The 3 Career Roles Ambitious Women Want To Be In Right Now
Okay, so the influencer era is dead.
No, not phasing out, not drying up. It has simply and quite utterly been lowered 6 feet deep.
Think ashes to ashes.
And ironically, what a time it was to be alive when we were recommended an Anastasia Brow Kit in a 60-second clip, and it sells out in the exact 60 seconds it took for our favourite beauty girl to sell it to us.
Yet along the way, consumers stopped picking up what was being put down and decided lip gloss swatches being fingered across our forearms were losing their credibility.
And this isn’t to say that visibility is no longer a strong currency, because it is. But being seen matters less than being respected for what you know, your skill, and your authority.
The desire for exposure simply for the sake of exposure is weakening, being famous for being famous is no longer sexy, and women not only want to consume something substantial but also to add something more substantial to the collective.
Once upon a time, influence or at least the idea of it promised money, freedom and relevance, and for a while it worked. But that relevance has shifted.
The Corporate Power Player
Never in modern day did I think the corporate world could be romanticised. Something that always felt so grey, dull, and male-dominant never seemed quite aligned with that, but as women, we can do anything, and that’s exactly what we’ve done.
One culture shift that stands out is when most of us had our minds changed about what working in corporate meant for women when posts from the SheerLuxe team started popping up on our FYP, sharing their favourite spots for weekend trips, makeup finds and enviable fashion sense.
Don’t get me wrong, women in the corporate world aren’t a new concept.
The women never disappeared from these fields, but their positions have certainly become much more interesting to us, particularly as we enter this era of intellectualism
While the fight against fascism continues, we cannot deny that something is compelling about watching women move confidently through male-dominated spaces, mastering politics, reading rooms, leading teams and building power.
I know for me, I have a little folder saved on TikTok from women in corporate who are teaching the art of leadership, and how to have executive presence.
Corporate life offers something most platforms never could: proximity to decisions, long-term wealth, and influence that doesn’t depend on being liked and digestible.
What makes the Corporate Power Play a desirable career move:
The corporate woman understands power structures and knows how to navigate them.
The corporate woman builds credibility and life skills that compound over time.
The corporate woman earns serious money and can build a sense of financial stability.
The corporate woman is invited into rooms where moves are made, not just discussed.
But of course, with everything comes a cost, and I feel it’s only right that if I highlight the pros, it’s only right to shed light on the cons. Corporate power comes at a price, sometimes a hefty one.
Emotional discipline, silence, and political intelligence. For women, and especially Black women and women of colour, the labour is even heavier.
Unfortunately, the playing field isn’t level, and we are often expected to be exceptional and agreeable, visible but not threatening, competent without appearing ambitious.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t win the game, and if anything, it would be empowering to see more of us play. Because when done well, it offers a different level of influence that doesn’t disappear overnight.
The Creative Director
Where taste has become the new marker for status and intellect has become the new marker for wealth, the Creative Director era rewards discretion.
Naturally, as someone who worked in fashion for over a decade, this is exciting, especially at a time when we are losing couture giants such as Armani and Valentino, and becoming more familiar with Grace Wales Bonner for Hermes Mens, Louise Trotter for Bottega, and Jonathon Anderson for a million design houses he has adopted, including Dior.
Brands, institutions, and audiences are overwhelmed by noise, fast trends and starved of vision.
The creative director sits at the intersection of culture and commerce, deciding what matters, what doesn’t, and what direction things should take next.
Aside from the fact that it looks incredibly glamorous, I assure you it’s not; the creative director’s appeal is no doubt on the rise because it represents authority with restriction.
As a creative director, you are paid for your foresight, your decisions, the ability to edit, to say no more than yes and to influence a culture without giving too much away.
What makes the Creative Director so desirable now?:
Taste has become a form of power.
Being a visionary matters more than being a vlogger.
Cultural literacy is a competitive advantage.
Authority comes from clarity and foresight, not visibility
It’s no secret that the fashion world is a tough one to navigate, and if you ever want to build your resilience, step right up and enter any industry that requires creativity.
When your taste becomes your job, your inner world, whether it be your imagination, your knowledge or your skillset, is constantly under threat.
There is relentless pressure to innovate, to stay ahead, to justify your position through constant reinvention.
You are relied upon to build multiple worlds, and at the same time, leave your signature mark on all of them.
Exhaustion and burnout are expected, but should not be normalised, meaning the creative director should know how to enforce boundaries in her work life.
Still, the appeal is obvious. In a time where we’re drowning in content, the woman who can see clearly, choose decisively, and shape its meaning is deeply magnetic.
The Expert
I’m not sure whether this is expected or unexpected. I feel online we go back and forth over there being too much information to the point it feels suffocated, and sometimes even contradicting or whether we just need the right information.
This is where the expert comes in.
After years of surface-level advice, recycled opinions, and algorithm-optimised hot takes, knowledge is becoming attractive again. Real knowledge.
The kind that takes time, study, research, late nights, early morning and quite frankly, an obsession to acquire.
It doesn’t matter what the field is - hair, nutrition, psychology, finance, astrology, art, or self-development. What matters is depth. The expert is sought and respected because she knows something others don’t, and she can explain it with clarity.
China are taking it one step further. Recently, a law was passed requiring influencers to hold a degree in the topics they discuss in their content. “The rule says that if you are an influencer and if you want to discuss "serious" topics- such as finance, health, medicine, law or education- you must provide proof of relevant professional credentials.”
Let’s face it, pass that law in the West, and we’re finished, and yes, I’m laughing out loud. Is it too strict? Maybe. Do I understand why such a law would be important? Absolutely!
Why the expert is having a moment:
People feel suffocated by conflicting information
Authority now comes from understanding, not personality
Knowledge builds trust that doesn’t disappear overnight
Expertise creates independence without constant exposure
However, to stay relevant, you must keep learning. You must live, eat and breathe knowing more.
The research never stops. Your authority is always on trial, and held up like a £50 note for comparison and without boundaries, expertise can turn into unpaid labour, emotional exhaustion, and the pressure to always have an answer.
The expert must learn when to withhold, not just when to teach.
Nevertheless, what’s more powerful about a woman who knows what she’s talking about and doesn’t dilute it for comfort or acceptance.
Why These Roles Matter Now
What links these three careers is not status or prestige. It’s authority. Each role represents a shift away from the circus and towards substance:
The Corporate Power Player understands systems.
The Creative Director shapes culture.
The Expert holds depth.
None of them relies on constant visibility or a large following. None of them requires oversharing. All of them reward clarity, discipline, and long-term thinking.
This doesn’t mean every woman should want one of these paths.
It means the culture is re-evaluating what success looks like when attention becomes cheap and credibility becomes rare. It’s choosing a lane that aligns with your nervous system, your intellect, and the kind of power you actually want to hold.
And right now, women are choosing accordingly.
