Through illustrative examples of the processes towards which a person becomes or remains employable, the question of the self in contemporary society is addressed. It is argued that how individuals perceive and orientate themselves to others - the mapping out of a person’s life - is increasingly governed by self-conscious transformations and adaptations to standards set by employers. Words associated with work gain ascendancy within a popular discourse that articulates, in various ways, a person’s self-understanding: the ‘team’, ‘CV’ biographies, ‘networking’, ‘interpersonal’ and ‘transferable skills’. It is essentially the nomenclature that defines, in employment terms, the ideal person. As some traditional forms of association atrophy others, perhaps understood within a neo-liberal capitalist context, impress themselves more fully: the person becomes subject, through active participation, to a depersonalisation and homogenisation of the self at variance to a commonly understood social diversification. It is a process that begins before the person enters into employment and is, potentially, embedded into a form of reflexivity understood here as reflexive exploitation, the identification and marketing of personal attributes that have been developed and/or recognised for their value to employers. I move beyond some of the assumptions made in postmodern thinking about a free- floating self, and question the extent to which uncertainty produces short-term personal strategies. Concepts such as ‘inclusivity’ and ‘empowerment’ are re-appraised, alongside familiar arguments about contemporary social patterns and relations between individuals. Consideration is made of the psychic consequences of a competitive and personalised labour market, and concepts are developed for appreciating this. Finally, the notion of ‘post irony’ is introduced to summarise arguments, explained, in brevity, as an assimilation to pervasive and contradictory social norms, through a conscious filtering out of thoughts and emotions that give rise to an irreconcilable unease with the norms governing conduct and determining behaviour towards a certain end. As such, the thesis raises questions about the nature and development of individuality through theoretical example and empirical substantiation.