It’s energy, not age, that matters when hiring

By Abigail Stuart, Founding Partner, Day One Strategy

True story: I was 42, working in a corporate holding company, loving my job. Then my financial adviser said something that stopped me cold:

“You need to be financially secure by 50 — mortgage paid off, debts cleared — because after that, your face may not fit.”

It was meant as practical advice. But it landed like a quiet warning: there’s an expiry date in corporate life. Not because of ability, but because of perception.

That conversation was my turning point. Most people saw starting my own business as a risk. I saw it as security: the only way to control my career longevity instead of leaving it to someone else’s bias about my birth certificate.

Now I’m 52. I have more energy, ideas, and clarity than I’ve ever had. I’m sharper strategically, faster at connecting dots, and clearer about what truly drives business growth. Yet I also know that if I found myself looking for work tomorrow, securing a new role would be harder than it should be.

Not because of skill. Because of bias.

The numbers tell the story

In UK advertising and marketing agencies, just 6% of staff are over 50 IPA | Reckoning with the reality of being 55+ in adland +2. Almost three-quarters of marketers are aged between 26 and 45 Marketing Week. The average age in creative agencies is just 36 Creative Review.

Compare that to 31% of the UK workforce being over 50 The Drum, and you start to see the problem. Seventy-nine percent of industry employees agree that the industry is ageist Alex Murrell.

Energy vs. Age: we’re measuring the wrong thing

When companies say they want “young energy,” what they really mean is they want curiosity, drive, and fresh thinking. The problem? They’ve mistaken those qualities for youth itself.

But expertise without energy is just experience that never gets applied. Energy without expertise is enthusiasm that can’t deliver results. You need both. And energy is what makes expertise matter.

For me, energy has never been about how loud you are or how many hours you clock. It’s about genuine curiosity; staying interested in business, ideas, people, and what’s changing around us.

It’s the people who don’t stop thinking when the working day ends. Who stay curious, keep learning, and bring ideas and optimism into the room. Who can connect the dots between what they learned a decade ago and what’s emerging right now.

The three types of energy that actually matter

There are three kinds of energy that make someone invaluable, and they matter more than ever in the age of AI.

1. Intellectual energy

The curiosity to keep learning and adapting.

My reading list is always too long. Reports, white papers, articles I’ve saved for later. There’s so much out there now that the real challenge isn’t finding information — it’s making the time to actually read it all.

AI can automate and summarise almost everything. But it can’t apply judgment, read context, or use imagination. People who stop learning will fall behind, no matter how much they already know.

2. Emotional energy

The optimism, empathy, and resilience that keeps you and others moving forward.

This is what makes us human. Technology can’t replicate it. As industries shift and uncertainty grows, emotional intelligence is what sets people apart. And it often gets stronger with experience.

3. Creative energy

The spark to connect dots and imagine better ways forward.

AI can crunch data faster than any of us. But it can’t feel the tension between an insight and an opportunity. Creative energy turns information into innovation, and it thrives in people who’ve stayed curious.

The AI reality check

Most people assume AI will wipe out junior roles first — the analysts, the researchers, the data gatherers. But I think the risk is spread across all levels, because it depends on people’s ability to adapt.

Yes, AI will automate certain tasks. But new roles are already forming to replace them. Junior staff will be needed to manage AI workflows, prompt systems effectively, and validate what comes out. At senior level, there’ll be less time spent charting data or checking accuracy. Instead, the work shifts to turning insights into stories, triangulating with industry knowledge, fusing data sets, and making strategic recommendations.

The problem is that not all senior people can do that today. Some built careers on being great at the technical work that’s now disappearing.

People with twenty years of experience are just as vulnerable as juniors if they can’t adapt — if they keep doing what they’ve always done instead of thinking in new ways.

In the next wave of transformation, survival won’t come from tenure or technical skill alone. It will come from energy. The kind that learns, pivots, and reimagines what’s possible.

Coming full circle

Ten years ago, my financial adviser’s warning felt like a threat. Today, I see it as the best career advice I ever received, just not in the way he meant it.

He was right that corporate doors close as you age. But he couldn’t have predicted what I’d discover on the other side: that building my own business didn’t just give me security, it gave me freedom. Freedom to keep learning, to stay curious, to work with the energy I’ve always had.

And to anyone facing that same quiet warning, whether at 42 or 52 or 62: don’t wait for permission to prove you still belong. Create the space where your energy matters more than your age.