younger colleagues.

The insights are both deep and wide-ranging. If there is one key takeaway, it is that there can be few marketers out there, whether at the top of their game or just starting out, who have nothing to learn from those at the opposite end of the career ladder.

Click on the links below to read the interviews.

BT: Digital natives are fundamentally a new breed

Diageo: Marketers are general managers, making marketing a better route to CEO

HSBC: Young marketers job-hop more and don’t necessarily aim to be CMOs

Hostelworld: Young marketers must play a bigger role in shaping brand purpose

Microsoft: Technology means marketing is now a career option for more people

Nationwide: Senior marketers should open their minds to their juniors’ less ‘jaded’ views

Trinity Mirror Group: Marketers are able to influence senior staff from a younger age

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