I was Gen X, now on paper I’m a Millennial

And voila, I got a great job offer

I did the thing everyone says to do if you are old enough to be Gen Z’s mom or dad and looking for a new job. I had failed yet again in my quarter century working life to get internally promoted, or awarded a raise that was higher than the inflation rate. Meanwhile, every time I would go on LinkedIn and do a bit of stalking, I see so many people much younger than me (at least by a decade but sometimes two judging from the years they entered as being an undergrad) whose profiles show a nice history of career progression.

Their headline would have the word “Director” or “Chief” in it, and under their Experience section, it would show that while at one company, they held multiple roles where the first was at an entry level for 6 to 9 months, while the subsequent titles were clearly upward moves. Say for instance Data Analyst, then Senior Data Analyst, then after only a couple of years with the organization they rose to Data Analytics Manager. I mention this specific example because it is a trajectory that I as a solidly middle aged person have yet to achieve.

Therefore, I thought I should try to make myself look more like them! But how was I going to do that without being outright fraudulent? I didn’t want to inflate any of the actual job titles I held, nor was I going to fudge my Clinton administration era college graduation date.

There was just no getting around that I was never…