Are you feeling stuck in your career? With 69% of marketers reporting a lack of career progression in the last year, according to Marketing Week’s 2026 Career & Salary Survey, many are feeling stagnated, stuck and searching for something new.
Lauren Spearman is the co-founder of Careering, a careers platform “for people who feel like their careers have gone a little bit adrift” and was named a Marketing Week Changemaker in 2024.
Her career began in marketing, with senior roles at the likes of Made.com, Benefit Cosmetics and Many Pets. In 2023, she began posting online about her experiences navigating the jobs market, and has since become an advocate for better hiring practises in the industry.
In this episode of The Marketing Week Podcast, she joins host Molly Innes, work and careers editor & podcast lead, to discuss whether marketing is in a careers crisis, and what marketers and employers can do to fix it.
“We should always look at what we can do ourselves to support our own progression. Absolutely, your employer has a role within your own career development, but they can’t be the custodian of your career,” she says, suggesting marketers try and be “a bit more experimental” in how they approach progression to negate feeling stagnated.
Spearman will be speaking at Marketing Week’s Festival of Marketing 2026, taking place on 14 October.Find The Marketing Week Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Acast.
